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ponytail-help

Quick reference for ponytail's modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display.

Published by DietrichGebert ↗DietrichGebert/ponytail

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Use ponytail-help to display the one-shot Ponytail modes, skills, and commands reference card.

    User-approved starter prompt based on a pinned source version; check current skill requirements before running. Task evidence ↗

    SKILL.md

    name: ponytail-helpdescription: "Quick reference for ponytail's modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display."homepage: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytaillicense: MIT

    Ponytail Help

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

    Levels

    LevelTriggerWhat change
    Lite/ponytail liteBuild what was asked, name the smaller option in one line.
    Full/ponytailThe smallest complete change, a check where the logic needs one, and a reply that names what was skipped and any risk. Default.
    Ultra/ponytail ultraAlso questions the request and pushes back before building.

    Level sticks until changed or session end.

    Skills

    SkillTriggerWhat it does
    ponytail/ponytailLazy mode itself: least new code, clear replies that name skipped work and risks.
    ponytail-review/ponytail-reviewQuality review of a diff: bugs, security, load, missing tests, speed, what to cut. Each finding says what goes wrong and how to fix it.
    ponytail-audit/ponytail-auditThe same quality review for the whole repo, ranked.
    ponytail-debt/ponytail-debtHarvest shortcut: comments into a tracked ledger.
    ponytail-gain/ponytail-gainMeasured-impact scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed.
    ponytail-help/ponytail-helpThis card.

    In Codex CLI and the IDE extension, invoke skills with $ponytail:ponytail, $ponytail:ponytail-review, or $ponytail:ponytail-help. Claude Code and OpenCode use the slash-command forms above (OpenCode ships all six as slash commands).

    Deactivate

    Say "stop ponytail" or "normal mode". Resume anytime with /ponytail. /ponytail off also works.

    Band (Claude Code)

    /ponytail band hides the band above the prompt, the same command brings it back. /ponytail band on and /ponytail band off set it directly. The level stays. /ponytail band import adds your past Claude Code sessions (cost, agent time, tokens) to the board.

    Configure Default Mode

    Default mode = full, auto-active every session. Change it:

    Environment variable (highest priority):

    export PONYTAIL_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra

    Config file (~/.config/ponytail/config.json, Windows: %APPDATA%\ponytail\config.json):

    { "defaultMode": "lite" }

    Set "off" to disable auto-activation on session start, activate manually with /ponytail when wanted.

    Resolution: env var > config file > full.

    Update

    Enable auto-update once: open /plugin, go to Marketplaces, pick ponytail, Enable auto-update. Claude Code then pulls new versions at startup (run /reload-plugins when it prompts). Manual refresh: /plugin marketplace update ponytail then /reload-plugins.

    If /plugin is not recognized, your Claude Code is out of date. Update it (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest, or brew upgrade claude-code) and restart. Other hosts use their own update flow.

    More

    Full docs + examples: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail