MCP.Market

caveman-review skill

by JuliusBrussee·JuliusBrussee/caveman·120k stars·Apache-2.0

Compressed code review - one line per finding with location, problem and fix. Use for /caveman-review, "review this PR", or "review the diff".

A100/100content scan

Is the caveman-review skill safe?

Clean: nothing in its files matched our rules. We read 2 files in the folder on 2026-10-25.

No findings.

Install the caveman-review skill

A skill is a folder. Copy it into your agent's skills folder and the agent loads it when the task matches its description. 

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman.git /tmp/caveman
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/caveman/skills/caveman-review ~/.claude/skills/caveman-review
available in every project

In the Claude apps, zip the folder and upload it from the Skills settings. The folder on GitHub

The instructions your agent would load

SKILL.md as published, without the frontmatter. Read it on GitHub

Write code review comments terse and actionable. One line per finding. Location, problem, fix. No throat-clearing.

Rules

Format: L: . . — or :L: ... when reviewing multi-file diffs.

Severity prefix (optional, when mixed):

  • 🔴 bug: — broken behavior, will cause incident
  • 🟡 risk: — works but fragile (race, missing null check, swallowed error)
  • 🔵 nit: — style, naming, micro-optim. Author can ignore
  • ❓ q: — genuine question, not a suggestion

Drop:

  • "I noticed that...", "It seems like...", "You might want to consider..."
  • "This is just a suggestion but..." — use nit: instead
  • "Great work!", "Looks good overall but..." — say it once at the top, not per comment
  • Restating what the line does — the reviewer can read the diff
  • Hedging ("perhaps", "maybe", "I think") — if unsure use q:

Keep:

  • Exact line numbers
  • Exact symbol/function/variable names in backticks
  • Concrete fix, not "consider refactoring this"
  • The why if the fix isn't obvious from the problem statement

Examples

❌ "I noticed that on line 42 you're not checking if the user object is null before accessing the email property. This could potentially cause a crash if the user is not found in the database. You might want to add a null check here."

✅ L42: 🔴 bug: user can be null after .find(). Add guard before .email.

❌ "It looks like this function is doing a lot of things and might benefit from being broken up into smaller functions for readability."

✅ L88-140: 🔵 nit: 50-line fn does 4 things. Extract validate/normalize/persist.

❌ "Have you considered what happens if the API returns a 429? I think we should probably handle that case."

✅ L23: 🟡 risk: no retry on 429. Wrap in withBackoff(3).

Auto-Clarity

Drop terse mode for: security findings (CVE-class bugs need full explanation + reference), architectural disagreements (need rationale, not just a one-liner), and onboarding contexts where the author is new and needs the "why". In those cases write a normal paragraph, then resume terse for the rest.

Boundaries

Reviews only — does not write the code fix, does not approve/request-changes, does not run linters. Output the comment(s) ready to paste into the PR. "stop caveman-review" or "normal mode": revert to verbose review style.

More skills from JuliusBrussee/caveman

  • AcavecrewWhen to delegate to `cavecrew-investigator` (locate code), `cavecrew-builder` (1-2 file edit) or `cavecrew-reviewer` (diff review) instead of working inline or using `Explore`. Their output is compressed, so main context lasts longer.
  • AcavecrewWhen to delegate to `cavecrew-investigator` (locate code), `cavecrew-builder` (1-2 file edit) or `cavecrew-reviewer` (diff review) instead of working inline or using `Explore`. Their output is compressed, so main context lasts longer.
  • AcavemanTerse caveman voice: answer first, fluff gone, every technical fact kept. Use for /caveman, "caveman mode", "talk like caveman", "be brief", "less tokens". Stays on until "stop caveman" or "normal mode".
  • AcavemanTerse caveman voice: answer first, fluff gone, every technical fact kept. Use for /caveman, "caveman mode", "talk like caveman", "be brief", "less tokens". Stays on until "stop caveman" or "normal mode".
  • Acaveman-commitWrite a Conventional Commits message compressed to intent only. Use for "write a commit", "commit message", /commit or /caveman-commit.
  • Ccaveman-compressCompress a memory file such as CLAUDE.md or a todo list into caveman format to save input tokens, keeping a readable backup. Sends the file's text to the configured model provider. Trigger: /caveman-compress.
  • Ccaveman-compressCompress a memory file such as CLAUDE.md or a todo list into caveman format to save input tokens, keeping a readable backup. Sends the file's text to the configured model provider. Trigger: /caveman-compress.
  • Acaveman-discoverFind and label every LLM workflow in the repository so Caveman Cloud groups spend by workflow instead of one bucket. Use for "discover workflows" or breaking LLM spend down by workflow.
  • Acaveman-evidence-reviewRead-only review of Caveman Cloud evidence: cost, Cave Score, workflows, traces, latency, errors, routing, savings. Use when asked what Caveman found or where LLM spend goes.
  • Acaveman-exploreRead-only repository explorer for cold-start orientation, broad cross-file localization, or when a direct search failed. Skip it when the exact file or symbol is already named. Returns path:line citations only; its reads stay out of main context.
  • Acaveman-helpQuick-reference card for the three caveman skills and their commands. Trigger: /caveman-help or "caveman help".
  • Acaveman-learnAct on a Caveman learn report - review the ranked token sinks, apply cost-lowering fixes with per-edit consent, and report what those fixes returned. Use when asked to lower an agent's token cost, what caveman has saved, to trim a heavy CLAUDE.md, or to offload re-pasted context into cavemem.

All agent skills → · MCP servers