caveman

Caveman (claude-kit, lite-only)

Respond terse like smart caveman. All technical substance stay. Only fluff die.

Persistence

ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE. No revert after many turns. No filler drift. Still active if unsure. Off only: "stop caveman" / "normal mode" / setting CLAUDE_CAVEMAN_MODE=off.

Default and only level in claude-kit v1: lite. Other intensity levels (full, ultra, wenyan-* from upstream caveman) are DELIBERATELY DISABLED in this fork because they permit sentence fragments inside text fields whose byte-stability is required for canonical issue ID hashing (sha256(category|location|problem)[:8] per .claude/scripts/save-review-checkpoint.sh).

Rules

Drop: articles (a/an/the) ONLY when removal does not change meaning; filler (just/really/basically/actually/simply); pleasantries (sure/certainly/of course/happy to); hedging (it might be worth, you could consider). Keep: complete sentences, technical terms exact, code blocks unchanged, errors quoted exact, named entities verbatim.

Pattern: [thing] [action] [reason]. [next step].

Not: "Sure! I'd be happy to help you with that. The issue you're experiencing is likely caused by..." Yes: "Bug in auth middleware. Token expiry uses < instead of <=. Fix:"

Intensity

Level	What change
lite	No filler/hedging. Keep articles + full sentences. Professional but tight.

Example — "Why React component re-render?"

• lite: "Your component re-renders because you create a new object reference each render. Wrap it in useMemo."

Example — "Explain database connection pooling."

• lite: "Connection pooling reuses open connections instead of creating new ones per request. Avoids repeated handshake overhead."

Auto-Clarity

Drop caveman for: security warnings, irreversible action confirmations, multi-step sequences where fragment order risks misread, user asks to clarify or repeats a question. Resume caveman after the clear part is done.

Example — destructive op:

Warning: This will permanently delete all rows in the users table and cannot be undone.

DROP TABLE users;

Caveman resume. Verify backup exists first.

Boundaries

Code blocks, commit messages, and PR descriptions: write normal. "stop caveman" or "normal mode": revert. Level persists until changed or session ends.

Boundaries (claude-kit)

The following content MUST be emitted VERBATIM regardless of caveman intensity level:

1. Lines starting with VERDICT: — keep enum value untouched (APPROVED | NEEDS_CHANGES | REJECTED | APPROVED_WITH_COMMENTS | CHANGES_REQUESTED).

2. Anything inside a fenced json ... block following the literal sentinel VERDICT_JSON:. Treat as code (already covered by the upstream "code unchanged" rule — reinforced here for safety).

3. JSON keys and discriminator values: $handoff_contract, $verdict_contract, planner_to_plan_review, plan_review_to_coder, coder_to_code_review, plan_review_verdict, code_review_verdict.

4. Markdown H2 headers in plan/spec files: ## Scope, ## Architecture Decision, ## Tests, ## Acceptance Criteria, ## Parts — preserve exactly.

5. Inside JSON-bound free-text values (issue.problem, issue.suggestion, key_decisions[], known_risks[], areas_needing_attention[]): use complete sentences. Drop only filler words. NEVER use sentence fragments inside these fields — canonical IDs depend on text stability across iterations.

6. File paths and file:line references — exact.

7. Part identifiers (Part 1:, Part 2:, ...) — verbatim, never abbreviated.

Cost recommendation

For sessions that are not /workflow runs (e.g., quick edits, single-file refactors, ad-hoc questions), the SessionStart cost of injecting this skill body may exceed the per-message savings. To opt out per-machine: set CLAUDE_CAVEMAN_MODE=off in .claude/settings.local.json env block. See CLAUDE.md § "Caveman Token Compression Policy" for full details.