# DietrichGebert/ponytail

Makes your AI agent think like the laziest senior dev in the room. The best code is the code you never wrote.

Repository: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ponytail
Homepage: https://ponytail.dev
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: agent-skills, ai-agents, claude, claude-code, claude-code-plugin, cursor-rules, developer-tools, llm, prompt-engineering, yagni
Last push: 2026-08-07T21:44:01+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 78/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 96, release rhythm 96, longevity 5
- inputs: {"age_days": 83, "days_push": 26, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 0.0, "n_releases_24m": 15}
- flags: young
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 112556, forks 6162 (observed 2026-08-28T04:12:24.071732+00:00)

## What it is
Ponytail is a ruleset/plugin that makes AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Gemini CLI, and 14+ others) write the least code that works, following YAGNI and reuse-first principles. It ships as an installable agent skill/plugin that reduces generated code volume, token usage, and cost while preserving safety and error handling.

## Use cases
- stop my AI agent from over-engineering simple features
- make Claude Code write less code
- reduce LLM token costs when coding with an agent
- enforce YAGNI principles in AI-generated code
- get my coding agent to reuse existing helpers instead of adding dependencies
- speed up AI coding sessions by generating fewer lines
- install a minimalism ruleset for Cursor or Windsurf

## When to choose
- your AI agent habitually over-builds, adds unnecessary dependencies, or writes speculative abstractions
- you want lower token costs and faster agent sessions without losing safety guards
- you use Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Gemini CLI, or similar agents and want a drop-in ruleset

## When to avoid
- you need your agent to build comprehensive, feature-rich implementations on the first pass
- you don't use an AI coding agent, since ponytail only works as agent rules/skills
- your codebase already enforces minimalism through review or existing conventions

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: active
- function: prompt-engineering, developer-tools, plugin-system
- domain: developer-tools, large-language-models
- platform: cli, editor-plugin, cross-platform
- tags: yagni, minimal-code, claude-code-plugin, cursor-rules, agent-skills, code-minimalism, llm-behavior-rules, ai-agents, automation

## Member repositories
- DietrichGebert/ponytail (main) score 78

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:24.071732+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:12:05.084546+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail (fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:24.071732+00:00, sha f91bd499105e)
  - homepage: https://ponytail.dev (fetched 2026-08-28T17:31:13.381902+00:00, sha ed17a09dc1d5)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.