Ponytail is a set of instructions and extensions that guides AI coding agents toward smaller, simpler code changes while retaining safety checks. It is intended for developers using agents such as Claude Code, and the catalogue entries are its skills, instructions, plugin, and rule.
Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytailWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/commands/dietrichgebert/ponytail/ponytail-debt)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/dietrichgebert/ponytail/ponytail-debt"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/dietrichgebert/ponytail/ponytail-debt/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/dietrichgebert/ponytail/ponytail-debt"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/dietrichgebert/ponytail/ponytail-debt.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00009 | $0.00213 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00004 | $0.00085 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00002 | $0.00043 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00001 | $0.00021 |
Grade A, and why
ponytail-debt scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 13d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
Copies of this mod
3 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:
- ponytail-debt — 100% identical, 4 lines differ
- ponytail-debt — 100% identical, 4 lines differ
- ponytail-debt — 92% identical, 6 lines differ
What it actually says
Harvest every shortcut: comment (and older ponytail: ones) in this repository into a debt ledger so deferrals do not rot into 'later means never'. Grep the whole tree for comment markers (git grep --no-index --exclude-standard -nE '(#|//|/[*]) ?(shortcut|ponytail):', skipping .git and everything .gitignore ignores; if the user names their own marker word, grep for that instead; skip hits that are not a deferral, like a keyboard-shortcut note). One row per marker, grouped by file: :, . ceiling: . upgrade: . Tag any marker that names no upgrade path or trigger as no-trigger, those rot silently. End with the count of markers and how many lack a trigger. If none: 'No shortcut debt. Clean ledger.' Report only, change nothing.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 13d ago Changed 349b857a8435
- 17d ago Changed · -1 tokens per session a587993c4e1a
- 22d ago Changed ca7a770fb364
- 1mo ago First seen · 6 lines · 10 tokens per session scan A ddbadb1f484a
ponytail-debt is a command published in the GitHub repository DietrichGebert/ponytail (176,199 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 9 tokens to every session and 213 once invoked, about $0.0000 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-08.
Other commands, from other repositories
octo-schedule
Manage scheduled workflow jobs for the Claude Octopus scheduler.
octo-scheduler
Manage the Claude Octopus scheduled workflow runner daemon.
specmanager-build
Build one phase of a SpecManager feature's plan via the builder subagent. Stops at the phase boundary; never advances.
next
Read the active sprint’s current status. Refresh stale compilation using grainulator compile --dir or grainulator.compile. Use the resulting nextactions with the user’s current scope and authorization. Output only the two Auto and Manual lists below, with no recap, status counters or offer to continue. Continue useful…
dispatcher
Use when you want the orchestrator to pick the next repo to work on across your whole portfolio — it enumerates candidate repos below the confinement root, resolves free/busy from each repo's session.lock lease, ranks the FREE ones by backlog priority × staleness × readiness, recommends the single most worthwhile one…
linear-bulk
Apply the same change to many Linear issues at once. Dry-run by default.