by ilindaniel
Stop agents from over-engineering. Inspired by Ponytail, but without the plugin madness. Just one AGENTS.md file.
# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/ilindaniel/ponytail-liteGuides for using ai agents skills like ponytail-lite.
Last scanned: 6/30/2026
{
"issues": [],
"status": "PASSED",
"scannedAt": "2026-06-30T07:54:03.007Z",
"npmAuditRan": true,
"pipAuditRan": true,
"promptInjectionRan": true
}ponytail-lite is an open-source ai agents skill for AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and ChatGPT, built by ilindaniel. Stop agents from over-engineering. Inspired by Ponytail, but without the plugin madness. Just one AGENTS.md file. It has 129 GitHub stars.
Yes. ponytail-lite 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/ilindaniel/ponytail-lite" and add it to your Claude Code skills directory (see the Installation section above).
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-lite against similar tools.
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"Ponytail Lite" is Ponytail without the plugin madness.
Not to be confused with Ponytail's lite mode. This is a separate one-file version.
Just copy AGENTS.md into the place your agent reads instructions. That's it. No plugin, hooks, commands, MCP, or mode switching.
Ponytail is a beautiful contradiction: an anti-overengineering tool delivered as a whole plugin ecosystem, with lifecycle hooks, slash commands, MCP, statuslines, adapter tests, and enough install paths to make a senior engineer stare silently at the wall.
Ponytail Lite is what a lazy senior dev would have expected:
AGENTS.md
Could you just copy AGENTS.md from Ponytail? Yes... But:
The AGENTS.md here is not a byte-for-byte copy. It is an opinionated cleanup of the original: same lazy senior dev idea, less plugin baggage, and guardrails rewritten for people who just want the file.
Copy AGENTS.md, or copy the same text into whatever your agent calls "project instructions" or "rules".
| Agent | Put the Ponytail Lite text here |
|---|---|
| Aider | Your project instructions / conventions file |
| Antigravity CLI | AGENTS.md or .agents/rules/ponytail.md |
| Claude Code | CLAUDE.md or project instructions |
| Cline | .clinerules/ponytail.md |
| CodeWhale | AGENTS.md |
| Codex | AGENTS.md or Settings > Personalization > Custom instructions |
| Cursor | .cursor/rules/ponytail.mdc |
| Devin CLI | Custom instructions / project instructions |
| Gemini CLI | AGENTS.md |
| GitHub Copilot | .github/copilot-instructions.md |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | AGENTS.md, .github/copilot-instructions.md, or ~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md |
| Hermes Agent | Custom instructions / system prompt |
| Kiro | .kiro/steering/ponytail.md |
| OpenClaw | Custom skill / instruction file |
| OpenCode | AGENTS.md or OpenCode instructions |
| Pi agent | Custom instructions / system prompt |
| Swival | AGENTS.md or ~/.config/swival/AGENTS.md |
| Windsurf | .windsurf/rules/ponytail.md |
| Zed | Custom instructions / rules |
Delete the file you copied.
If you pasted the text into a global instructions file, delete that paragraph.
No leftover mode flag, statusline entry, and hidden MCP server still thinking about your dependency graph.
Before writing code, the agent climbs this ladder:
MIT