| name | ponytail-help |
| description | Quick-reference card for all ponytail modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: /ponytail-kimi:ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "what ponytail commands", "how do I use ponytail".
|
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-kimi:ponytail lite | Build what's asked, name the lazier alternative in one line. |
| Full | /ponytail-kimi:ponytail | The ladder enforced: YAGNI → stdlib → native → one line → minimum. Default. |
| Ultra | /ponytail-kimi:ponytail ultra | YAGNI extremist. Deletion before addition. Challenges requirements before building. |
Level sticks until changed or session end.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail [lite|full|ultra|off] | Lazy mode itself. Simplest solution that works. |
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail-review | Over-engineering review: L42: yagni: factory, one product. Inline. |
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail-audit | Whole-repo over-engineering audit: ranked list of what to delete. |
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail-debt | Harvest ponytail: shortcut comments into a tracked ledger. |
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail-gain | Measured-impact scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed. |
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail-help | This card. |
The same six are also available as Skills (auto-invoked by the model when a
task matches, or explicitly via /skill:ponytail-review etc.).
Deactivate
Say "stop ponytail" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with
/ponytail-kimi:ponytail.
How it stays active
The ruleset loads at session start via sessionStart.skill. The plugin's
UserPromptSubmit hook tracks mode switches, and a SessionStart hook resets the
level to the default for each new session. Both are Node.js scripts — node
must be on PATH. Without node the skills and commands still work; only mode
persistence and injection stay quiet.
Per-turn injection on normal prompts is configurable (PONYTAIL_INJECT_MODE
env var, or injectMode in the config file): session (default) injects
nothing, compact injects a ~90-token reminder every prompt, full injects
the whole ruleset every prompt so it survives context compaction.
Configure Default Mode
Default mode = full. Change it:
Command: /ponytail-kimi:ponytail default lite|full|ultra|off
Environment variable (highest priority):
export PONYTAIL_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra
Config file (~/.config/ponytail/config.json, Windows: %APPDATA%\ponytail\config.json):
{ "defaultMode": "lite" }
Resolution: env var > config file > full. Set off to disable auto-activation,
then activate manually per session with /ponytail-kimi:ponytail.
More
Upstream project, full docs + examples: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail
