| name | ponytail-review |
| description | Code review focused exclusively on over-engineering. Finds what to delete: reinvented standard library, unneeded dependencies, speculative abstractions, dead flexibility. One line per finding: location, what to cut, what replaces it. Use when the user says "review for over-engineering", "what can we delete", "is this over-engineered", "simplify review", or invokes /ponytail-review. Complements correctness-focused review, this one only hunts complexity.
|
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"vendored-from":"https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail","vendored-commit":"40e50d9e03242aa5dd53ac771950f9127362b25f","vendored-commit-short":"40e50d9","vendored-source-path":"skills/ponytail-review/SKILL.md","vendored-license":"MIT"} |
Review diffs for unnecessary complexity. One line per finding: location, what
to cut, what replaces it. The diff's best outcome is getting shorter.
Format
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
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.
OMK Vendoring Notice
This skill is vendored from the upstream Ponytail
project (npm: @dietrichgebert/ponytail) as a pure markdown OMK skill, copied unmodified in
substance from skills/ponytail-review/SKILL.md at pinned commit
40e50d9
(full SHA 40e50d9e03242aa5dd53ac771950f9127362b25f).
- License: MIT. Copyright (c) 2026 DietrichGebert. Full text:
../ponytail/LICENSE
(this repo's vendored copy, kept alongside the primary ponytail skill) and the upstream
LICENSE file at the pinned commit.
- Scope: only the six
skills/*/SKILL.md files were vendored. Upstream's Node/Python
extension code (pi-extension/, hooks/*.js, ponytail-mcp/), the Hermes Agent plugin
(__init__.py, plugin.yaml), command/hook manifests, and marketplace/CI tooling are
not included in OMK. Nothing in this skill executes code; it is inert markdown loaded
into the system prompt.
- Invocation in OMK: use
/skill:ponytail-review or !skill:ponytail-review (shorthand
!ponytail-review also works when unambiguous), per packages/coding-agent/docs/skills.md.
The bare /ponytail-review slash form referenced above describes the upstream multi-host
package's own command surface (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, etc.) and is not an OMK command.
- Updates: this is a static vendored copy, not a live package install. To pick up upstream
changes, re-vendor against a newer pinned commit; there is no auto-update mechanism here.
