Ponytail Help

Ponytail Help

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If /plugin is not recognized, your Claude Code is out of date.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