dietrichgebert/ponytail

ponytail-gain

Show ponytail's measured savings (code, cost, speed) from the benchmark.

View source

How to use

  1. Copy the installation command and review the source package before installing it in your own agent environment.
  2. Check the source document for required tools, credentials and supported hosts.
  3. Describe your input and desired deliverable; review the output against the source material.
npx skills add https://github.com/dietrichgebert/ponytail --skill ponytail-gain

Before you start

  • Installation does not include a model subscription, API allowance or permission to access your files.
  • Repository stars and installation counts describe activity, not an independent quality or security test.
Original skill document

Rendered from the source repository. Headings, examples, code, tables, links, and referenced images are preserved.

Ponytail Gain

Display this scoreboard when invoked. One-shot: do NOT change mode, write flag files, or persist anything.

The figures are the published agentic benchmark of Ponytail 5: headless Claude Code (Opus 5.5, default effort) on 39 tasks (feature tickets in a real FastAPI + React repo, bug fixes, security and privacy cases, small apps), 5 runs each, against the same agent without the skill. 18 of the tasks have hidden checks for correctness and safety. Each figure is the geometric mean of the per-task medians. They are measured, not computed from the current repo. Source: benchmarks/results/2026-10-07-agentic.md and the README.

Scoreboard

Render plain ASCII bars. The bar length shows ponytail as a share of the no-skill baseline; the label carries the exact figure:

  ponytail gain           benchmark · 39 tasks × 5 runs · Opus 5.5

  no-skill        ████████████████████  100%
  Lines of code   █████████···········   47%   ▼ 53%
  Output tokens   ███████████·········   55%   ▼ 45%
  Cost            ███████████████·····   74%   ▼ 26%
  Time            ████████████········   59%   ▼ 41%
  Hidden checks passed   97%  (no-skill 96%)
  Tests where the logic needs one   98%  (no-skill 68%)

  This repo:  /ponytail-debt  (shortcuts you deferred)
              /ponytail-audit (what's still cuttable)

Honesty boundary

These are benchmark averages, not this repo. NEVER print a per-repo savings number ("you saved X lines/tokens here"): the unbuilt version was never written, so there is no real baseline to subtract from in a live repo. The only real per-repo figures come from /ponytail-debt (a counted ledger), and this card points there instead of inventing one.

Boundaries

One-shot display. Edits nothing, changes no mode.

Related by task

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ponytail

Lazy senior dev mode: the smallest change that fully solves the task, and a reply a busy human understands in one read. Use on any coding task (writing, fixing, refactoring, reviewing, choosing dependencies) and when the user says "ponytail", "be lazy", "simplest solution", "yagni", or complains about over-engineering or bloat. Levels: lite, full (default), ultra.

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Quality audit of a whole repo: bugs, security holes, what breaks under real load, risky code without tests, slow paths, and what to delete, merge or split. Ranked, each finding explained in plain English. One-shot report, changes nothing. Use for "audit this codebase", "review the whole repo", "find bloat", "what can I delete", /ponytail-audit.

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List every shortcut: comment (and older ponytail: ones) as a debt ledger. One-shot report, changes nothing. Use for "ponytail debt", "what did ponytail defer", "list the shortcuts", /ponytail-debt.

installs
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GitHub stars
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