laconic is a 300 word skill for AI coding agents inspired by caveman.

It cuts filler. It keeps meaning. It trusts context.

Every word earns its place.

Benchmarks

Caveman Benchmark

Claude Sonnet 4 via Langdock API. Each prompt: generic system prompt vs full laconic SKILL.md. Median of 3 runs per mode.

| Task | Normal (tokens) | Laconic (tokens) | Saved | vs Caveman | |------|---------------:|----------------:|------:|-----------:| | Explain React re-render bug | 885 | 68 | 92% | +5pp | | Fix auth middleware token expiry | 1059 | 39 | 96% | +13pp | | Set up PostgreSQL connection pool | 2167 | 189 | 91% | +7pp | | Explain git rebase vs merge | 996 | 95 | 90% | +32pp | | Refactor callback to async/await | 494 | 62 | 87% | +65pp | | Architecture: microservices vs monolith | 826 | 209 | 75% | +45pp | | Review PR for security issues | 940 | 126 | 87% | +46pp | | Docker multi-stage build | 2635 | 149 | 94% | +22pp | | Debug PostgreSQL race condition | 1370 | 49 | 96% | +15pp | | Implement React error boundary | 4096 | 400 | 90% | +3pp | | Average | 1547 | 139 | 90% | +25pp |

Range: 75%–96% savings across prompts. Caveman benchmarks averaged 64%.

[!IMPORTANT] Laconic cuts output tokens only.

cd benchmarks
pip install -r requirements.txt

echo "LANGDOCK_API_KEY=sk-your-key" > ../.env.local

python run.py --dry-run
python run.py
python run.py --update-readme

Examples

Prompt: "My Express auth middleware is letting expired JWT tokens through. The expiry check uses Date.now() compared to the token's exp field. What's wrong and how do I fix it?"

🗣️ Normal (~1,300 tokens)

Explains JWT spec, Unix timestamps vs JavaScript milliseconds, walks through middleware architecture, adds error handling, suggests libraries, and outputs a full refactored file (...)

Λ Laconic (19 tokens)

exp is in seconds. Date.now() is milliseconds.

if (Date.now() / 1000 > payload.exp) // expired

Caveman vs Laconic

| | Caveman | Laconic | |--|---------|---------| | Tone | Primitive | Terse | | Explanation | Normal | Trusts context, skips what reader knows | | Code | Normal | Just enough code | | Token savings | ~65% | ~90% |

Install

Any agent (40+ supported)

npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic

npx skills supports Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and 40+ more. To install for a specific agent:

npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a cursor
npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a copilot
npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a cline
npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a windsurf

Pi

pi install https://github.com/GabrielBarberini/laconic

Or from npm:

pi install npm:tau-laconic

On pi you also get an extension: /laconic [on|off] (full laconic or off), natural-language triggers ("be laconic", "normal mode"), a laconic statusline, and per-project state in .pi/laconic-mode.json. It reads its rules from the same SKILL.md, so it never drifts.

Claude Code (plugin)

claude plugin marketplace add GabrielBarberini/laconic
claude plugin install laconic@laconic

Codex

1. Clone repo
2. Open Codex in repo
3. Run /plugins
4. Search Laconic
5. Install plugin

Or copy the plugins/laconic/ directory into your Codex plugins folder.

Usage

Trigger with:

• /laconic
• "laconic mode"
• "be laconic"

License

MIT — Sparta needed no walls. Neither does this license.