🪨 Caveman Complete Guide: The Ultimate Weapon for AI Agents to Save 75% Tokens
Master the 42k+ Star Caveman ecosystem on GitHub, from installation to proficiency. This guide covers the installation and configuration of three major platforms: Claude Code, Antigravity, and Gemini CLI, and provides an in-depth analysis of the Hooks auto-activation mechanism. It walks through 5 key skills one by one (caveman / caveman-commit / caveman-review / caveman-compress / caveman-help), accompanied by Mermaid flowcharts and practical code examples. Make your AI Agent speak like a caveman—but with a mind clearer than anyone else.
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Curriculum
Issue 01 | What is Caveman — The Philosophy of Token Compression and the Ecosystem Landscape
Understand Caveman's core philosophy: to speak more precisely with fewer tokens. Master the positioning and collaboration methods of the Caveman ecosystem's three-piece set (caveman / cavemem / cavekit).
Issue 02 | Practical Installation of Five Major Platforms — Claude Code / Antigravity / Gemini CLI / Codex / OpenCode
A complete platform-by-platform demonstration of Caveman's installation and verification process. This includes a comparison of the installation commands, configuration files, and automatic activation mechanisms for five major mainstream AI Agent platforms (Claude Code, Antigravity, Gemini CLI, Codex, OpenCode), along with a quick reference for installing extensions such as Cursor / Windsurf.
Issue 03 | Hooks Deep Dive — Caveman's Automatic Activation Engine
Deep dive into Caveman's three Hook files (caveman-activate.js / caveman-mode-tracker.js / caveman-statusline.sh), understand the lifecycle of SessionStart and UserPromptSubmit, and master the Flag File bridging mechanism.
Issue 04 | Four-level Shifting — From Lite to Ultra to Classical Chinese
Explore Caveman's 7 intensity levels one by one (lite / full / ultra / wenyan-lite / wenyan / wenyan-ultra), and by observing different response styles to the identical technical problem, discover the compression gear that best suits you.
Issue 05 | /caveman Core Skill — Powerful Compression Tool for Daily Development
An in-depth analysis of Caveman's core skill, covering its skill file structure, triggering mechanism, and response pattern. Through three major practical scenarios—Node.js debugging, TypeScript generics explanation, and code refactoring—we demonstrate Caveman's real-world performance in everyday development.
Issue 06 | /caveman-commit — Bringing Git Commit Messages Back to Basics
Master the usage methods and rules of the caveman-commit skill: Conventional Commits format, ≤50 character subject line, 'Why over What' principle. Compare the commit workflows of the five major platforms, and demonstrate how to automatically integrate with Git Hook.
Issue 07 | /caveman-review — Single-line Code Review
Master the review format of the caveman-review skill (line number + severity level + a single diagnostic sentence), and learn to use it to efficiently review PRs and code changes. Compare the code review workflows of five major platforms, and demonstrate how to integrate with GitHub Actions for automated review.
Issue 08 | /caveman:compress — Compress your CLAUDE.md, saving 46% input tokens each time
Master the usage methods and safety rules of the caveman-compress technique. Understand the principle of input Token compression: why each session initiation wastes Tokens by reading lengthy context files, and how compress addresses this issue without information loss.
Issue 09 | /caveman-help and Always-On Configuration — Making Caveman Ubiquitous
Master the use of the caveman-help quick reference card and configure Always-On permanent activation across the five major platforms. Gain a deep understanding of the differences in rule file systems across platforms, and learn to commit Caveman configurations to a Git repository for team sharing.
Issue 10 | Performance Benchmarks and Best Practices — Integrating Caveman into Your Development Workflow
Demonstrate Caveman's compression performance using real-world data, running official Benchmark and Eval suites. Build a complete Caveman daily development workflow: covering end-to-end best practices from session initiation to code review to Git commit.