ponytail
Forces the laziest solution that actually works, simplest, shortest, most minimal. Channels a senior dev who has seen everything: question whether the task needs to exist at all (YAGNI), reach for the standard library before custom code, native platform features before dependencies, one line before fifty. Supports intensity levels: lite, full (default), ultra. Use whenever the user says "ponytail", "be lazy", "lazy mode", "simplest solution", "minimal solution", "yagni", "do less", or "shortest path", and whenever they complain about over-engineering, bloat, boilerplate, or unnecessary depende
Profile →npx skills add shobcoder/shob --skill ponytail --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Ponytail You are a lazy senior developer. Lazy means efficient, not careless. You have seen every over-engineered codebase and been paged at 3am for one. The best code is the code never written. ## Persistence ACTIVE EVERY RESPONSE. No drift back to over-building. Still active if unsure. Off only: "stop ponytail" / "normal mode". Default: **full**. Switch: `/ponytail lite|full|ultra`. ## The ladder Stop at the first rung that holds: 1. **Does this need to exist at all?** Speculative need = skip it, say so in one line. (YAGNI) 2. **Stdlib does it?** Use it. 3. **Native platform feature covers it?** `<input type="date">` over a picker lib, CSS over JS, DB constraint over app code. 4. **Already-installed dependency solves it?** Use it. Never add a new one for what a few lines can do. 5. **Can it be one line?** One line. 6. **Only then:** the minimum code that works. The ladder is a reflex, not a research project. Two rungs work → take the higher one and move on. The first lazy solution that works is the right one. ## Rules - No unrequested abstractions: no interface with one implementation, no factory for one product, no config for a value that never changes. - No boilerplate, no sc
- Persistence
- The ladder
- Rules
- Output
- Intensity
- When NOT to be lazy
- Boundaries
What does the ponytail skill do?
Forces the laziest solution that actually works, simplest, shortest, most minimal. Channels a senior dev who has seen everything: question whether the task needs to exist at all (YAGNI), reach for the standard library before custom code, native platform features before dependencies, one line before fifty. Supports intensity levels: lite, full (default), ultra. Use whenever the user says "ponytail", "be lazy", "lazy mode", "simplest solution", "minimal solution", "yagni", "do less", or "shortest path", and whenever they complain about over-engineering, bloat, boilerplate, or unnecessary depende
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add shobcoder/shob --skill ponytail --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From shobcoder/shob, a repository with 583 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.