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Skills dietrichgebert ponytail

Ponytail Bundle of 5 skills

Use it when:
Your coding agent over-engineers: abstractions, options, dependencies or code nobody asked for.
It does:
Keeps the agent to the smallest change that fully solves the task, then reviews a change or audits a whole repo for what will actually break.
You get:
Short diffs and replies that end with what was skipped and any risk, numbered plain-English findings with a verdict, and a ledger of deferred shortcuts.
Runs:
ponytail stays on for the session until you say "stop ponytail"; the other four are one-shot and change no code.
Levels:
lite only names the smaller option, full is the default, ultra also pushes back on the request before building.
Never cuts:
Validation of untrusted input, error handling that prevents data loss, security, accessibility, or anything you asked for.

TL;DR

Ponytail casts the agent as a lazy senior developer: the best code is the code never written. Its core skill, ponytail, stays on for the session. Before writing, the agent reads the code the task touches and lists every place the change must reach; then it takes the first option that fully works, from skipping what wasn't asked for to reusing the codebase, the standard library or an installed dependency, and only then writes the minimum, with one small test for non-trivial logic. Each known shortcut gets a comment: shortcut: <the limit>, <when to upgrade>. The other skills run once and change no code. ponytail-review checks one change, reading its callers, tests and README, and ponytail-audit maps a whole repo and traces its data flows. Both rank findings as correct, safe, holds under load, tested, fast and lean, need a concrete failing case for each, number them so you can say "fix 2 and 5", and count a shortcut: comment that names its limit as a decision. ponytail-debt gathers those comments into one ledger and tags the ones with no upgrade trigger, and ponytail-help prints the levels, commands and settings.

Summarizes the repo at 96608e0.

Claude Code plugin

claude plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail && claude plugin install ponytail@ponytail

Codex plugin, then trust its two hooks in /hooks

codex plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail && codex plugin add ponytail@ponytail

Source on GitHubAll skills from dietrichgebert/ponytail

Total Downloads
123,215 of ponytail, its most installed skill, on skills.sh, Nov 9, 2026
Repo stars
187,013 dietrichgebert/ponytail
First seen
Jun 12, 2026 on skills.sh, its first skill

Its skills, in the order they're used

The ones marked “Only in the bundle” need the rest of it. The others also work alone.

  1. ponytail

    123K total downloads

    Forces the laziest solution that works: the best code is the code you never write.

  2. ponytail-review

    67.2K total downloads

    Reviews a code change like the developer who'll be paged when it breaks: bugs, security, load, missing tests, speed and needless code.

  3. ponytail-audit

    55K total downloads

    Audits a whole repo for bugs, security holes, what breaks under real load, untested risky code, slow paths and code to delete.

  4. ponytail-debt

    Only in the bundle 52K total downloads

    Collects the shortcut: comments ponytail leaves in code into a ledger of deferred work, with each one's limit and upgrade trigger.

    Builds its ledger from the shortcut: comments, each naming a limit and when to upgrade, that the ponytail skill writes; without them it can only list a marker word you name.

  5. ponytail-help

    Only in the bundle 51.9K total downloads

    Shows a quick-reference card for ponytail's levels, skills and commands.

    A reference card for ponytail's levels, settings and skills, so it only helps once they're installed.