How to install caveman in Visual Studio Code for Claude Code.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Recently Claude Code, arguably the best agentic AI coding assistant available today, has restricted its usage to a certain number of tokens per session and per week. These limits may be irrelevant for small projects, but when requesting analysis of medium-sized projects or tasks involving higher reasoning or more advanced models, tokens are consumed too quickly. This leads to being unable to use Claude Code even when paying for a Pro or higher-tier account, which can be frustrating.

This is why user JuliusBrussee created caveman, a skill for Claude Code. This skill makes Claude Code “speak” like a caveman. You know, “unga unga”. Well, not quite, but it does make it “speak” with the expressiveness of Rajesh Koothrappali at Miss Universe. The goal is to save tokens that are normally spent on phrases like “you’re right, that library doesn’t exist…”.

This guide describes how to install caveman in Visual Studio Code for Claude Code.

Install the Claude Code CLI

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

or

bun install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Configure the PATH

You may need to add the Claude Code CLI binary path.

In bash, this is done in ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/claude-code-cli

In fish, this is done in ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

set -x PATH $PATH:/path/to/claude-code-cli

or

fish_add_path /home/rodolfo/.local/lib/node_modules/.bin

Verify

claude --version

Global installation

To install the skill globally, for all your projects:

claude plugin marketplace add JuliusBrussee/caveman && claude plugin install caveman@caveman

Per-project installation

1. Make sure the plugin is downloaded. Clone it or let it download automatically:

git clone https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman \
  ~/.claude/plugins/cache/caveman/caveman/local

2. Create or edit .claude/settings.json at the project root:

{
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "caveman@caveman": true
  },
  "extraKnownMarketplaces": {
    "caveman": {
      "source": {
        "source": "github",
        "repo": "JuliusBrussee/caveman"
      }
    }
  }
}

3. Register the plugin in ~/.claude/plugins/installed_plugins.json, adding an entry with "scope": "project":

{
  "version": 2,
  "plugins": {
    "caveman@caveman": [
      {
        "scope": "project",
        "installPath": "/home/john/.claude/plugins/cache/caveman/caveman/local",
        "version": "local",
        "installedAt": "2026-04-14T00:00:00.000Z",
        "lastUpdated": "2026-04-14T00:00:00.000Z",
        "gitCommitSha": ""
      }
    ]
  }
}

Verification

The plugin is correctly installed if:

• installed_plugins.json shows caveman@caveman registered with scope: user
• settings.json shows "enabledPlugins": { "caveman@caveman": true }
• Files are present under ~/.claude/plugins/cache/caveman/

How to use it

• Automatic activation: it should activate on its own at session start (if hooks run correctly in the VSCode extension).
• Manual activation: type any of the following commands in the chat:

caveman mode
talk like caveman
be brief / less tokens

Caveman mode

To change the intensity of the “caveman”, type in the chat:

• caveman lite for concise but complete responses.
• caveman full for default mode (telegraphic).
• caveman ultra for maximum compression.
• stop caveman or normal mode to deactivate and return to normal mode.

Troubleshooting

• Possible hook issue in VSCode

If caveman mode does not auto-activate, the SessionStart hooks might not be running in the VSCode extension. In that case, simply activate it manually by typing “caveman mode” in the chat at the start of each conversation.