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/ponytail-help

@09c434a
by dietrichgebertdietrichgebert/ponytail174k stars
9,500
Run it yourself

Quick reference for ponytail levels, skills and commands. One-shot display. Use for /ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "how do I use ponytail".

Requires /ponytail /ponytail-review /ponytail-audit /ponytail-debt /ponytail-gain
Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/dietrichgebert/ponytail/ponytail-help

Nothing lands on disk. Nothing to clean up.

Fork this Skill

Edit a local copy. It keeps the author and licence.

SKILL.md

≈39 tokens for metadata: the name and description. ≈750 when used: this file.

Description uses 2.0% of example budget

Before choosing a Skill, your Agent reads its name and description. All available Skills share that space.

  • A shorter description leaves more room for other Skills. This entry exceeds our 1% size suggestion.

In our Claude Code example, all Skill names and descriptions share 8,000 characters. This Skill uses ≈157 characters, or 2.0%.

The 1% threshold is a size suggestion. Longer descriptions can still fit.

Your model, settings, and other Skills decide how much text your Agent can read.

Example settings and source

The example uses a 200k-token context and default Claude Code settings. The count includes the name, description, separators, and when_to_use when present. Codex also counts local file paths.

Skit's source and limits: Codex 0.160.1, Claude Code 2.1.292.

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 was asked, name the smaller option in one line.
Full /ponytail The smallest complete change, a check where the logic needs one, and a reply that names what was skipped and any risk. Default.
Ultra /ponytail ultra Also questions the request and pushes back before building.

Level sticks until changed or session end.

Skills

Skill Trigger What it does
ponytail /ponytail Lazy mode itself: least new code, clear replies that name skipped work and risks.
ponytail-review /ponytail-review Quality review of a diff: bugs, security, load, missing tests, speed, what to cut. Each finding says what goes wrong and how to fix it.
ponytail-audit /ponytail-audit The same quality review for the whole repo, ranked.
ponytail-debt /ponytail-debt Harvest 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.

In Codex CLI and the IDE extension, invoke skills with $ponytail:ponytail, $ponytail:ponytail-review, or $ponytail: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.

Band (Claude Code)

/ponytail band hides the band above the prompt, the same command brings it back. /ponytail band on and /ponytail band off set it directly. The level stays. /ponytail band import adds your past Claude Code sessions (cost, agent time, tokens) to the board.

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

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Skill behaviors

skilld matched fixed text patterns in SKILL.md and file names. Patterns miss obfuscated code.

skilld run checks every file with the same patterns. It asks for approval before it loads a Skill with a behavior marked Needs approval.

Third-party checks

No alerts5d3 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub5d

    This skill is a reference guide for the Ponytail utility, providing information on commands, levels, and configuration. It is purely informational and contains no executable code or malicious instructions.

  • Socket5d

    No alerts

  • Snyk5d

    Risk: LOW · No issues

Provenance

Signed by skilld at 09c434a. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub 5 days ago.

Activeupdated last week

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