ponytail-gain skill
Show ponytail's measured savings (code, cost, speed) from the benchmark. One-shot display. Use for /ponytail-gain, "what does ponytail save", "ponytail impact".
Is the ponytail-gain skill safe?
Clean: nothing in its files matched our rules. We read 1 file in the folder on 2026-10-15.
No findings.
Install the ponytail-gain skill
A skill is a folder. Copy it into your agent's skills folder and the agent loads it when the task matches its description.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail.git /tmp/ponytail mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills cp -r /tmp/ponytail/skills/ponytail-gain ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-gain
In the Claude apps, zip the folder and upload it from the Skills settings. The folder on GitHub
The instructions your agent would load
SKILL.md as published, without the frontmatter. Read it on GitHub
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.
More skills from DietrichGebert/ponytail
- AponytailLazy senior dev mode for any coding task: the smallest change that fully solves it, and a reply a busy human understands in one read.
- AponytailLazy 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.
- Aponytail-auditQuality audit of the whole repo: bugs, security, real load, missing tests, speed, and what to delete. Most important first.
- Aponytail-auditQuality 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.
- Aponytail-debtHarvest every shortcut: comment into one debt ledger, so deferrals get tracked instead of forgotten. One-shot report.
- Aponytail-debtList 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.
- Aponytail-gainShow ponytail measured impact as a scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed, from the agentic benchmark averages. One-shot display.
- Aponytail-helpQuick reference for ponytail's modes, skills, and commands. One-shot display.
- Aponytail-helpQuick reference for ponytail levels, skills and commands. One-shot display. Use for /ponytail-help, "ponytail help", "how do I use ponytail".
- Aponytail-reviewQuality review of a diff: bugs, security, real load, missing tests, speed, and what to delete. Each finding says what goes wrong and how to fix it.
- Aponytail-reviewQuality review of a change: is the logic right, is it safe, does it hold under real load, is risky code tested, is it fast enough, and is every line needed. Reads the connected code, not only the diff. Each finding is explained in plain English. Use for "review this", "code review", "review the last commit", "review my PR", "is this over-engineered", /ponytail-review.