Ponytail

Install

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

Overview

The anti-over-engineering skill (★143K): before writing anything, the agent climbs a seven-rung laziness ladder — does this need to exist? is it already in the codebase? can the stdlib do it? the platform natively? an installed dependency? one line? only then the minimum that works. Ask for a date picker and instead of installing flatpickr it ships `<input type="date">`. On real Claude Code benchmarks: 54% less code, 20% cheaper, 27% faster, safety still 100%.

Key features

• ✓Seven-rung laziness ladder: YAGNI first, native first, hand-rolled last
• ✓Lazy, not negligent: validation, error handling, security and accessibility are never cut
• ✓Six companion skills — /ponytail-review, -audit, -debt, -gain — for post-hoc review and debt inventories
• ✓Four intensity levels: lite / full / ultra / off

Use cases

• Tired of AI laying five abstraction layers for one tiny feature
• Keeping code volume and maintenance cost down on AI-built side projects
• Auditing already-generated AI code for what's superfluous

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