thedixitjain Caveman Internal Protocol
Scope
IN-scope (compress)
- Artifact summaries written to
.cavekit/artifacts/ - Context bundles between tasks (
.cavekit/context-bundles/) - Review notes and gap lists (non-user-facing)
state.mdnotes:field andloop-log.mdentries- Status-block body (dashboard injected by the stop hook)
- Inter-agent handoff memos
OUT-of-scope (never compress)
- Source code (any language, any file)
- Git commit messages and PR descriptions
- Kits (specs), build sites, DESIGN.md
- Error messages that a human will act on
- Security warnings and deprecation notices
- Structured findings tables (P0/P1/P2/P3, coverage matrices)
- Regression test names and assertion messages
Compressing out-of-scope content is a bug. If a reader cannot act on a compressed artifact, regenerate it verbose and log a caveman fallback — see "Fallback protocol" below.
Intensity levels
Lite — trim the fat (~20% savings)
Professional tone. Grammar intact. Drop filler, pleasantries, hedging. Keep articles and full sentences.
Rate-limit middleware passes unit tests. Integration failed on 429 header case sensitivity. Fix in progress.
Full — default (~40% savings)
Classic caveman. Drop articles, filler, pleasantries. Fragments fine.
Technical terms stay exact. Pattern: [thing] [action] [reason]. [next].
Rate-limit mw pass unit. Integration fail on 429 header case. Fixing.
Ultra — maximum grunt (~65% savings)
Telegraphic. Abbreviate common terms (DB, auth, config, req, res, fn, impl, mw, mcp). Arrow notation for causality. One-word answers when enough.
mw ok, int fail header case → fix
Automatic intensity selection
Consult the session budget ledger before writing an internal artifact:
| Budget remaining | Intensity |
|---|---|
| > 50 % | lite |
| 20 – 50 % | full |
| < 20 % | ultra |
Override rules:
depth = thoroughtasks clamp to lite regardless of pressure (accuracy matters more than tokens when the stakes are high).phase = inspectingclamps to lite for the gap-analysis output.- Security-sensitive artifacts clamp to lite.
- If the caller sets
caveman_intensityexplicitly in the artifact envelope, use that and skip auto-selection.
See references/budget-thresholds.md for the detailed decision table.
Fallback protocol
If a downstream reader cannot reconstruct intent from a compressed artifact:
- Regenerate the artifact in full prose (no compression).
- Append a one-line entry to
state.md's "Caveman fallbacks" section:- 2026-04-17T12:34Z T-017 verifier fallback: artifact summary re-expanded - If the same artifact category fails 3+ times in one session, clamp that
category to
litefor the rest of the session and log tostate.md.
Envelope
Every compressed artifact carries a tiny header:
<!-- caveman: intensity=full version=1 -->
Readers that see this header know the body is compressed and apply the reverse-expansion grammar (re-add articles, re-expand abbreviations) when rendering for a human.
Examples
| Verbose | Full | Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| "The build completed successfully after three waves." | "Build complete. 3 waves." | "Build ok 3w" |
| "All tests pass, but one test was skipped due to a missing fixture." | "Tests pass. One skipped, missing fixture." | "Tests ok 1 skip fx" |
| "The reviewer flagged two critical issues in the auth middleware." | "Reviewer: 2 P0 in auth mw." | "Rev 2 P0 auth mw" |
Integration with the existing caveman skill
The user-facing caveman skill governs how the assistant speaks to the user
during a session (answers, explanations, replies). This caveman-internal
skill governs how agents write artifacts for each other. Both must be on
or both off for a coherent experience, so caveman_mode = off in config also
disables this skill.
Source: hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins → plugins/JuliusBrussee/blueprint/skills/caveman-internal/SKILL.md