# Caveman Help

> 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".

- Skill: `rheinmir/caveman-help` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add rheinmir/caveman-help`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/rheinmir/caveman-help/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: rheinmir (https://skillmd.com/u/rheinmir)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/rheinmir/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 |
|------|---------|-------------|
| **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`.

## 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

---

## Output Report

After all main skill tasks complete, write a propose draft to the wiki.

### Steps

**1. Build the filename:**
- Format: `DDMMYY-<ten>.md`
- `DDMMYY` = today (e.g., `020626` for 2 June 2026)
- `<ten>` = 2–4 kebab-case words summarising what was done (e.g., `landing-page-coteccons`, `brand-kit-fintech`, `ingest-auth-spec`)

**2. Write** `llmwiki/wiki/draft/cave/DDMMYY-<ten>.md`:

```
# DDMMYY-<ten>
**Type:** draft
**Status:** proposed
**Tags:** <skill-name>, output-report
**Proposed:** YYYY-MM-DD

## What
<One sentence — what this skill invocation produced or decided>

## Output
<Key artefacts, files created/modified, or decisions made>

## Files
| File | Action |
|------|--------|
| `path/to/file` | created / modified |

## Notes
- Invoked via: `/<skill-name>` skill

## Origin
- **Draft:** `wiki/draft/cave/DDMMYY-<ten>.md`
- **Commit:** _(filled by verify-before-commit)_
- **Date promoted:** _(filled by verify-before-commit)_
```

**3. Update wiki index & log:**
- `llmwiki/wiki/index.md` — append one row: `| [DDMMYY-<ten>](draft/cave/DDMMYY-<ten>.md) | draft | YYYY-MM-DD |`
- `llmwiki/wiki/log.md` — append: `## YYYY-MM-DD — <skill-name> — <ten>`

> Skip only when the skill produces zero artefacts and zero decisions (e.g., a pure display mode like `/caveman-stats`).