ponytail-debt
SkillDev toolsOnce added, your AI can sweep your codebase for ponytail comments and turn them into a single debt ledger. The deliberate shortcuts and deferrals those comments record get tracked in one place instead of being forgotten. Ask for the list any time to see what was put off and keep it from quietly becoming never.
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Add the skill, then ask your AI something like 'what did ponytail defer' or 'list the shortcuts' to build the ledger from your code.
Then ask your AI: use the ponytail-debt skill
What your AI can do with it
- Scan the codebase for ponytail comments
- Collect recorded shortcuts and deferrals into one debt ledger
- List everything ponytail deferred when you ask
- Answer questions like 'what did ponytail defer' or 'list the shortcuts'
- Keep deferred work visible so it doesn't get forgotten
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by dietrichgebert/ponytail in skills/ponytail-debt/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
Every deliberate ponytail shortcut is marked with a ponytail: comment naming
its ceiling and upgrade path. This collects them into one ledger so a deferral
can't quietly become permanent.
Scan
Grep the repo for comment markers, skipping node_modules, .git, and build
output:
grep -rnE '(#|//) ?ponytail:' . (add other comment prefixes if your stack uses them)
Each hit is one ledger row. The comment prefix keeps prose that merely mentions the convention out of the ledger.
Output
One row per marker, grouped by file:
<file>:<line>, <what was simplified>. ceiling: <the limit named>. upgrade: <the trigger to revisit>.
The convention is ponytail: <ceiling>, <upgrade path>, so pull the ceiling
and the trigger straight from the comment. Want an owner per row too? add
git blame -L<line>,<line>.
Flag the rot risk: any ponytail: comment that names no upgrade path or
trigger gets a no-trigger tag, those are the ones that silently rot.
End with <N> markers, <M> with no trigger. Nothing found: No ponytail: debt. Clean ledger.
Boundaries
Reads and reports only, changes nothing. To persist it, ask and it writes the
ledger to a file (e.g. PONYTAIL-DEBT.md). One-shot. "stop ponytail-debt" or
"normal mode" to revert.
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 135k
- Forks
- 7k
- Last commit
- Sep 2026
Others that do the same job
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ponytail-debt- Source
- github.com/dietrichgebert/ponytail