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Review a diff or scoped code change only for over-engineering and deletion opportunities. Use for simplify review, what can we delete, or /ponytail-review; use ponytail-audit for the whole repository. Does not review correctness.
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Based on SOC occupation classification
Resolve short approval against the latest checkpoint. Use for "lgtm", "looks good", "approved", or "go ahead"; not risky or review feedback.
Re-check a prior assistant claim. Use when user says "nack", "not convinced", or "check again"; not for review feedback.
UI/UX routing front door. Use as the front door for broad or ambiguous UI/UX work that needs the right build, redesign, audit, design-system, accessibility, or browser specialist. Do not use when the user already names a narrower UI skill.
Proposes UI Vault resource upgrades for a selected webpage. Use when the user asks for libraries, assets, effects, or inspiration for an existing page. Do not use for implementation or greenfield design.
Upload, list, or delete files with s3upload and return expiring Azure links. Use for configured temporary Azure storage; not for S3 or cloud setup.
Ship local Git changes by inspecting, polishing, validating, split-committing, and pushing. Use for commit, push, ship, delivery audit, or delivery blockers; not deploys or releases.
| name | ponytail-review |
| description | Review a diff or scoped code change only for over-engineering and deletion opportunities. Use for simplify review, what can we delete, or /ponytail-review; use ponytail-audit for the whole repository. Does not review correctness. |
Shared package contract: follow skills/shared/COMMON-CONTRACT.md unless this skill's stricter output rules override it.
Review diffs for unnecessary complexity. One line per finding: location, what to cut, what replaces it. The diff's best outcome is getting shorter.
L<line>: <tag> <what>. <replacement>., or <file>:L<line>: ... for
multi-file diffs.
Tags:
delete: dead code, unused flexibility, speculative feature. Replacement: nothing.stdlib: hand-rolled thing the standard library ships. Name the function.native: dependency or code doing what the platform already does. Name the feature.yagni: abstraction with one implementation, config nobody sets, layer with one caller.shrink: same logic, fewer lines. Show the shorter form.❌ "This EmailValidator class might be more complex than necessary, have you considered whether all these validation rules are needed at this stage?"
✅ L12-38: stdlib: 27-line validator class. "@" in email, 1 line, real validation is the confirmation mail.
✅ L4: native: moment.js imported for one format call. Intl.DateTimeFormat, 0 deps.
✅ repo.py:L88: yagni: AbstractRepository with one implementation. Inline it until a second one exists.
✅ L52-71: delete: retry wrapper around an idempotent local call. Nothing replaces it.
✅ L30-44: shrink: manual loop builds dict. dict(zip(keys, values)), 1 line.
End with the only metric that matters: net: -<N> lines possible.
If there is nothing to cut, say Lean already. Ship. and stop.
Scope: over-engineering and complexity only. Correctness bugs, security holes,
and performance are explicitly out of scope. Route them to a normal review
pass, not this one. A single smoke test or assert-based
self-check is the ponytail minimum, not bloat, never flag it for deletion.
Does not apply the fixes, only lists them.
"stop ponytail-review" or "normal mode": revert to verbose review style.