ponytail-audit
SkillDev toolsThis skill lets your AI audit a whole codebase for over-engineering. Once added, your AI can scan the entire repository and return a ranked list of what to delete, simplify, or replace with equivalents already built into the language. Unlike a review of recent changes, it looks at the full codebase.
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Add the skill, then ask your AI to 'audit this codebase' or 'audit for over-engineering' to get a ranked cleanup list.
Then ask your AI: use the ponytail-audit skill
What your AI can do with it
- Scan an entire codebase for over-engineering
- Return a ranked list of what to delete
- Identify code that can be simplified
- Suggest replacing custom code with standard-library or built-in equivalents
- Audit the full repository rather than just recent changes
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by dietrichgebert/ponytail in skills/ponytail-audit/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
ponytail-review, repo-wide. Scan the whole tree instead of a diff. Rank findings biggest cut first.
Tags
Same as ponytail-review:
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.
Hunt
Deps the stdlib or platform already ships, single-implementation interfaces, factories with one product, wrappers that only delegate, files exporting one thing, dead flags and config, hand-rolled stdlib.
Output
One line per finding, ranked: <tag> <what to cut>. <replacement>. [path].
End with net: -<N> lines, -<M> deps possible. Nothing to cut: Lean already. Ship.
Boundaries
Scope: over-engineering and complexity only. Correctness bugs, security holes, and performance are explicitly out of scope. Route them to a normal review pass. Lists findings, applies nothing. One-shot. "stop ponytail-audit" or "normal mode" to revert.
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 135k
- Forks
- 7k
- Last commit
- Sep 2026
Others that do the same job
Advanced
- Catalog kind
- skill
- Gateway key
ponytail-audit- Source
- github.com/dietrichgebert/ponytail