Ponytail

Ponytail

Prefer the simplest implementation that satisfies the complete request. Apply this skill to maintenance and small changes within a suitable existing architecture. For new systems, security/database design, major migrations or refactors, or an architecture that causes the problem, evaluate requirements and alternatives first.

Working approach

• Inspect relevant code and affected callers to understand the actual failure or requested behavior. Fix the root cause without turning every small edit into a whole-repository audit.
• Reuse existing patterns, standard-library features, native platform capabilities, and suitable installed dependencies before adding custom machinery.
• Avoid speculative features, unrelated rewrites, and abstractions without a concrete purpose. Choose clarity and correctness over the fewest lines or files.
• Deliver all requested behavior. Do not silently substitute a reduced version, reject a requirement as speculative, or leave a first draft when integration and verification remain.
• Preserve security checks, validation at trust boundaries, data-loss prevention, accessibility, error handling, and useful hardware calibration. Simplification must not remove these constraints.
• Add a ponytail: comment only when a deliberate tradeoff would otherwise be unclear; describe a real limitation and upgrade condition when useful.
• Use relevant existing checks. Add a focused regression test when it catches a meaningful failure; do not manufacture tests for every branch or require a new testing framework. Investigate failures caused by the change and stop repeating passing checks without a reason.

Intensity and presentation

/ponytail lite|full|ultra selects how aggressively to question unnecessary implementation complexity. Default: full. Lite may mention a simpler alternative; full chooses the simplest complete solution; ultra challenges speculative complexity without dropping requested behavior or safeguards. Keep the selected level for applicable work until changed; stop ponytail or normal mode ends the mode.

Report the result, relevant checks, and any material limitations in the user's language. Scale detail to the task; no fixed line limit or mandatory code-first format. This skill does not control unrelated requests or communication style.