Add the i8* terminal aliases (make install-alias) and ai8* agent conversation shortcuts (docs/.../agents/alias.md), move skill distribution to the external INFINITO_SKILLS_REPOSITORY (make install-skills), and add make cheat, make alias and make onboard. Introduce custom.env operator overrides (win over defaults and handlers) and pin INFINITO_ALIAS_MD / INFINITO_ALIAS_REPOSITORY / INFINITO_SKILLS_REPOSITORY in default.env. Drop the in-repo skills-lock.json and its update-skills CI job. AGENTS.md instructs agents to suggest the matching cli/prompt alias when an operator writes something an alias covers. Lints enforce alias sorting, i8/ai8 prefixes, no consonant clusters, full make-target coverage, and terminal/agent shortcut non-overlap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Caveman: Token Compression
Caveman is a token-compression plugin installed via make install-skills. It reduces output token consumption through progressively terser communication styles. make install-skills copies the skills from the repository pinned as INFINITO_SKILLS_REPOSITORY in the generated .env (override via custom.env, see docs/contributing/customize.md); the skills repository pins every skill in its skills-lock.json and also supports global installs via its own make install. This works universally across all supported agents: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, Cline, and more.
Default Mode
Agents MUST operate in /caveman lite mode by default. Lite keeps grammar and readability intact while still reducing output size.
Startup Notification
At the start of every conversation, before doing any other work, the agent MUST display the following block verbatim (substituting the active mode if it has been changed by the user):
[caveman: lite] Switch: /caveman full · /caveman ultra · /caveman wenyan-lite · /caveman wenyan · /caveman wenyan-ultra · stop caveman
Mode Reference
| Command | Style | Use when |
|---|---|---|
/caveman lite |
Professional brevity, grammar intact | Default: balanced readability |
/caveman full |
Fragment-based, drops articles | Context growing, prefer brevity |
/caveman ultra |
Maximally compressed, telegraphic | Context critical, every token counts |
/caveman wenyan-lite |
Classical Chinese, semi-formal | Alternative compression style |
/caveman wenyan |
Full classical Chinese terseness | Deep compression, classical style |
/caveman wenyan-ultra |
Extreme classical compression | Maximum reduction |
stop caveman |
Normal prose | User explicitly requests full output |
Tier Progression: Token Budget Guidance
As the conversation grows, the agent MUST proactively suggest a higher tier. Base the estimate on observable signals: message count, response sizes, and whether context compression has been triggered by the system.
| Approximate token budget consumed | Action |
|---|---|
| < 20 % | Stay on current tier. No suggestion needed. |
| ≥ 20 % | Recommend upgrading from lite → full |
| ≥ 50 % | Recommend upgrading from full → ultra |
| ≥ 75 % | Strongly recommend ultra (or a wenyan variant); warn that context is running low |
Suggestions MUST be short, inline, and non-blocking. Example:
[caveman: lite | ~30 % context used → consider /caveman full]
The agent MUST NOT interrupt work to ask about tier changes. Recommendations appear as a single line at the start of the next response after the threshold is crossed.