laconic

Philip II: "If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out."
Sparta: "If."

Install • Benchmarks • Examples • Caveman vs Laconic

---

laconic is a 300 word skill for AI coding agents inspired by caveman.

It cuts filler. It keeps meaning. It trusts context.

Every word earns its place.

Benchmarks

Caveman Benchmark

Claude Sonnet 4 via Langdock API. Each prompt: generic system prompt vs full laconic SKILL.md. Median of 3 runs per mode.

Task	Normal (tokens)	Laconic (tokens)	Saved	vs Caveman
Explain React re-render bug	885	68	92%	+5pp
Fix auth middleware token expiry	1059	39	96%	+13pp
Set up PostgreSQL connection pool	2167	189	91%	+7pp
Explain git rebase vs merge	996	95	90%	+32pp
Refactor callback to async/await	494	62	87%	+65pp
Architecture: microservices vs monolith	826	209	75%	+45pp
Review PR for security issues	940	126	87%	+46pp
Docker multi-stage build	2635	149	94%	+22pp
Debug PostgreSQL race condition	1370	49	96%	+15pp
Implement React error boundary	4096	400	90%	+3pp
Average	1547	139	90%	+25pp

Range: 75%–96% savings across prompts. Caveman benchmarks averaged 64%.

Important

Laconic cuts output tokens only.

Run benchmarks yourself

cd benchmarks
pip install -r requirements.txt

echo "LANGDOCK_API_KEY=sk-your-key" > ../.env.local

python run.py --dry-run
python run.py
python run.py --update-readme

Examples

Prompt: "My Express auth middleware is letting expired JWT tokens through. The expiry check uses Date.now() compared to the token's exp field. What's wrong and how do I fix it?"

🗣️ Normal (~1,300 tokens) Explains JWT spec, Unix timestamps vs JavaScript milliseconds, walks through middleware architecture, adds error handling, suggests libraries, and outputs a full refactored file (...)

Λ Laconic (19 tokens) exp is in seconds. Date.now() is milliseconds. if (Date.now() / 1000 > payload.exp) // expired

Caveman vs Laconic

	Caveman	Laconic
Tone	Primitive	Terse
Explanation	Normal	Trusts context, skips what reader knows
Code	Normal	Just enough code
Token savings	~65%	~90%

Install

Any agent (40+ supported)

npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic

npx skills supports Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and 40+ more. To install for a specific agent:

npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a cursor
npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a copilot
npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a cline
npx skills add GabrielBarberini/laconic -a windsurf

Claude Code (plugin)

claude plugin marketplace add GabrielBarberini/laconic
claude plugin install laconic@laconic

Codex

1. Clone repo
2. Open Codex in repo
3. Run /plugins
4. Search Laconic
5. Install plugin

Or copy the plugins/laconic/ directory into your Codex plugins folder.

Usage

Trigger with:

• /laconic
• "laconic mode"
• "be laconic"

License

MIT — Sparta needed no walls. Neither does this license.