Ponytail Help

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

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

Levels

Level	Trigger	What change
Lite	/ponytail lite	Build what's asked, name the lazier alternative in one line.
Full	/ponytail	The ladder enforced: YAGNI → stdlib → native → one line → minimum. Default.
Ultra	/ponytail ultra	YAGNI extremist. Deletion before addition. Challenges requirements before building.

Level sticks until changed or session end.

Skills

Skill	Trigger	What it does
ponytail	/ponytail	Lazy mode itself. Simplest solution that works.
ponytail-review	/ponytail-review	Over-engineering review: L42: yagni: factory, one product. Inline.
ponytail-gain	/ponytail-gain	Measured-impact scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed.
ponytail-help	/ponytail-help	This card.

Codex uses @ponytail, @ponytail-review, and @ponytail-help; Claude Code and OpenCode use the slash-command forms above (OpenCode ships /ponytail and /ponytail-review).

Deactivate

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

Configure Default Mode

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

Environment variable (highest priority):

bash

export PONYTAIL_DEFAULT_MODE=ultra

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

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If /plugin is not recognized, your Claude Code is out of date.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