ponytail-improved

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Ponytail

He says nothing. He writes one line. It works.

Install  ·  Before / after  ·  How it works  ·  Numbers  ·  Commands  ·  FAQ

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You know him. Long ponytail. Oval glasses. Been at the company longer than the version control. You show him fifty lines; he says nothing and replaces them with one.

Ponytail puts him inside your AI agent. Skills plus two lifecycle hooks, installed in one command.

Before / after

You ask for a date picker.

How it works

Before writing code, the agent stops at the first rung that holds.

Text version

1  does this need to exist?      →  no. skip it (yagni)
2  is it already in this repo?   →  reuse it
3  does the stdlib do it?        →  use it
4  does the platform do it?      →  use it
5  does an installed dep do it?  →  use it
6  can it be one line?           →  write the line
7  nothing above held            →  the minimum that works

The ladder runs after it understands the problem, not instead of it. Lazy about the solution, never about reading.

Lazy, not negligent. Validation, error handling, security, and accessibility are never on the chopping block.

Numbers

Real Claude Code sessions on a real repo.

Code written	~54% less (up to 94% where the agent over-builds)
Cost	~20% cheaper
Time	~27% faster
Safety guards kept	100%

Full writeup

Install

node ponytail.js -i

Pick your agent, copy the commands, done.

Works with Claude Code Codex Copilot CLI OpenCode Pi Antigravity Hermes OpenClaw and more.

The plugins run two tiny Node.js lifecycle hooks, so node needs to be on your PATH. If it isn’t, the skills still work and the always-on activation just stays quiet.

Commands

Once installed, in a skill-capable host:

Command	What it does
/ponytail [lite | full | ultra | off]	Set the intensity, or turn it off.
/ponytail-review	Review the current diff for over-engineering.
/ponytail-audit	Audit the whole repo, not just the diff.
/ponytail-debt	Collect the shortcuts you deferred into a ledger.
/ponytail-help	Quick reference.

FAQ

What if I really need the 120-line cache class? You don’t. Insist anyway and he’ll build it. Slowly. Correctly. While looking at you.

Why “ponytail”? You know exactly why.

License

MIT. The shortest license that works.

He says nothing. He writes one line. It works.