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Getting Started with Caveman

Caveman is a skill/plugin for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, and 30+ other agents. Install once. Agent drops the filler and answers in tight caveman-speak, keeping code, commands, and errors byte-for-byte exact. You save output tokens on every reply, forever.

Installation​

One command. Finds every agent on your machine. Installs for each.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman/main/install.sh | bash

It takes ~30 seconds, needs Node >=18, skips agents you don't have, and is safe to re-run.

Enabling Caveman​

  • Turn it on: type /caveman or say "talk like caveman".
  • Turn it off: say "normal mode".

On Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini it's already on from message one. No command needed.

Verify Installation​

After install, run three quick checks to ensure everything is wired correctly:

1. See what got installed

node cli/install.js --list

You should see ~30 rows. Detected agents are marked. If an agent you wanted isn't marked, it likely means its binary isn't on your PATH.

2. Talk to Claude Code

Open Claude Code and type /caveman. The response should be terse fragments — "Got it. Caveman mode on." or similar. Try asking a real question like "What is closures in JS?" — the answer should drop articles and read like grunts.

3. Check the flag file

cat "${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}/.caveman-active"

The expected output is full. If the file is missing or empty, the SessionStart hook didn't fire properly. Check the Troubleshooting guide for help.