dietrichgebert/ponytail
Code review focused exclusively on over-engineering. Finds what to delete: reinvented standard library, unneeded dependencies, speculative abstractions, dead flexibility. One line per finding: location, what to cut, what replaces it. Use when the user says "review for over-engineering", "what can we delete", "is this over-engineered", "simplify review", or invokes /ponytail-review. Complements correctness-focused review, this one only hunts complexity.
npx skills add dietrichgebert/ponytail --skill ponytail-review
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Analyzed Jun 19, 2026
The skill provides instructions for identifying over-engineered code during reviews. It does not contain executable code, external dependencies, or network operations, and poses no security risk.
Analyzed Jun 19, 2026
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Analyzed Jun 19, 2026
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SUMMARY.md
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Review diffs for unnecessary complexity. One line per finding: location, what to cut, what replaces it. The diff's best outcome is getting shorter.
L<line>: <tag> <what>. <replacement>., or <file>:L<line>: ... for multi-file diffs.
Tags:
delete: dead code, unused flexibility, speculative feature. Replacement: nothing.stdlib: hand-rolled thing the standard library ships. Name the function.native: dependency or code doing what the platform already does. Name the feature.yagni: abstraction with one implementation, config nobody sets, layer with one caller.shrink: same logic, fewer lines. Show the shorter form.❌ "This EmailValidator class might be more complex than necessary, have you considered whether all these validation rules are needed at this stage?"
✅ L12-38: stdlib: 27-line validator class. "@" in email, 1 line, real validation is the confirmation mail.
✅ L4: native: moment.js imported for one format call. Intl.DateTimeFormat, 0 deps.
✅ repo.py:L88: yagni: AbstractRepository with one implementation. Inline it until a second one exists.
✅ L52-71: delete: retry wrapper around an idempotent local call. Nothing replaces it.
✅ L30-44: shrink: manual loop builds dict. dict(zip(keys, values)), 1 line.
End with the only metric that matters: net: -<N> lines possible.
If there is nothing to cut, say Lean already. Ship. and stop.
Scope: over-engineering and complexity only. Correctness bugs, security holes, and performance are explicitly out of scope. Route them to a normal review pass, not this one. A single smoke test or assert-based self-check is the ponytail minimum, not bloat, never flag it for deletion. Does not apply the fixes, only lists them. "stop ponytail-review" or "normal mode": revert to verbose review style.