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ponytail-help

Quick reference for ponytail levels, skills and commands. One-shot display. Use for /ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "how do I use ponytail".

Published by DietrichGebert ↗DietrichGebert/ponytail

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Use ponytail-help to show the quick reference for Lite, Full, and Ultra, the available skills, and how to deactivate Ponytail. Display the reference without changing the current mode or writing files.

    Suggested template by Skill Leaderboard, grounded in the linked source. Task evidence ↗

    SKILL.md

    name: ponytail-helpdescription: >  Quick reference for ponytail levels, skills and commands. One-shot display.  Use for /ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "how do I use ponytail".

    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