cavecrew
Decision guide. When to delegate to caveman subagents instead of doing the work inline.
What it does
Tells the main thread when to spawn a caveman-style subagent versus the vanilla equivalent. The win: subagent tool-results inject back into main context verbatim, and caveman output is roughly 1/3 the size of vanilla prose. Across 20 delegations in one session, that is the difference between context exhaustion and finishing the task.
Three subagents:
| Subagent | Job | Use when |
|---|---|---|
cavecrew-investigator | Locate code (read-only) | "Where is X defined / what calls Y / list uses of Z" |
cavecrew-builder | Surgical edit, 1-2 files | Scope is obvious, ≤2 files. Refuses 3+ file scope. |
cavecrew-reviewer | Diff/file review | One-line findings with severity emoji |
Use vanilla Explore or Code Reviewer when you want prose, architecture commentary, or rationale. Use main thread directly for one-line answers and 3+ file refactors.
This skill is a decision guide, not a slash command. It activates when the conversation mentions delegation.
How to invoke
Triggers on phrases like "delegate to subagent", "use cavecrew", "spawn investigator", "save context", "compressed agent output".
Example chaining
Locate → fix → verify (most common):
cavecrew-investigatorreturns site list (path:line — symbol — note)- Main thread picks 1-2 sites, hands paths to
cavecrew-builder cavecrew-revieweraudits the resulting diff
Parallel scout: spawn 2-3 cavecrew-investigator calls in one message with different angles (defs, callers, tests). Aggregate in main.
Model overrides
By default, cavecrew-reviewer and cavecrew-investigator pin model: haiku in their frontmatter; cavecrew-builder has no model: line (uses the API session default). Set env vars in your shell before launching Claude Code to override per-agent:
| Env var | Agent |
|---|---|
CAVECREW_REVIEWER_MODEL | cavecrew-reviewer |
CAVECREW_BUILDER_MODEL | cavecrew-builder |
CAVECREW_INVESTIGATOR_MODEL | cavecrew-investigator |
Example — run reviewer on sonnet, keep others on default:
export CAVECREW_REVIEWER_MODEL=sonnet
Use the same model name strings you'd use in any Claude Code agent frontmatter (e.g. haiku, sonnet, opus).
Overrides patch only the model: line in the installed agent's frontmatter; the prompt body is untouched and keeps receiving upstream updates. Plugin installs only — standalone hook installs have no local agent files to patch. Unset or blank = no change. The patch persists in the installed file until the plugin is updated or reinstalled.
See also
SKILL.md— full decision matrix and output contractsagents/cavecrew-investigator.mdagents/cavecrew-builder.mdagents/cavecrew-reviewer.md- Caveman README — repo overview