{"data":{"slug":"caveman","name":"Caveman","tagline":"Viral skill and proxy that forces coding agents to spend fewer tokens","category":"agents","categoryName":"AI Agents","url":"https://www.caveman.ai","github":"https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman","pricing":"open-source","hook":"Caveman is the skill-plus-proxy stack that makes coding agents talk tersely so token bills shrink without swapping models.","whatsGood":"MIT skill packaging (JuliusBrussee/caveman) with install paths across many agent hosts, plus middleware/CLI wrappers that rewrite verbose agent chatter into short caveman-style output. Independent writeups (including JetBrains and an Adobe Research CAVEWOMAN paper cited in-repo) treat the compression as real cost leverage, not only a meme.","theCatch":"Engine-linked runtime directories (engine/, proxy/, rewriter/, and related) are Business Source License 1.1, not MIT — see LICENSING.md / LICENSE.BSL before embedding or offering a hosted Caveman runtime. Vs LiteLLM: Caveman is output/style compression for agent hosts, not a multi-provider model gateway. Terse output can hide nuance; keep quality checks on hard tasks.","verdict":"MIT skill surface with BSL engine bits. Use to cut coding-agent token spend; read the BSL boundary before productizing the runtime.","addedAt":"2026-09-20","featured":false,"domain":"AI Agents","subSpecialty":"Coding Agents","subcategory":"Coding Agents","tags":["self-host","permissive","coding-agents","skills","active","fast-stars"],"capabilities":["tokens","skills","proxy"],"surfaces":["Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Multi-platform"],"licenseModel":"Apache-2.0","githubStars":113513,"starsPerWeek":4001,"access":"free","archived":false,"repo":{"createdAt":"2026-04-04","pushedAt":"2026-10-18","license":"Apache-2.0","archived":false,"checkedAt":"2026-10-19"}},"related":[{"slug":"claude-code","name":"Claude Code","tagline":"Terminal-first coding agent with deep repository context"},{"slug":"cursor","name":"Cursor","tagline":"The AI-first code editor that understands your codebase"},{"slug":"devin","name":"Devin","tagline":"Autonomous AI engineer for defined engineering tasks"},{"slug":"stagehand","name":"Stagehand","tagline":"AI-native browser automation that mixes code and natural language"},{"slug":"browser-use","name":"Browser Use","tagline":"Open-source framework for LLM-driven browser agents"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/caveman","html":"/gems/caveman","markdown":"/gems/caveman.md","category":"/api/gems?category=agents","categoryPage":"/stacks/agents"}}