What is Ponytail?
Ponytail is a skill for AI coding agents, released under the MIT license. The README describes it as putting a senior developer who replaces fifty lines with one inside your AI agent. Its stated rule is not fewest tokens: write only what the task needs, and never cut validation, error handling, security or accessibility.
Two companion commands extend the core instructions. /ponytail-review reads the code your change touches, not just the diff, and checks bugs, security, real load, missing tests, speed and what to cut. /ponytail-audit runs the same checks on the whole repository, mapping entry points and data flow first, then ranking what it finds.
In Claude Code, Ponytail also shows a band above the prompt that reports task cost, tokens, agent time, code reuse and whether tests passed after the last change. A Board page opens locally, and by default everything stays on your machine in ~/.config/ponytail/band/. The repository publishes benchmarks run in Claude Code on 39 tasks, five runs each, which describe that setup only.
Key capabilities
- Core skill Instructions that favor reuse and the smallest complete change.
- Review /ponytail-review checks the touched code for bugs, security, load, tests and speed.
- Audit /ponytail-audit runs the same checks across the repository.
- Band and board Cost, token, time, reuse and test indicators in Claude Code.
- Local data Band data stays on your machine by default.
Where Ponytail fits
- Day-to-day AI-assisted implementation
- Bug fixing and refactoring with fewer new dependencies
- Reviewing changes with surrounding code in view
- Repository-wide audits for over-engineering
- Tracking cost and test results per task in Claude Code
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