Caveman Compress

Caveman Compress

Compress prose without silently changing meaning. The bundled script performs no network or model call. Use the active agent to draft the candidate, then use the script for deterministic checks.

Safety-adapted from JuliusBrussee/caveman, MIT licensed. Preserve the included LICENSE when redistributing.

Read compression-safety.md before creating a candidate.

Supported targets

• UTF-8 Markdown, plain text, or extensionless natural-language files.
• Maximum source size: 1 MiB.
• Never target code/config formats, symlinks, existing backup files, or the candidate itself.

Safe workflow

1. Read the entire source and create a separate candidate file. Do not edit the source.

2. Preserve every item listed in the safety reference and perform the semantic ledger review.

3. Run the validator in preview mode. Preview is the default and never writes the source:

   py -3 "<skill-dir>\scripts\caveman_compress.py" "<source>" --candidate "<candidate>"
   

   If py -3 is unavailable, use python with the same arguments.

4. Review the invariant report, reduction metrics, and unified diff. Fix the candidate separately and rerun preview until it passes. Do not weaken the validator to make a candidate pass.

5. Show the user the proposed change, validation result, residual semantic risk, and backup behavior.

6. Apply only when the user explicitly approved overwriting that exact source after seeing the preview, or explicitly requested replacement in the same turn. Reuse both hashes printed by preview:

   py -3 "<skill-dir>\scripts\caveman_compress.py" "<source>" --candidate "<candidate>" --apply --user-approved-write --expected-source-sha256 "<source-hash>" --expected-candidate-sha256 "<candidate-hash>"
   

7. Report the timestamped backup path and final hash. Keep the backup until the user verifies the result.

Non-negotiable gates

• Validation errors block apply.
• Source or candidate hash drift blocks apply.
• --apply without --user-approved-write blocks apply.
• Apply revalidates immediately before an atomic replacement.
• The exact original bytes are copied to a timestamped backup first.
• A validator cannot prove semantic equivalence. Complete the semantic ledger and diff review even when every automated check passes.

Do not call a named provider, select a model, install dependencies, or send file contents to an external service.