@casualjim/pi-caveman

Caveman skills packaged for Pi

Packages

Package details

extensionskill

Install @casualjim/pi-caveman from npm and Pi will load the resources declared by the package manifest.

npm repo report
$ pi install npm:@casualjim/pi-caveman
Package
@casualjim/pi-caveman
Version
0.2.4
Published
Sep 19, 2026
Downloads
641/mo · 221/wk
Author
casualjim
License
MIT
Types
extension, skill
Size
79.6 KB
Dependencies
0 dependencies · 0 peers
Pi manifest JSON
{
  "skills": [
    "skills"
  ],
  "extensions": [
    "extensions/caveman"
  ]
}

Security note

Pi packages can execute code and influence agent behavior. Review the source before installing third-party packages.

README

pi-caveman

Pi-native port of JuliusBrussee/caveman: terse agent communication skills and Pi-native session hooks that reduce output tokens while keeping technical accuracy.

Install

pi install npm:@casualjim/pi-caveman

For local development from this monorepo:

pi install ./packages/pi-caveman

Included skills

  • caveman — persistent terse communication mode with lite, full, ultra, wenyan-lite, wenyan-full, and wenyan-ultra levels.
  • caveman-commit — terse Conventional Commit message generator.
  • caveman-review — terse, actionable code review comments.
  • caveman-compress — compress natural-language memory files while preserving code, commands, paths, URLs, and structure.
  • caveman-help — quick reference for package skills and modes.
  • caveman-stats — documents stats support status for Pi.
  • cavecrew — guidance for compressed subagent delegation in Pi.

Pi registers skills as /skill:<name> commands when skill commands are enabled. Natural-language triggers in each skill also work through normal skill discovery.

Pi-native hooks

pi-caveman includes a Pi extension at extensions/caveman that mirrors upstream Claude Code hook behavior without installing Claude hooks or mutating ~/.claude:

  • session_start loads the default Caveman mode, writes safe Pi mode state, and injects filtered skills/caveman/SKILL.md rules as hidden context.
  • input tracks /skill:caveman, /skill:caveman <mode>, /skill:caveman-commit, /skill:caveman-review, /skill:caveman-compress, natural-language enable/disable, stop caveman, and normal mode.
  • before_agent_start reinforces active base Caveman mode each turn. Independent modes (commit, review, compress) do not inject base reply rules because their skills own behavior.
  • Cavecrew role definitions in agents/ are published to pi-herdr-agents as a role pack, so nothing is copied into ~/.pi/agent/agents.

Default mode is full. Override with CAVEMAN_DEFAULT_MODE or config JSON at the Pi Caveman config path. Set CAVEMAN_DEFAULT_MODE=off to disable startup activation.

Known limitations

This package ports Caveman behavior to Pi. It activates only the Pi-native extension hooks described above. It does not activate upstream installers, Claude Code hooks, statusline integrations, Codex/Gemini/Cursor plugin manifests, or any non-Pi agent configuration.

caveman-stats in upstream Caveman is implemented through Claude Code hooks and Claude transcript logs. The Pi extension does not fake token savings or read Claude logs. A future Pi stats/status API could add native session-token stats.

cavecrew ships its role definitions under agents/ and registers them with pi-herdr-agents as a role pack. The Pi extension publishes them for subagent discovery, but it does not auto-spawn agents. Cavecrew remains explicit delegation: list available subagents first with subagents_list, then run cavecrew-investigator, cavecrew-builder, or cavecrew-reviewer only when the main thread chooses delegation.

Development

pnpm --filter @casualjim/pi-caveman test
pnpm --filter @casualjim/pi-caveman typecheck
pnpm --filter @casualjim/pi-caveman test:e2e

The e2e test installs this package into an isolated Pi home and invokes representative skills through the real pi CLI.

Attribution

This package is a Pi port of Caveman by Julius Brussee: