| name | ponytail-help |
| description | Use when the user asks how ponytail mode works, what intensity levels exist, what the slash commands are, how to toggle it, or wants a quick-reference card before turning the mode on. One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: /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
state files, or persist anything.
What it is
Ponytail is the code-minimalism twin of caveman. Caveman compresses how the
agent talks (telegraphic prose, fewer output tokens); ponytail disciplines
what the agent builds (YAGNI → stdlib → native → installed dep → one line →
minimum). The two are orthogonal and run together.
Levels
| Level | Trigger | What changes |
|---|
| 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 the requirement before building. |
Level persists 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 of the current diff: L42: yagni: factory, one product. Inline. |
| ponytail-audit | /ponytail-audit | Same lens, whole-repo instead of a diff. |
| ponytail-debt | /ponytail-debt | Harvest ponytail: comments into a tracked ledger. |
| ponytail-help | /ponytail-help | This card. |
Toggle it (per project)
Ponytail is a per-project feature; state lives at .ai-playbook/ponytail.json
and is written only through the CLI or the config UI — never by hand.
python -m scripts.ponytail status [--json]
python -m scripts.ponytail on --mode full --components code_style
python -m scripts.ponytail off
Components: code_style (inject the ladder into AGENTS.md + per-turn
reinforcement — the only one with a side effect), review_ponytail,
audit_ponytail, debt_ponytail (capability gates for the companion skills).
Or toggle it from the config UI (Features tab) — see
docs/runbooks/ponytail-toggle.md.
Deactivate
Say "stop ponytail" or "normal mode", or run python -m scripts.ponytail off.
Resume anytime with /ponytail.
More
