caveman-help

Use it when: you've installed Caveman, a skill set that makes agents reply tersely to save tokens, and want a reminder of its modes and commands
It does: prints one reference card, itself in caveman style, without changing the mode or saving anything
Lists: the three modes, the commit, review and compress commands, how to stop caveman, and how to change the default mode
Runs: when you type /caveman-help or ask for caveman help

Skill 6 of 12 in the Caveman bundle · Before it: caveman-stats · After it: cavecrew

Only works inside its bundle: A reference card for the bundle's modes and skills, so it only helps once they're installed. Install Caveman instead.

TLDR

A one-shot cheat sheet for the Caveman skills. It shows the three modes: caveman, which answers first and drops fluff; ultracave, which strips grammar down to fragments; and megacave, which replies in classical Chinese, using far fewer characters, with technical terms kept as they are. It lists /caveman-commit, /caveman-review and /caveman-compress, reminds you that "stop caveman" or "normal mode" turns it off, and notes that replies stay in your language. It also explains how to set the default mode with the CAVEMAN_DEFAULT_MODE variable or ~/.config/caveman/config.json, including "manual", which starts sessions with caveman off until you type /caveman. It's only useful once the other Caveman skills are installed.

Summarizes the skill at bad48a0.

npx skills add https://github.com/juliusbrussee/caveman --skill caveman-help

skills.sh page · Source on GitHub · All skills from juliusbrussee/caveman

Installs: 356,673 on skills.sh, Sep 21, 2026
Repo stars: 106,976 juliusbrussee/caveman
First seen: Apr 11, 2026 on skills.sh

Weekly installs

14.1K

-5% over 8 weeks · week to Sep 21

Weekly values

Week to	Installs
Aug 3	14,879
Aug 10	15,551
Aug 17	10,444
Aug 24	9,602
Aug 31	9,705
Sep 7	11,969
Sep 14	13,112
Sep 21	14,128

Category	category:output-style category:software-engineering Change how the agent replies: shorter, clearer, fewer tokens. Everything for building software: planning, coding, debugging, design, frameworks, cloud, agents and skills.
Type	type:command A one-shot action you invoke by name, such as turning the conversation into a PRD.
Effect	effect:none Adds no side effects of its own. It shapes how the agent thinks, writes or reviews. Guidelines and routers are always effect:none, even when the task they support edits code.
Needs	needs:none Instructions only. Works in any agent that supports skills.
Publisher	by:community Everyone else. Unverified vendor claims default to community.
Topics	output-style

SKILL.md

From juliusbrussee/caveman at bad48a0. Checked daily, last changed Oct 20, 2026.

Frontmatter

name: caveman-help
description: >
  Quick-reference card for the three caveman skills and their commands.
  Trigger: /caveman-help or "caveman help".

Caveman Help

Display this reference card when invoked. One-shot — do NOT change mode, write flag files, or persist anything. Output in caveman style.

Modes

Mode	Trigger	What change
caveman	`/caveman`	The voice. Answer first, no fluff, every fact kept. Default.
ultracave	`/ultracave` (alias `/caveman ultra`)	Grammar stripped. Fragments, one word when enough, each fact once.
megacave	`/megacave` (alias `/caveman wenyan`)	Classical Chinese 文言文. Far fewer characters, technical terms verbatim.

Mode stick until changed or session end. /caveman status reports current mode without changing it. Claude Code and the standalone OpenCode plugin read stored state; other hosts answer from the conversation and mark it (not tracked by this host).

Skills

Skill	Trigger	What it do
caveman-commit	`/caveman-commit`	Terse commit messages. Conventional Commits. ≤50 char subject.
caveman-review	`/caveman-review`	One-line PR comments: `L42: bug: user null. Add guard.`
caveman-compress	`/caveman-compress <file>`	Compress .md files to caveman prose. 33.2% fewer tokens on the repo's five test files.
caveman-help	`/caveman-help`	This card.

Deactivate

Say "stop caveman" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with /caveman.

Language

Keep user's language by default — reply in the language user writes, never switch regardless of example text or multilingual context elsewhere. Compress the style, not the language. Technical terms, code, commands, commit types, and exact error strings stay verbatim unless user ask for translation.

Configure Default Mode

Default mode = caveman. Change it:

Environment variable (highest priority):

export CAVEMAN_DEFAULT_MODE=ultracave

Config file (~/.config/caveman/config.json):

{ "defaultMode": "ultracave" }

For opt-in activation in Claude Code, set defaultMode to manual. Sessions start off; /caveman or talk like caveman activates caveman. off also disables bare-command activation. manual is a startup policy, not a mode. OpenCode still starts in caveman mode because its installer also supplies static activation rules.

Set "off" to suppress automatic and bare-command activation. Use "manual" when bare /caveman should activate.

Resolution: env var > repo config > user config > caveman. Legacy values lite, full, ultra, wenyan* still resolve.

Full docs: https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman