ponytail-help

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Quick-reference card for all ponytail modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: /ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "what ponytail commands", "how do I use ponytail".

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Sourcedietrichgebert/ponytail

Added on2026-06-15

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add dietrichgebert/ponytail ponytail-help

SKILL.md Content

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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-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

/ponytail

and

/ponytail-review

).

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):

bash

export PONYTAIL_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra

Config file (

~/.config/ponytail/config.json

, Windows:

%APPDATA%\ponytail\config.json

):

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is not recognized, your Claude Code is out of date.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