compress
This skill contains shell command directives (!`command`) that may execute system commands. Review carefully before installing.
Pre-computed context
Current branch: !git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown"
Uncommitted .md files: !git status --porcelain 2>/dev/null | grep '\.md$' | head -10 || echo "none"
Purpose
Markdown in docs/, README files, onboarding docs, third-party pasted prose, and drifted skill bodies accumulates FLAVOR — filler ("just", "really", "basically"), hedging ("perhaps", "might"), articles, pleasantries, redundant restatement. context/flavor-vs-content-matrix.md defines FLAVOR (safe to cut) vs CONTENT (never cut); this skill applies that taxonomy AT EDIT TIME to content where author-time discipline does NOT apply.
Always-loaded instruction files (.claude/rules/**, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, **/SKILL.md) bound empirically at 2-3% yield (baseline from the authoring repo: 3/3 attempts reverted, all flavor-only, 0 semantic loss). Likely 5-15% yield on author-time-undisciplined content.
Methodology: snapshot original → backend mechanical compression (the caveman plugin via /caveman:compress, OR in-session Edit fallback) → spawn semantic-diff subagent comparing original vs condensed (output: SEMANTIC LOSS / AMBIGUITY / FALSE POSITIVE per finding with verbatim citations) → revert every SEMANTIC LOSS + AMBIGUITY → run markdownlint-cli2 → ship or revert.
Backend selection
Default-action Step B picks the mechanical-compression backend: the caveman plugin (marketplace caveman, invoked as /caveman:compress) when present, otherwise the in-session Edit-based fallback. Caveman performs the mechanical flavor cuts (articles, fillers, hedging, verbose-verb collapses) as the compression backend — it is NOT the verification gate. Fallback policy is graceful: the in-session Edit-based path substitutes whenever caveman is absent or unwanted. Subsequent steps (semantic-diff dispatch, revert pass, markdownlint) wrap the output regardless of backend choice.
Note the distinction inside that plugin: /caveman:compress is a function-call skill (this skill's backend); /caveman:caveman is a session-wide response formatter — unrelated to this skill.