> Quick-reference card for all caveman modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: /caveman-help, "caveman help", "what caveman commands", "how do I use caveman".
Install with the open skills CLI (global, non-interactive — available in every Claude Code session):
npx skills add juliusbrussee/caveman --skill "caveman-help" -g -a claude-code -yOr manually — clone and copy the skill directory (SKILL.md + companion files):
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/juliusbrussee/caveman /tmp/caveman && cp -r /tmp/caveman/skills/caveman-help ~/.claude/skills/caveman-help-juliusbrusseeThis skill is a directory: SKILL.md is the entry point; the files below ship with it.
---
name: caveman-help
description: >
Quick-reference card for all caveman modes, skills, and commands.
One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: /caveman-help,
"caveman help", "what caveman commands", "how do I use caveman".
---
# 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 |
|------|---------|-------------|
| **Lite** | `/caveman lite` | Drop filler. Keep sentence structure. |
| **Full** | `/caveman` | Drop articles, filler, pleasantries, hedging. Fragments OK. Default. |
| **Ultra** | `/caveman ultra` | Extreme compression. Bare fragments. Tables over prose. |
| **Wenyan-Lite** | `/caveman wenyan-lite` | Classical Chinese style, light compression. |
| **Wenyan-Full** | `/caveman wenyan` | Full 文言文. Maximum classical terseness. |
| **Wenyan-Ultra** | `/caveman wenyan-ultra` | Extreme. Ancient scholar on a budget. |
Mode stick until changed or session end.
## 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. Saves ~46% input tokens. |
| **caveman-help** | `/caveman-help` | This card. |
## Deactivate
Say "stop caveman" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with `/caveman`.
## Language
Keep user's language by default. User write Portuguese → reply Portuguese caveman. 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 = `full`. Change it:
**Environment variable** (highest priority):
```bash
export CAVEMAN_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra
```
**Config file** (`~/.config/caveman/config.json`):
```json
{ "defaultMode": "lite" }
```
Set `"off"` to disable auto-activation on session start. User can still activate manually with `/caveman`.
Resolution: env var > config file > `full`.
## More
Full docs: https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman
Use when facing 2+ independent tasks that can be worked on without shared state or sequential dependencies
Use when you have a written implementation plan to execute in a separate session with review checkpoints
Use when executing implementation plans with independent tasks in the current session