Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx skills add john-data-chen/hermes-agent-backup --skill caveman-compressgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/john-data-chen/hermes-agent-backupWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/john-data-chen/hermes-agent-backup/caveman-compress)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/john-data-chen/hermes-agent-backup/caveman-compress"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/john-data-chen/hermes-agent-backup/caveman-compress.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00077 | $0.01063 |
| Opus 5 | $0.00039 | $0.00531 |
| Sonnet 5 | $0.00015 | $0.00213 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00008 | $0.00106 |
Grade A, and why
caveman-compress scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
This is a copy
100% identical to caveman-compress — 1 line differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.
How it starts
The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 111 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.
Caveman Compress
Purpose
Compress natural language files (CLAUDE.md, todos, preferences) into caveman-speak to reduce input tokens. Compressed version overwrites original. Human-readable backup saved as <filename>.original.md.
Trigger
/caveman-compress <filepath> or when user asks to compress a memory file.
Process
-
The compression scripts live in
scripts/(adjacent to this SKILL.md). If the path is not immediately available, search forscripts/__main__.pynext to this SKILL.md. -
From the directory containing this SKILL.md, run:
python3 -m scripts <absolute_filepath>
- The CLI will:
- detect file type (no tokens)
- call Claude to compress
- validate output (no tokens)
- if errors: cherry-pick fix with Claude (targeted fixes only, no recompression)
- retry up to 2 times
- if still failing after 2 retries: report error to user, leave original file untouched
- Return result to user
Compression Rules
Remove
- Articles: a, an, the
- Filler: just, really, basically, actually, simply, essentially, generally
- Pleasantries: "sure", "certainly", "of course", "happy to", "I'd recommend"
- Hedging: "it might be worth", "you could consider", "it would be good to"
- Redundant phrasing: "in order to" → "to", "make sure to" → "ensure", "the reason is because" → "because"
- Connective fluff: "however", "furthermore", "additionally", "in addition"
Preserve EXACTLY (never modify)
- Code blocks (fenced ``` and indented)
- Inline code (
backtick content) - URLs and links (full URLs, markdown links)
- File paths (
/src/components/...,./config.yaml) - Commands (
npm install,git commit,docker build) - Technical terms (library names, API names, protocols, algorithms)
- Proper nouns (project names, people, companies)
- Dates, version numbers, numeric values
- Environment variables (
$HOME,NODE_ENV)
Preserve Structure
- All markdown headings (keep exact heading text, compress body below)
- Bullet point hierarchy (keep nesting level)
- Numbered lists (keep numbering)
- Tables (compress cell text, keep structure)
- Frontmatter/YAML headers in markdown files
What ships with it
9 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 6d ago First seen · 111 lines · 77 tokens per session scan A 93bb1b86f5fd
caveman-compress is a skill published in the GitHub repository john-data-chen/hermes-agent-backup (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 77 tokens to every session and 1,063 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to caveman-compress, differing in 1 line, and is treated as a copy.
Other skills, from other repositories
narco-check
Memory integrity audit. Detects hallucinations, circular confirmations, and state poisoning. Runs automatically after 2 consecutive failures or at nightly deep dive. Uses Opus 4.6 as the auditor model.
list-learned-actions
Explicit Codex workflow: List persisted reusable actions, UI skeletons, and legacy feedback memories before composing device primitives.
persistent-notes
Save notes locally to /mnt/workspace/notes.json file. Use when user wants to "save a note" or "remember something".
hive.context-preservation
Proactively extract critical values from tool results into working notes before automatic context pruning destroys them.
hive.note-taking
Maintain a free-form scratchpad of decisions, extracted values, and open questions so context pruning doesn't lose anything you still need.
session-summaries
What the chat right-panel session summary shows, what it costs, and how to make a session summarize well. Load when the user asks about the session summary panel, why a summary looks wrong or empty, or how to turn it on.