Caveman Token Optimizer Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection. A Claude Code skill and Codex plugin that makes AI agents respond in compressed caveman-speak — cutting ~65% of output tokens on average (up to 87%) while keeping full technical accuracy. No pleasantries. No filler. Just answer. What It Does Caveman mode strips: Pleasantries: "Sure, I'd be happy to help!" → gone Hedging: "It might be worth considering" → gone Articles (a, an, the) → gone Verbose transitions → gone Caveman keeps: All code blocks (written normally) Technical terms (exact: useMemo , polymorphism , middleware ) Error messages (quoted exactly) Git commits and PR descriptions (normal) Same fix. 75% less word. Brain still big. Install Claude Code (npx) npx skills add JuliusBrussee/caveman Claude Code (plugin system) claude plugin marketplace add JuliusBrussee/caveman claude plugin install caveman@caveman Codex Clone the repo Open Codex inside the repo Run /plugins Search Caveman Install plugin Install once. Works in all sessions after that. Manual / Local git clone https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman.git cd caveman pip install -e . Usage — Trigger Commands Claude Code /caveman # enable default (full) caveman mode /caveman lite # professional brevity, grammar intact /caveman full # default — drop articles, use fragments /caveman ultra # maximum compression, telegraphic Codex $caveman $caveman lite $caveman full $caveman ultra Natural language triggers Any of these phrases activate caveman mode: "talk like caveman" "caveman mode" "less tokens please" "be concise" Disable /caveman off

or say: "stop caveman" / "normal mode"

Level sticks until changed or session ends. Intensity Levels Level Trigger Style Example Lite /caveman lite Drop filler, keep grammar "Component re-renders because inline object prop creates new reference each cycle. Wrap in useMemo ." Full /caveman full Drop articles, use fragments "New object ref each render. Inline prop = new ref = re-render. Wrap in useMemo ." Ultra /caveman ultra Telegraphic, abbreviate everything "Inline obj prop → new ref → re-render. useMemo ." Benchmark Results Real token counts from Claude API (reproducible via benchmarks/ directory): Task Normal Caveman Saved React re-render bug 1180 159 87% Auth middleware fix 704 121 83% PostgreSQL pool setup 2347 380 84% Git rebase vs merge 702 292 58% Async/await refactor 387 301 22% Docker multi-stage build 1042 290 72% Average 1214 294 65% Important: Caveman only affects output tokens. Thinking/reasoning tokens are untouched. Caveman make mouth smaller, not brain. Reproducing Benchmarks git clone https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman.git cd caveman/benchmarks

Set your Anthropic API key

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = your_key_here

Run benchmark suite

python run_benchmarks.py

Compare normal vs caveman responses

python compare.py --task react-rerender python compare.py --task auth-middleware python compare.py --all Code Examples — What Caveman Mode Changes Before (normal, 69 tokens) The reason your React component is re-rendering is likely because you're creating a new object reference on each render cycle. When you pass an inline object as a prop, React's shallow comparison sees it as a different object every time, which triggers a re-render. I'd recommend using useMemo to memoize the object. After (caveman full, 19 tokens) New object ref each render. Inline object prop = new ref = re-render. Wrap in useMemo. Code blocks stay normal — caveman not stupid

Caveman explains in grunt, but code stays clean:

"Token expiry check broken. Fix:"

def verify_token ( token : str ) -

bool : payload = jwt . decode ( token , SECRET_KEY , algorithms = [ "HS256" ] )

Was: payload["exp"] < time.time()

Fix:

return payload [ "exp" ]

= time . time ( ) What Caveman Preserves vs. Removes

Tokens caveman REMOVES (waste):

filler_phrases

[ "I'd be happy to help you with that" ,

8 tokens gone

"The reason this is happening is because" ,

7 tokens gone

"I would recommend that you consider" ,

7 tokens gone

"Sure, let me take a look at that" ,

8 tokens gone

"Great question!" ,

2 tokens gone

"Certainly!" ,

1 token gone

]

Things caveman KEEPS (substance):

preserved

[ "code blocks" ,

always normal

"technical_terms" ,

exact spelling preserved

"error_messages" ,

quoted verbatim

"variable_names" ,

exact

"git_commits" ,

normal prose

"pr_descriptions" ,

normal prose

] Integration Pattern — Using in a Project If you want caveman-style compression in your own Claude API calls: import anthropic client = anthropic . Anthropic ( )

uses ANTHROPIC_API_KEY env var

Load the caveman SKILL.md as a system prompt addition

with open ( "path/to/caveman/SKILL.md" , "r" ) as f : caveman_skill = f . read ( ) response = client . messages . create ( model = "claude-opus-4-5" , max_tokens = 1024 , system = f" { caveman_skill } \n\nRespond in caveman mode: full intensity." , messages = [ { "role" : "user" , "content" : "Why is my React component re-rendering?" } ] ) print ( response . content [ 0 ] . text )

→ "New object ref each render. Inline prop = new ref = re-render. useMemo fix."

print ( f"Tokens used: { response . usage . output_tokens } " )

~19 vs ~69

Session Workflow

Start session with caveman

/caveman full

Ask technical questions normally — agent responds in caveman

Why does my Docker build take so long? → "Layer cache miss. COPY before RUN npm install. Fix order:" [code block shown normally]

Switch intensity mid-session

/caveman lite

Turn off for PR description writing

/caveman off

Write a PR description for this auth fix → [normal, professional prose]

Back to caveman

/caveman Troubleshooting Caveman mode not activating:

Verify plugin installed

claude plugin list | grep caveman

Reinstall

claude plugin remove caveman

claude plugin

install

caveman@caveman

Savings lower than expected:

Caveman only compresses

output

tokens — input tokens unchanged

Tasks with heavy code output (like Docker setup) see less savings since code is preserved verbatim

Reasoning/thinking tokens not affected — savings show in visible response only

Ultra mode gets maximum compression; switch if full mode feels verbose

Need normal mode for specific output:

/caveman off # for PR descriptions, user-facing docs, formal reports

/caveman # re-enable after

Benchmarking your own tasks:

cd

benchmarks/

export

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

=

your_key_here

python run_benchmarks.py

--task

"your custom task description"

Why It Works

Backed by a March 2026 paper

"Brevity Constraints Reverse Performance Hierarchies in Language Models"

constraining large models to brief responses improved accuracy by 26 percentage points on certain benchmarks. Verbose not always better. TOKENS SAVED ████████ 65% avg (up to 87%) TECHNICAL ACCURACY ████████ 100% RESPONSE SPEED ████████ faster (less to generate) READABILITY ████████ better (no wall of text) Key Files caveman/ ├── SKILL.md # the skill definition loaded by Claude Code ├── benchmarks/ │ ├── run_benchmarks.py # reproduce token count results │ └── compare.py # side-by-side comparison tool ├── plugin.json # Codex plugin manifest └── README.md Links Repo: https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman Homepage: https://juliusbrussee.github.io/caveman/ Also by Julius: Blueprint — spec-driven dev for Claude Code One rock. That it. 🪨