by ilindaniel
Stop agents from over-engineering. Inspired by Ponytail, but without the plugin madness.
# 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. It has 111 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.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
"Ponytail Lite" is Ponytail without the plugin madness.
Not to be confused with Ponytail's lite mode. This is a separate one-file version:
No plugin. No hooks. No MCP. No commands. No mode switching. Just copy AGENTS.md into the place your agent reads instructions. That's it.
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 happens after that senior engineer comes back from coffee:
AGENTS.md
Could you just copy AGENTS.md from Ponytail? Yes.
This repo exists so you do not have to walk past the plugin machinery to find the one file.
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 cleanup script. No leftover mode flag. No statusline entry. No hidden MCP server still thinking about your dependency graph.
Before writing code, the agent climbs this ladder:
MIT