ponytail-debt

Use it when:: You've used ponytail for a while and want to see which shortcuts it deferred, before they become permanent.
It does:: Greps the repo for shortcut: comments, and older ponytail: ones, skipping .git and ignored files, or for a marker word you name, such as TODO.
You get:: One line per marker, grouped by file: what was simplified, its limit and its upgrade trigger, with no-trigger on those that name none.
Writes:: Nothing, unless you ask it to save the ledger to a file such as PONYTAIL-DEBT.md.

Skill 4 of 5 in the Ponytail bundle, after ponytail-audit and before ponytail-help.

Only works inside its bundle: 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. Install Ponytail instead.

Lists the shortcut: comments that the ponytail skill leaves in code; for any other marker, you name the word.

TL;DR

Ponytail, a skill set that makes coding agents write the least code that fully solves a task, marks each deliberate shortcut with a comment in the form shortcut: <the limit>, <when to upgrade>. This skill gathers those comments into one ledger, so a deferral can't quietly become permanent. It runs one git grep over comment markers, skipping .git and everything .gitignore excludes, and drops hits that aren't deferrals, such as a note about a keyboard shortcut. Each row gives the file and line, what was simplified, the limit and the upgrade trigger, pulled straight from the comment; markers that name no trigger are tagged no-trigger, since those are the ones that rot. It ends with a count of markers and of those with no trigger, and git blame can add an owner to each row. It's one-shot and changes nothing.

Summarizes the skill at 96608e0.

npx skills add https://github.com/dietrichgebert/ponytail --skill ponytail-debt

skills.sh page Source on GitHub All skills from dietrichgebert/ponytail

Weekly Downloads week to Nov 9, 2026

4,051

+83% in 8 weeks

More weekly downloads than 87% of skills

Weekly values

Week to	Installs
Sep 21	2,212
Sep 28	2,149
Oct 5	2,834
Oct 12	4,437
Oct 19	5,426
Oct 26	5,415
Nov 2	5,262
Nov 9	4,051

Total Downloads on skills.sh

52,000

More downloads than 82% of skills

Repo stars dietrichgebert/ponytail

187,013

More stars than 95% of repos

Age published Jun 15, 2026

4 months

Newer than 83% of skills

Category	category:engineering category:software-engineering Test-first work, implementation from specs, git hygiene and scope control. Everything for building software: planning, coding, debugging, design, frameworks, cloud, agents and skills.
Type	type:command A one-shot action you invoke by name, such as turning the conversation into a PRD.
Effect	effect:none Adds no side effects of its own. It shapes how the agent thinks, writes or reviews. Guidelines and routers are always effect:none, even when the task they support edits code.
Needs	needs:none Instructions only. Works in any agent that supports skills.
Publisher	by:community Everyone else. Unverified vendor claims default to community.
Topics	code-quality

SKILL.md

From dietrichgebert/ponytail at 96608e0. Checked daily, last changed Nov 6, 2026.

Frontmatter

name: ponytail-debt
description: >
  List every `shortcut:` comment (and older `ponytail:` ones) as a debt ledger. One-shot report,
  changes nothing. Use for "ponytail debt", "what did ponytail defer", "list the
  shortcuts", /ponytail-debt.

Every deliberate ponytail shortcut is marked with a shortcut: comment naming its ceiling and upgrade path (older code may say ponytail:). This collects them into one ledger so a deferral can't quietly become permanent.

Scan

Grep the repo for comment markers, skipping .git and everything the .gitignore files ignore (dependencies, build output, caches, in any stack):

git grep --no-index --exclude-standard -nE '(#|//|/[*]) ?(shortcut|ponytail):' (add other comment prefixes if your stack uses them)

If the user names their own marker word (/ponytail-debt TODO), grep for that word instead.

Each hit is one ledger row. The comment prefix keeps prose that merely mentions the convention out of the ledger. Skip hits that are not a deferral, like a note about a keyboard shortcut.

Output

One row per marker, grouped by file:

<file>:<line>, <what was simplified>. ceiling: <the limit named>. upgrade: <the trigger to revisit>.

The convention is shortcut: <ceiling>, <upgrade path>, so pull the ceiling and the trigger straight from the comment. Want an owner per row too? add git blame -L<line>,<line>.

Flag the rot risk: any marker comment that names no upgrade path or trigger gets a no-trigger tag, those are the ones that silently rot.

End with <N> markers, <M> with no trigger. Nothing found: No shortcut debt. Clean ledger.

Boundaries

Reads and reports only, changes nothing. To persist it, ask and it writes the ledger to a file (e.g. PONYTAIL-DEBT.md). One-shot.