ponytail SKILL.md skillA

ponytail from tanstack/ai is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.

mdr add tanstack/ai/ponytail@git:20260820.9ac4a38

Pins git:20260820.9ac4a38 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.

Audit grade

A, 17 of 17 checks passed

Kind

SKILL.md skill

Repository

tanstack/ai

Path

.grok/skills/ponytail/SKILL.md

Versions recorded

1

Latest version

git:20260820.9ac4a38, committed Aug 20, 2026

Size

5,514 bytes

Repository stars

3,325

License

MIT

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…

Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.

What the file says

# 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.
…

Read the whole file at its exact version.

How to install

mdr add tanstack/ai/ponytail@sha256:f59aeb1c1fbc9af7

[![mdr](https://markdownregistry.com/badge/art_kk4stpsmnwan7yts.svg)](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_kk4stpsmnwan7yts)

Versions

The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Aug 20, 2026.

Audit of the latest version

Source

API

GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_kk4stpsmnwan7yts
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=tanstack/ai/ponytail
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/f59aeb1c1fbc9af71afec2e92c3200d4b6e69ffd134e69bf9c690c1330d823d4

Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.

Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.

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