Ponytail Help

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

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-help
Manual install
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail.git /tmp/ponytail
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/ponytail/skills/ponytail-help ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-help

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

From the SKILL.md

# Ponytail Help

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 was asked, name the smaller option in one line. |
| **Full** | `/ponytail` | The smallest complete change, a check where the logic needs one, and a reply that names what was skipped and any risk. Default. |
| **Ultra** | `/ponytail ultra` | Also questions the request and pushes back before building. |

Level sticks until changed or session end.

## Skills

| Skill | Trigger | What it does |
|-------|---------|--------------|
| **ponytail** | `/ponytail` | Lazy mode itself: least new code, clear replies that name skipped work and risks. |
| **ponytail-review** | `/ponytail-review` | Quality 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-audit` | The same quality review for the whole repo, ranked. |
| **ponytail-debt** | `/ponytail-debt` | Harvest `shortcut:` comments into a tracked ledger. |
| **ponytail-gain** | `/ponytail-gain` | Measured-impact scoreboard: less code, less cost, more speed. |
| **ponytail-help** | `/ponytail-help` | This 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
Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name
ponytail-help
Repository
DietrichGebert/ponytail
Path
skills/ponytail-help/SKILL.md
License
MIT
Repo updated
29 October 2026

FAQ

What does the Ponytail Help skill do?

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

How do I install the Ponytail Help 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 Help popular?

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

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