Caveman
Skill : A reusable method: instructions, procedures, sometimes scripts or templates · requires claude-code
Makes the agent respond in telegraphic style: fewer pleasantries and filler, code and error messages kept exactly as-is.
Noticeably reduces output tokens and speeds up responses; the skill alone is sufficient, the proxy and companion engine are under the BSL licence.
Security reflects where data goes, requested permissions and incidents on record at the verification date. It is not a guarantee of zero risk: check the deployment mode and the connections you enable.
What it does, concretely
AI coding agents bill for every token they produce and tend to write long, polite, repetitive responses. Caveman solves this by enforcing a telegraphic style on the agent: filler and pleasantries disappear, while code, file paths, and error messages are kept exactly as-is.
In practice, Caveman consists of a skill (a rule file injected into the agent), a proxy that runs locally between the agent and the AI provider to compress what the agent reads (logs, test output, JSON, diffs), and a middleware for developers embedding an LLM in their own code. The skill alone installs with a single command and works with more than thirty different agents.
Caveman is aimed at developers who use coding agents daily and want to reduce their token bill without degrading response quality. A JetBrains test on 86 real tasks measured 8.5% fewer output tokens with the skill alone, with no detectable quality change.
On the other hand, Caveman is not suited to contexts where detailed, well-written responses are expected, such as documentation writing or exchanges with non-developers. The proxy and compression engine are under the BSL-1.1 licence, which limits commercial use without a separate agreement.
What it offers
- ·Telegraphic style enforced on the agent: removes pleasantries and filler, keeps code and error messages intact.
- ·Built-in mode commands: /caveman lite for concise-but-polite, /caveman ultra for minimal responses, /caveman wenyan for classical Chinese.
- ·/caveman-commit command to generate a Conventional Commit in a single line.
- ·/caveman-review command for condensed code review, one finding per line with line number and severity level.
- ·/caveman-compress command to rewrite memory files (CLAUDE.md) in telegraphic style with automatic backup of the original.
- ·Local proxy that compresses agent inputs (logs, JSON, diffs, test output) before each provider call, with originals kept on disk (paid, BSL-1.1).
- ·TypeScript and Python middleware to integrate compression into your own LLM applications (paid, BSL-1.1).
- ·caveman learn command to analyse local agent history and rank the biggest token sinks, with a suggested fix for each.
In practice
- Price
- Free
- Commercial use
- Commercial use: yes
- Available on
- GitHub, skills.sh, Claude Code plugin
- Host
- claude-code
- Licence
- MIT
- Other hosts
- claude-code, codex, cursor, gemini-cli
- FR interface
- No
Security and data
- Rating
- Security: nothing to flag
- Your data
- Data stays local
- Maintenance
- Active
- Last release
- 8 November 2026
Links and repository checked on 8 November 2026 · added on 23 September 2026
How to install Caveman
npx skills add JuliusBrussee/caveman -g