Ponytail Help
SkillDev toolsThis is a quick-reference card your AI can display on demand, listing all ponytail modes, skills, and commands. Once added, ask for it whenever you want a reminder of what ponytail can do. The card appears once per request and does not stay active as a mode.
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Add the skill, then ask your AI "ponytail help" or type /ponytail-help to see the card. Use it any time you need a refresher on the available modes, skills, and commands.
Then ask your AI: use the Ponytail Help skill
What your AI can do with it
- Show a quick-reference card of all ponytail modes, skills, and commands
- Trigger the card by typing /ponytail-help
- Bring it up with phrases like "ponytail help" or "what ponytail commands"
- Answer questions like "how do I use ponytail" with the reference card
- Display the card as a one-shot summary instead of a persistent mode
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by dietrichgebert/ponytail in skills/ponytail-help/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
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
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 135k
- Forks
- 7k
- Last commit
- Sep 2026
ahel review
K1binfo
installs-packages
Automated review, not a security audit. Ruleset v1+k2.
Others that do the same job
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ponytail-help- Source
- github.com/dietrichgebert/ponytail