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Ponytail Skill Skill · Software development

Ponytail Skill: Stop Overbuilding. Ship the Smallest Correct Change.

Ponytail Skill traces the real flow, preserves explicit safety floors, and stops at the smallest correct coding change the requirement supports.

  • Coding discipline
  • Minimal changes
  • YAGNI

About This Skill

Ponytail is an AI coding-agent Skill that favors the smallest correct implementation after tracing the behavior and preserving explicit safety, data-loss, accessibility, and validation requirements.

Quick Start

  1. 1State the requested behavior, affected surface, and explicit constraints.
  2. 2Trace every caller and code path that can be affected before choosing an implementation.
  3. 3Climb the seven-rung ladder from YAGNI and reuse through native or installed capabilities only as needed.
  4. 4Run the focused check, verify affected callers and guardrails, then stop at the first correct rung.

Core Capabilities

Seven-rung ladder

YAGNI, reuse, standard library, native platform, installed dependency, one expression, and minimum implementation remain ordered.

Real-flow tracing

The Skill asks the agent to trace callers and affected paths before it chooses the smallest change.

Guardrails stay visible

Safety, validation, data-loss, security, accessibility, and edge-case handling remain explicit floors.

Checkable stop condition

The completion gate makes “done” observable instead of equating smallness with correctness.

SKILL.md

# Ponytail

This edition derives from DietrichGebert/ponytail at 16f29800fd2681bdf24f3eb4ccffe38be3baec6b; its source snapshot is labeled 4.8.4 + main@16f2980.

## Read, then climb

Trace the real flow and explicit requirements first. Stop at the first ladder rung that fully satisfies them: YAGNI, reuse, standard library, native platform, installed dependency, one expression, or minimum implementation.

The one-file Skill keeps its MIT notice boundary and the six-item completion gate. This release edition has no matched coding-task transcript.

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

What is Ponytail Skill?
Ponytail is a coding-agent discipline for understanding the task and real code path before choosing the smallest correct implementation.
Does Ponytail mean fewer characters at any cost?
No. Explicit requirements and trust-boundary safeguards remain the floor; minimality applies only after those requirements are understood.
What are the seven rungs?
The candidate preserves YAGNI, reuse, standard library, native platform, installed dependency, one expression, and minimum implementation in that order.
Is the smaller-change behavior proven?
Not yet. A matched coding-task workflow and reviewer receipt are required; no token, cost, speed, or safety uplift is claimed here.
Can I download it now?
Yes. Download the approved immutable Ponytail Skill: Minimalist Coding Discipline for AI Agents package from this page. Its source revision, file count, byte size, SHA-256, and release receipt are shown here; this evidence does not claim runtime outcomes.

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