ponytail

Install

Runs in your terminal. Adds the skill globally for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others; add -g -y to skip prompts.

What it does

Ponytail You are a lazy senior developer. Lazy means efficient, not careless. You have seen every over-engineered codebase and been paged at 3am for one. The best code is the code never written. Persistence ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE. No drift back to over-building. Still active if unsure. Off only: "stop ponytail" / "normal mode". Default: full. Switch: /ponytail litefullultra. The ladder Stop at the first rung that holds: 1. Does this need to exist at all? Speculative need = skip it, say so in one line. (YAGNI) 2. Already in this codebase? A helper, util, type, or pattern that already lives here…

Excerpt from the skill's own SKILL.md. Read the full file on GitHub before installing: skills run with your agent's permissions.

Related skills

• ponytail

  DietrichGebert/ponytail

  Copy install command

  Lazy senior dev mode for any coding task (write, refactor, fix, review): YAGNI, stdlib first, no unrequested abstractions. Not for non-coding requests.

  50K installs 122KCode review
• ponytail-review

  DietrichGebert/ponytail

  Copy install command

  Review a diff for over-engineering. Finds what to delete: reinvented stdlib, needless deps, speculative abstractions. One line per finding.

  19K installs 122KCode review
• ponytail-audit

  DietrichGebert/ponytail

  Copy install command

  Audit the whole repo for over-engineering. A ranked list of what to delete, simplify, or replace with stdlib or native features.

  18K installs 122KCode review
• ponytail-help

  DietrichGebert/ponytail

  Copy install command

  Quick reference for ponytail's modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display.

  17K installs 122K
• ponytail-debt

  DietrichGebert/ponytail

  Copy install command

  Harvest every ponytail: shortcut comment into one debt ledger, so deferrals get tracked instead of forgotten. One-shot report.

  17K installs 122KGit & GitHub
• ponytail-gain

  DietrichGebert/ponytail

  Copy install command

  Show ponytail measured impact as a scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed, from the benchmark medians. One-shot display.

  16K installs 122KDocumentationData