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Skill/Coding/Adapted Open Source

Ponytail

Senior developer minimalism prioritizing standard libraries and YAGNI.

What It Does

Enforces a deletion first engineering checklist before writing code, rejecting premature abstractions and tracking deferred decisions with explicit comments.

Origin and Adaptation Notes

Long agent sessions waste context and introduce fragility by inventing unnecessary helper classes. Preferring native platform features minimizes maintenance debt.

Attribution: Adapted from DietrichGebert's open source ponytail project. Distributed under the MIT License.

When to Activate

  • •Any software engineering task where minimal diffs and simplicity are valued
  • •Auditing repositories for speculative code and unused dependencies
  • •Keeping agent sessions focused on functional requirements

When to Avoid

  • •Initial architectural brainstorming where broad exploration is needed

Skill Specification and Runtime Setup

Full Instruction Specification
# Ponytail Specification

## Overview
Enforces a deletion first engineering checklist before writing code, rejecting premature abstractions and tracking deferred decisions with explicit comments.

## Rationale
Long agent sessions waste context and introduce fragility by inventing unnecessary helper classes. Preferring native platform features minimizes maintenance debt.

## Core Principles
* Always verify environment constraints and dependencies before executing.
* Enforce negative constraints and reject speculative abstractions.
* Validate output against stated acceptance rubrics.

## Execution Workflow
1. Discovery: Map requirements and inspect active context.
2. Decomposition: Break down the task into discrete, verifiable phases.
3. Execution: Implement surgical changes preserving existing code architecture.
4. Verification: Test all criteria before declaring completion.

Related Skills in Coding