| name | ponytail-review |
| description | Use when the user wants a code review focused exclusively on over-engineering — says "review for over-engineering", "what can we delete", "is this over-engineered", "simplify review", or invokes /ponytail-review. Complements correctness/security review; this one only hunts complexity in the current diff. Gated by the ponytail review_ponytail component. |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"author":"ai-playbook (ported from DietrichGebert/ponytail, MIT)","version":"1.0"} |
ponytail-review — over-engineering review of the current diff
Review the current changes for unnecessary complexity only. One line per
finding: location, what to cut, what replaces it. The diff's best outcome is
getting shorter.
When to fire
- "review for over-engineering", "what can we delete", "is this over-engineered",
"simplify review", or
/ponytail-review.
- After a ponytail (or any) coding session, as a complexity pass before commit.
Output contract
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.
Examples
❌ "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.
Scoring
End with the only metric that matters: net: -<N> lines possible.
If there is nothing to cut, say Lean already. Ship. and stop.
Boundaries
Complexity only. Correctness bugs, security holes, and performance go to a normal
review pass (/code-review), not this one. A single smoke test or assert-based
self-check is the ponytail minimum, not bloat — never flag it for deletion.
Lists findings; applies nothing. "stop ponytail-review" / "normal mode" reverts
to verbose review style.
See also
