Internal token-compression protocol for Cavekit agent artifacts — handoff notes, artifact summaries, context bundles, review notes, status lines. NOT the user-facing /caveman skill; that one compresses assistant replies to the user. This skill compresses machine-to-machine prose so the next agent in the loop reads fewer tokens. Three intensities (lite / full / ultra) with automatic selection based on budget pressure. Used by task-builder, builder, inspector, verifier, convergence-monitor, and th
SkillScore86Maintained
Automatic
◆AI Engineer pack
Last verified 8/16/2026
What it changes
Passed 19 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 8 of 22 without it.
Without skill36%
With skill86%
Checks it passed that the model alone missed
The review note drops articles.
The header comment specifies intensity=lite.
The header comment specifies intensity=full.
and 15 more in the full report
11 fixed8 passed either way3 still failing0 broke
Pass-rate lift
+50 pp
Tokens
+17%
Agent turns
0%
Response time
-51%
Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/16/2026v119 of 22 cases passed with skill
Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.
See it in action
One of 11 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.
1 of 11
Prompt
Record an entry in loop-log.md summarizing the resolution of a race condition with 15 percent budget remaining.
What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked
Without skill
With skill
The loop log entry includes an envelope header specifying intensity=ultra.
Missed
Passed
The log body is written in telegraphic ultra caveman style.
Missed
Passed
case-22 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/16/2026 · answers are capped and redacted
What's inside
The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.
SKILL.md108 lines2 files
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 and loop-log.md entries
Status-block body (dashboard injected by the stop hook)
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.
Friendly docflow readiness check: one status, one reason, and the exact next command. Use when asked if docflow is set up, ready, or "what do I do next".