| name | ponytail-help |
| description | Quick-reference card for all ponytail modes, skills, and commands in Cursor. One-shot display, not a persistent mode. Trigger: @ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "what ponytail commands", "how do I use ponytail".
|
| disable-model-invocation | true |
Ponytail Help
Display this reference card when invoked. One-shot — do NOT change mode,
write flag files, or persist anything.
Levels
| Level | How to trigger (Cursor) | What changes |
|---|
| Lite | Say "ponytail lite" or "@ponytail lite" | Build what's asked; name the lazier alternative in one line. |
| Full | Say "@ponytail" or enable via user rule | The ladder enforced: YAGNI → stdlib → native → one line → minimum. Default. |
| Ultra | Say "ponytail ultra" or "@ponytail ultra" | YAGNI extremist. Deletion before addition. Challenges requirements before building. |
Level sticks for the rest of the chat unless you say otherwise.
Skills
| Skill | Cursor trigger | What it does |
|---|
| ponytail | @ponytail or natural language ("be lazy", "yagni") | Lazy mode itself. Simplest solution that works. |
| ponytail-review | @ponytail-review | Over-engineering review: L42: yagni: factory, one product. Inline. |
| ponytail-audit | @ponytail-audit | Whole-repo over-engineering audit: ranked list of what to delete. |
| ponytail-debt | @ponytail-debt | Harvest ponytail: shortcut comments into a tracked ledger. |
| ponytail-gain | @ponytail-gain | Measured-impact scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed. |
| ponytail-help | @ponytail-help | This card. |
Type @ in chat and pick a skill, or describe what you want — the agent
matches from each skill's description.
Always-on lazy mode
For every session without typing @ponytail, add a Cursor user rule with
the ponytail ladder (or copy the core rules from ponytail/SKILL.md). User
rules apply across chats; skills load per invocation or when auto-matched.
Deactivate
Say "stop ponytail" or "normal mode". Resume with @ponytail or your user
rule.
Where skills live
Project skills: .claude/skills/ponytail*/SKILL.md (this repo) or
.cursor/skills/ponytail*/SKILL.md. Personal skills: ~/.cursor/skills/.
More
Full docs + examples: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail