diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 6ba1f81..67c5dde 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -79,6 +79,9 @@ hooks/node_modules/
 .claude/agent-memory/
 .claude/gstack/
 
+# Caveman compress backups — generated by /caveman:compress, recoverable via git
+*.original.md
+
 # Generated outputs
 graphify-out/
 .ctx7-cache/