Makes your AI agent think like the laziest senior dev in the room. The best code is the code you never wrote.
# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/0xwilliamortiz/ponytail-improvedGuides for using ai agents skills like ponytail-improved.
Last scanned: 7/29/2026
{
"issues": [],
"status": "PASSED",
"scannedAt": "2026-07-29T06:30:01.724Z",
"npmAuditRan": true,
"pipAuditRan": true,
"promptInjectionRan": true
}He says nothing. He writes one line. It works.
An agent skill that stops your AI from over-building. Two hooks, one command.
claude code · codex · copilot cli · opencode · github
You know him. Long ponytail, oval glasses, at the company longer than the version control. You show him fifty lines and he says nothing, then replaces them with one.
Ponytail puts him inside your AI agent. It ships as skills plus two lifecycle hooks, so before the agent writes code it has to justify writing any at all.
Before writing code, the agent goes down the ladder and stops at the first rung that holds.
1 does this need to exist? → no. skip it. (yagni)
2 is it already in this repo? → reuse it
3 does the stdlib do it? → use it
4 does the platform do it? → use it
5 does an installed dep do it? → use it
6 can it be one line? → write the line
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
7 nothing above held → the minimum that works
The ladder runs after the problem is understood, never instead of understanding it. Lazy about the solution, thorough about reading.
[!NOTE] Lazy, not negligent. Validation, error handling, security and accessibility never go on the chopping block. The 100% figure below is that promise, measured.
You ask for a date picker.
| your agent | ponytail |
|---|---|
| 3 files | 1 line |
| 50 lines | <input type="date"> |
| 1 dependency | |
| 1 open thread about timezones | the browser already had one |
Measured over real Claude Code sessions on a real repository. On the tasks where agents over-build hardest, the drop reaches 94% less code.
npm install -g @0xwilliamortiz/ponytail-improved
ponytail
Or without a global install:
npx @0xwilliamortiz/ponytail-improved
From a local checkout:
npm install -g .
ponytail
ponytail prints install commands for your agent. On Windows it can also open the UI.
Works with
Claude Code · Codex · Copilot CLI · OpenCode · Pi · Antigravity ·
Hermes · OpenClaw · and more
The plugins run two small Node lifecycle hooks, so node has to be on your
PATH. Without it the skills still load, and the always-on activation simply
stays quiet.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/ponytail [lite | full | ultra | off] |
Set the intensity, or turn it off |
/ponytail-review |
Review the current diff for over-engineering |
/ponytail-audit |
Audit the whole repo, not just the diff |
/ponytail-debt |
Collect the shortcuts you deferred into a ledger |
/ponytail-help |
Quick reference |
MIT. The shortest license that works.
ponytail-improved is an open-source ai agents skill for AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and ChatGPT, built by 0xwilliamortiz. Makes your AI agent think like the laziest senior dev in the room. The best code is the code you never wrote. It has 601 GitHub stars.
Yes. ponytail-improved passed SkillsLLM's automated security scan — a dependency vulnerability audit plus prompt-injection heuristics — with no high-severity issues. You can read the full report in the Security Report section on this page.
Clone the repository with "git clone https://github.com/0xwilliamortiz/ponytail-improved" and add it to your Claude Code skills directory (see the Installation section above).
ponytail-improved is primarily written in JavaScript. It is open-source under 0xwilliamortiz on GitHub, so you can review or fork the full source.
Yes. SkillsLLM lists many other AI Agents skills you can browse and compare side by side. Open the AI Agents category from the badge at the top of this page, or use the Related Skills and comparison links further down to weigh ponytail-improved against similar tools.
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