# Feature catalog — DietrichGebert/ponytail

> Canonical page: https://codevetter.com/unpack/ponytail/feature-catalog

# Feature catalog — DietrichGebert/ponytail

Scanned commit e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156 (2026-09-14). Generated by codevetter codevetter 1.12.0 on 2026-09-22.

User-facing surface is six skills/commands plus a mode system. The core skill ponytail enforces the 'ladder' (YAGNI → reuse → stdlib → native → installed dep → one line → minimum code) at three intensities (lite/full/ultra) plus off. Companion skills ponytail-review, -audit, -debt, -gain, -help provide focused prompts. Host adapters add activation, mode switching, subagent injection, a statusline badge, and a Cursor hooks installer. Benchmarks and example before/after docs round out the offering.
- Six skills ship in skills/: ponytail (the ruleset with lite/full/ultra levels), ponytail-review (over-engineering diff review with delete/stdlib/native/yagni/shrink tags), ponytail-audit, ponytail-debt (harvests `ponytail:` comments into a debt ledger), ponytail-gain (benchmark scoreboard), ponytail-help. — [skills/ponytail/SKILL.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/skills/ponytail/SKILL.md) [skills/ponytail-review/SKILL.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/skills/ponytail-review/SKILL.md) [docs/agent-portability.md#L43-49](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/docs/agent-portability.md#L43-L49) [scripts/build-openclaw-skills.js#L19-26](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/scripts/build-openclaw-skills.js#L19-L26)
- The ponytail skill defines the 7-rung decision ladder, the 'bug fix = root cause' rule (grep all callers, fix the shared function once), the `ponytail:` ceiling-comment convention, the 'never lazy about' safety carve-outs, and the intensity table keyed by lite/full/ultra. — [skills/ponytail/SKILL.md#L32-118](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/skills/ponytail/SKILL.md#L32-L118)
- Mode switching: `/ponytail lite|full|ultra|off`, `@ponytail`/`$ponytail` aliases, `/ponytail` alone reports the level, `/ponytail default <mode>` persists to config.json, and the standalone phrases 'stop ponytail'/'normal mode' deactivate. — [hooks/ponytail-mode-tracker.js#L40-114](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/ponytail-mode-tracker.js#L40-L114) [hooks/ponytail-config.js#L40-43](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/ponytail-config.js#L40-L43)
- File-based commands mirror the skills for hosts that need them: commands/*.toml (Claude/Gemini) and .opencode/command/*.md (OpenCode), with tests/commands.test.js asserting every pi-registered command ships both file forms. — [commands/ponytail.toml](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/commands/ponytail.toml) [.opencode/command/ponytail.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/.opencode/command/ponytail.md) [tests/commands.test.js#L17-39](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/tests/commands.test.js#L17-L39)
- A statusline badge feature: ponytail-activate.js detects a missing statusLine in settings.json and nudges the agent once (flag file .ponytail-statusline-nudged) to install hooks/ponytail-statusline.sh (POSIX) or .ps1 (Windows), which renders [PONYTAIL] / [PONYTAIL:ULTRA] from the flag file. — [hooks/ponytail-activate.js#L63-109](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/ponytail-activate.js#L63-L109) [hooks/ponytail-statusline.sh](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/ponytail-statusline.sh) [tests/hooks.test.js#L161-184](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/tests/hooks.test.js#L161-L184)
- Subagent coverage: ponytail-subagent.js injects the active ruleset into every spawned subagent, scoped optionally by the PONYTAIL_SUBAGENT_MATCHER regex against agent_type (unanchored, case-insensitive, fail-open). — [hooks/ponytail-subagent.js](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/ponytail-subagent.js) [tests/hooks.test.js#L292-358](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/tests/hooks.test.js#L292-L358)
- Cursor support is a manual installer: `node scripts/cursor-hooks.js install [--project]` merges ponytail's sessionStart/beforeSubmitPrompt entries into ~/.cursor/hooks.json (or a project file), replacing PONYTAIL_DIR with the checkout path and preserving unrelated hooks; uninstall removes only ponytail entries. — [scripts/cursor-hooks.js](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/scripts/cursor-hooks.js) [hooks/cursor-hooks.json](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/cursor-hooks.json) [docs/cursor-hooks.md#L15-39](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/docs/cursor-hooks.md#L15-L39)
- Hermes-specific features: bundled skills registered as ponytail:<skill>, slash commands /ponytail and /ponytail-review/-audit/-debt/-gain/-help, gateway command rewriting with a slash-access check (_slash_access_denied), and process-local runtime mode. — [__init__.py#L14-20](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/__init__.py#L14-L20) [__init__.py#L140-217](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/__init__.py#L140-L217) [plugin.yaml#L5-21](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/plugin.yaml#L5-L21) [after-install.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/after-install.md)
- The MCP server exposes a user-invoked 'ponytail' prompt and a read-only 'ponytail_instructions' tool, both taking a lite/full/ultra mode argument validated by a zod enum, serving hosts whose only injection point is the prompt menu. — [ponytail-mcp/index.js#L18-50](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/ponytail-mcp/index.js#L18-L50)
- Gemini/Antigravity use gemini-extension.json pointing contextFileName at AGENTS.md for always-on rules plus auto-discovered commands/*.toml and skills/; the repo deliberately does not ship a root hooks/hooks.json because Gemini would auto-load Claude-named events. — [gemini-extension.json](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/gemini-extension.json) [docs/agent-portability.md#L17](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/docs/agent-portability.md#L17) [README.md#L204-205](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/README.md#L204-L205)
- Qoder full-tier support is a reference template hooks/qoder-hooks.json (UserPromptSubmit → mode-tracker, PreToolUse task|Task → subagent hook) that users merge into .qoder/settings.json with a PONYTAIL_DIR substitution. — [hooks/qoder-hooks.json](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/hooks/qoder-hooks.json) [README.md#L207-211](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/README.md#L207-L211)
- Benchmarks are a shipped feature: single-shot promptfoo evals (benchmarks/promptfooconfig*.yaml), a headless-Claude agentic bench (benchmarks/agentic/run.py) scoring LOC/cost/time/safety, an Ollama local runner (benchmarks/benchmark-local.py), a behavior gate (benchmarks/behavior.js + behavior.yaml), and dated result write-ups in benchmarks/results/. — [benchmarks/README.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/benchmarks/README.md) [benchmarks/agentic/run.py](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/benchmarks/agentic/run.py) [benchmarks/behavior.js](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/benchmarks/behavior.js) [tests/behavior.test.js](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/tests/behavior.test.js)
- examples/ contains 11 before/after 'survivor' write-ups (date-picker-style over-builds collapsed to native features) referenced from the README; assets/ holds the logos and benchmark SVGs the README renders. — [examples/README.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/examples/README.md) [examples/debounce.md](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/examples/debounce.md) [README.md#L62-73](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/blob/e3ba2aa6f1e6f0bc4d69eb09c9f0d0a93af56156/README.md#L62-L73)

Every claim links to its cited files at the pinned commit. Citations identify source evidence; they do not establish runtime correctness. Independent CodeVetter scan — not reviewed by upstream maintainers.

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