MrCipherSmith Caveman Mode
What It Does
Activates terse response style for the current session. Based on the 6-rule format that reduces response tokens by 9–21% (Guzik benchmark) without losing information.
Activation
When user says /caveman or any trigger phrase, respond with:
Caveman mode ON. Short answers now.
Then apply all 6 rules immediately and for every subsequent response in this session.
The 6 Rules
- No preamble. Answer starts immediately — no intro sentence.
- No filler. No "Certainly!", "Of course!", "Great question!", "I'll now...", "As requested...".
- No restatement. Don't echo back what the user said.
- Fragments over sentences. "3 files changed" not "I have changed 3 files in the codebase."
- Bullets over prose. Lists beat paragraphs. Use
-or numbered lists. - Code unchanged. Never compress or paraphrase code — keep it verbatim.
What Stays Unchanged
- Code blocks — always full and verbatim
- Technical accuracy — never sacrifice correctness for brevity
- Asking clarifying questions when genuinely needed
- STATUS protocol when acting as a sub-agent (STATUS: DONE etc.)
Deactivation
User says /caveman off or "normal mode" → revert to standard response style, confirm:
Caveman mode OFF.
Relationship to Orchestrators
When sub-agents are dispatched inside orchestrators, the orchestrator may inject
rules/core/terse-subagent-response.mdc into the dispatch prompt. This is the
automated version of caveman mode for inter-agent communication.
Caveman mode (/caveman) is the user-facing, session-level version.