caveman-compress

Activation Contract

Load only when the user explicitly asks to compress a natural-language file or invokes /caveman:compress <filepath>.

Hard Rules

• Compress only prose files: .md, .txt, or extensionless memory files.
• Never compress source, config, lock, env, SQL, shell, HTML, XML, JSON, YAML, TOML, CSS, or generated files.
• Preserve exactly: fenced code blocks, inline code, URLs, markdown links, file paths, commands, technical names, proper nouns, dates, versions, numbers, and frontmatter.
• Preserve markdown heading text, list nesting, table structure, and numbering.
• Back up the original beside the file as <filename>.original.md before overwriting.
• Never compress an .original.md backup.
• If unsure whether text is code or prose, leave it unchanged.

Decision Gates

Condition	Action
Supported prose file	Compress prose outside protected regions.
Unsupported file type	Stop and report unsupported file.
Existing .original.md target	Stop unless user explicitly confirms overwrite.
Validation fails	Report failure; leave original untouched.

Execution Steps

1. Resolve the target path from the user command.
2. Validate file type and backup path.
3. Prefer the local script in skills/caveman-compress/scripts/ when available: run python -m scripts <absolute_filepath> from skills/caveman-compress.
4. Compress by removing filler, hedging, pleasantries, redundant phrasing, and duplicate examples.
5. Validate protected regions stayed byte-identical before writing.

Output Contract

Return the target path, backup path, compression status, and any validation failures.

References

• README.md - usage details and examples.
• SECURITY.md - safety model for subprocess and file I/O.