Ponytail Debt

Harvest every shortcut: comment into one debt ledger, so deferrals get tracked instead of forgotten. One-shot report.

181,225 stars 9,958 forksOther Plugin marketplace

Install

Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail

The repo is a Claude Code plugin marketplace. Run /plugin afterwards to pick the plugin that includes this skill.

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)
npx skills add DietrichGebert/ponytail --skill ponytail-debt
Manual install
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail.git /tmp/ponytail
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/ponytail/.openclaw/skills/ponytail-debt ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-debt

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

Every deliberate ponytail shortcut is marked with a `shortcut:` comment naming
its ceiling and upgrade path (older code may say `ponytail:`). This collects them into one ledger so a deferral
can't quietly become permanent.

## Scan

Grep the repo for comment markers, skipping `.git` and everything the
`.gitignore` files ignore (dependencies, build output, caches, in any stack):

`git grep --no-index --exclude-standard -nE '(#|//|/[*]) ?(shortcut|ponytail):'`  (add other comment prefixes if your stack uses them)

If the user names their own marker word (`/ponytail-debt TODO`), grep for that word instead.

Each hit is one ledger row. The comment prefix keeps prose that merely mentions
the convention out of the ledger. Skip hits that are not a deferral, like a note
about a keyboard shortcut.

## Output

One row per marker, grouped by file:

`<file>:<line>, <what was simplified>. ceiling: <the limit named>. upgrade: <the trigger to revisit>.`

The convention is `shortcut: <ceiling>, <upgrade path>`, so pull the ceiling
and the trigger straight from the comment. Want an owner per row too? add
`git blame -L<line>,<line>`.

Flag the rot risk: any marker comment that names no upgrade path or
trigger gets a `no-trigger` tag, those are the ones that silently rot.

End with `<N> markers, <M> with no trigger.` Nothing found: `No shortcut debt. Clean ledger.`

## Boundaries

Reads and reports only, changes nothing. To persist it, ask and it writes the
Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name
ponytail-debt
Path
.openclaw/skills/ponytail-debt/SKILL.md
License
MIT
Repo updated
29 October 2026

FAQ

What does the Ponytail Debt skill do?

Harvest every shortcut: comment into one debt ledger, so deferrals get tracked instead of forgotten. One-shot report.

How do I install the Ponytail Debt skill?

Claude Code plugin: /plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Ponytail Debt popular?

It lives in DietrichGebert/ponytail, which has 181,225 GitHub stars and 9,958 forks.

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