SkillsAdd

dietrichgebert/ponytail

ponytail-help

Quick-reference card for all ponytail modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: /ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "what ponytail commands", "how do I use ponytail".

All-time #818 Trending #409 First seen Jun 12, 2026
8-week activity · all time api

Installation

$ npx skills add dietrichgebert/ponytail --skill ponytail-help
View on skills.sh ↗ GitHub repository ↗
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Security audits

Partner security reviews for this skill.

agent-trust-hub Reviewed

Analyzed Oct 9, 2026

snyk Reviewed

Analyzed Oct 9, 2026

socket Score 0.9000 · 0 alerts

Analyzed Oct 9, 2026

  • license 1
  • maintenance 1
  • quality 0.9
  • supply chain 1
  • vulnerability 1

0 alerts

Also in this package

Other skills from dietrichgebert/ponytail.

npx skills add dietrichgebert/ponytail
ponytail 2K ponytail-review 1.5K ponytail-audit 992 ponytail-debt 1K ponytail-gain 991

Browse all from dietrichgebert/ponytail

More details

Agent compatibility

Declared targets from SKILL.md / docs. Unmarked agents are not listed — the skill may still install via the CLI.

Claude Code Declared
Cursor Not declared
Codex Declared
GitHub Copilot Not declared
Windsurf Not declared
Gemini CLI Not declared
Cline Not declared
OpenCode Declared

Repository health

Stars 132.1K
License LICENSE
Default branch main
Open issues 88
Status Active

Skill metadata

Parsed from SKILL.md frontmatter.

Declared agents claude-code codex opencode

Package contents

Files included with this skill beyond the listing page.

  • skill md SKILL.md 2,796 B
  • docs SUMMARY.md 221 B

History

  1. First seen on skills.sh
  2. First recorded snapshot · 19,000 installs

SKILL.md

Ponytail Help

Display this reference card when invoked. One-shot, do NOT change mode, write flag files, or persist anything.

Levels

Level Trigger What change
Lite /ponytail lite Build what's asked, name the lazier alternative in one line.
Full /ponytail The ladder enforced: YAGNI → stdlib → native → one line → minimum. Default.
Ultra /ponytail ultra YAGNI extremist. Deletion before addition. Challenges requirements before building.

Level sticks until changed or session end.

Skills

Skill Trigger What it does
ponytail /ponytail Lazy mode itself. Simplest solution that works.
ponytail-review /ponytail-review Over-engineering review: L42: yagni: factory, one product. Inline.
ponytail-audit /ponytail-audit Whole-repo over-engineering audit: ranked list of what to delete.
ponytail-debt /ponytail-debt Harvest ponytail: shortcut comments into a tracked ledger.
ponytail-gain /ponytail-gain Measured-impact scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed.
ponytail-help /ponytail-help This card.

Codex uses @ponytail, @ponytail-review, and @ponytail-help; Claude Code and OpenCode use the slash-command forms above (OpenCode ships all six as slash commands).

Deactivate

Say "stop ponytail" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with /ponytail. /ponytail off also works.

Configure Default Mode

Default mode = full, auto-active every session. Change it:

Environment variable (highest priority):

export PONYTAIL_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra

Config file (~/.config/ponytail/config.json, Windows: %APPDATA%\ponytail\config.json):

{ "defaultMode": "lite" }

Set "off" to disable auto-activation on session start, activate manually with /ponytail when wanted.

Resolution: env var > config file > full.

Update

Enable auto-update once: open /plugin, go to Marketplaces, pick ponytail, Enable auto-update. Claude Code then pulls new versions at startup (run /reload-plugins when it prompts). Manual refresh: /plugin marketplace update ponytail then /reload-plugins.

If /plugin is not recognized, your Claude Code is out of date. Update it (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest, or brew upgrade claude-code) and restart. Other hosts use their own update flow.

More

Full docs + examples: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail