🪨 pi-caveman

Why use many token when few do trick.

A pi extension that cuts ~75% of output tokens while keeping full technical accuracy. Based on caveman by Julius Brussee.

🗣️ 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."

🪨 Caveman (19 tokens)

"New object ref each render. Inline object prop = new ref = re-render. Wrap in useMemo."

Install

pi install git:github.com/jonjonrankin/pi-caveman

Usage

Toggle Mode

/caveman              Toggle on (full) / off
/caveman lite         Professional, no fluff
/caveman full         Classic caveman (default)
/caveman ultra        Maximum compression
/caveman wenyan-lite  Semi-classical Chinese
/caveman wenyan       Full 文言文
/caveman wenyan-ultra Extreme 文言文
/caveman micro        Experimental prompt-minimized mode
/caveman off          Disable
/caveman stop         Disable (alias)
/caveman quit         Disable (alias)

Settings

/caveman config       Open settings dialog

The config dialog lets you:

• Default level — Set a level that activates automatically on every new session (e.g. full to always start in caveman mode)
• Show status bar — Toggle the animated campfire indicator in the footer

Settings are saved to ~/.pi/agent/caveman.json and persist across all sessions.

Status Bar

When active, a status bar displays caveman level and an animated campfire flickers in the footer using colored braille characters. This can be disabled in the /caveman config menu.

Levels

| Level | Style | Example | | -------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Lite | No filler. Full sentences. Professional but tight. | "Your component re-renders because you create a new object reference each render." | | Full | Drop articles, fragments OK. Classic caveman. | "New object ref each render. Wrap in useMemo." | | Ultra | Abbreviations, arrows, maximum compression. | "Inline obj prop → new ref → re-render. useMemo." | | 文言文 Lite | Semi-classical Chinese, grammar intact. | "組件頻重繪，以每繪新生對象參照故。" | | 文言文 | Full classical terseness. | "物出新參照，致重繪。useMemo Wrap之。" | | 文言文 Ultra | Extreme classical compression. | "新參照→重繪。useMemo Wrap。" | | Micro (experimental) | Minimal prompt that reduces size of caveman prompt itself. Drops filler, pleasantries, hedging, keeps technical substance. | "Bug in auth middleware. Token expiry check use < not <=. Fix:" |

How It Works

The extension hooks before_agent_start to append caveman communication rules to the system prompt at the selected intensity. Within a session, the active level is stored as a custom session entry and restored on resume. Across sessions, persistent config (~/.pi/agent/caveman.json) provides the default level and status bar preference. Auto-clarity rules tell the model to drop caveman mode for security warnings or irreversible actions.

Credits

Based on caveman by Julius Brussee.

micro mode prompt based on caveman-micro by Kuba Guzik.

License

MIT