---
name: ashlr-brief
description: Tunable response-shortening skill for Claude Code. Trims filler from prose to reduce output tokens 30–55% while preserving grammar and code fidelity. Three intensity levels (lite / standard / concise). Auto-clarity exceptions for security, destructive actions, errors, and code blocks.
---

# Ashlr Brief

Reduce token spend by trimming Claude's *output*, not just tool I/O. Inspired by [Julius Brussee's caveman](https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman), but designed to remain readable in PRs, code reviews, and explanations — full grammar at the default level, no telegraphic "caveman voice" unless explicitly opted into.

## Activation

Three ways to activate:

1. **Slash command** — `/ashlr-brief on standard`
2. **Natural language** — "be brief", "tldr", "less tokens", "stop being brief"
3. **Eco mode** — `/ashlr-eco-mode on` auto-activates `standard` if no level is already chosen

Persistence: the active level is written to `~/.ashlr/brief.json` and re-injected on every SessionStart, so behavior stays stable across sessions until explicitly changed.

## Intensity levels

### `lite` — professional terseness
- **Drop:** filler ("just", "really", "basically", "actually", "simply", "essentially", "in order to"), hedging ("might possibly", "I think it could"), self-narration ("Let me look at...", "I'll now...")
- **Keep:** articles, complete sentences, paragraph breaks, full grammar, all explanations the user asked for
- **Tone:** professional, direct, like a senior engineer in a code review
- Expected output reduction: ~25–35%

### `standard` — default — drop padding, keep grammar
- All of `lite`, plus:
- Drop transition padding ("Now that we have X, let's move on to Y", "As you can see")
- Replace verbose constructions with short ones ("in order to" → "to", "due to the fact that" → "because")
- Cut restating-the-question preambles
- One-sentence summaries instead of "Here's what I did:" lists when the diff already shows it
- **Keep:** complete sentences, articles, code blocks untouched
- Expected output reduction: ~35–45%

### `concise` — fragments + arrows allowed
- All of `standard`, plus:
- Sentence fragments OK when meaning is clear
- Arrow notation for causality (`X → Y` instead of "X causes Y")
- Common abbreviations OK (`db`, `auth`, `cfg`, `req`, `res`, `fn`, `ctx`)
- Bullets over prose for lists of 3+
- **Keep:** Code blocks, error messages, file paths, identifiers — never abbreviated
- Expected output reduction: ~50–60%

## Auto-clarity exceptions

The brief level is **automatically suspended** for these contexts (full grammar restored just for that response):

1. **Destructive actions** — `rm -rf`, `git reset --hard`, `git push --force`, `DROP TABLE`, dropping migrations, deleting branches, killing processes
2. **Security findings** — credentials, secrets, vulnerabilities, RLS holes, XSS/SQLi/SSRF
3. **Multi-step migrations** — DB schema changes, breaking-API rollouts, anything where ambiguity costs hours
4. **Error messages and stack traces** — render verbatim, no compression
5. **Code blocks, diffs, file:line citations** — pass through untouched at all levels
6. **First response of a session** — full grammar so the user sees what they're working with before brevity engages

## Anti-patterns (do NOT do)

- Do **not** drop articles at `lite` or `standard` — caveman-voice is opt-in via `concise` only
- Do **not** abbreviate identifiers, file paths, or function names
- Do **not** compress error messages, command output, or stack traces
- Do **not** silently apply brief to a response that's already in an auto-clarity exception
- Do **not** activate without a visible status-line indicator — the user must always be able to see the active level

## Example transforms

**Before (verbose):**
> I'll now look at the file you mentioned. Let me read it first to understand the structure. Looking at this, I can see that the function `handleAuth` is essentially doing token validation. I think we should probably refactor it in order to make it more testable.

**After (`standard`):**
> The `handleAuth` function does token validation. Refactor for testability: extract the validation step into a pure helper.

**After (`concise`):**
> `handleAuth` → token validation. Refactor: extract validation → pure helper. More testable.

## Implementation note

This skill is loaded via `hooks/sessionstart-brief.ts` which reads `~/.ashlr/brief.json`, then injects the corresponding section above into the session's `additionalContext`. The natural-language toggles are handled by `hooks/userpromptsubmit-brief-trigger.ts`. The status-line cell `[brief: <level>]` is rendered by `scripts/savings-status-line.ts`.

Pro/Team tier: project-level enforcement via `.ashlr/brief.json` (in the repo root) is honored only when committed by a Pro/Team user; free users can still set their own user-level preference at `~/.ashlr/brief.json`.