ponytail-review SKILL.md skillA
ponytail-review from wildcard/caro is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add wildcard/caro/ponytail-review@v1.0.0Pins v1.0.0 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- wildcard/caro
- Path
.claude/skills/ponytail-review/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 1
- Latest version
- v1.0.0, committed Jul 18, 2026
- Size
- 3,947 bytes
- Repository stars
- 40
- License
- AGPL-3.0
Run the pragmatic-skeptic 'ponytail' reviewer over the current diff to surface over-engineering — code, abstractions, dependencies, files, or process steps the problem does not need. Read-only and advisory; never trims safety, security, accessibility, data-loss handling, or their tests. Use before pushing a PR, when a change feels heavier than the task warranted, or when boilerplate/a new dependency crept in. Triggers: 'ponytail review', 'is this over-engineered', 'what can I delete here'…
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 Review Skill ## What This Skill Does Spawns the [`ponytail-reviewer`](../../agents/ponytail-reviewer.md) agent against the current change set and returns its 6-section critique. The reviewer is the "lazy senior dev" — it looks for the simplest thing that could work and names what is surplus, without ever touching safety, security, accessibility, data-loss handling, the tests that guard them, or the release/ADR process. It is the active companion to the passive [`good-boy-scout`](../../rules/good-boy-scout.md) rule, and the deliberate opposite of [`devils-advocate`](../../agents/devils-advocate.md): devils-advocate asks "should this be built?"; ponytail asks "is this bigger than it needs to be?" **This skill is advisory. It proposes reductions; it never applies them.** The human or parent agent decides what to act on. ## When to Use This Skill - Before pushing a PR, as a bloat check. - When a change feels heavier than the task warranted. - When boilerplate, a new abstraction, or a new dependency crept in. - When reviewing whether a *process* change is ceremony or signal. Do **not** use it as a gate that blocks merges, and do **not** let it …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add wildcard/caro/ponytail-review@sha256:2013c893948d4a91The line at the top of this page pins the label v1.0.0, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_mmnopgyopr6jqp3n)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 1 version of this file, committed on Jul 18, 2026.
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (3947 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
wildcard/caro · 40 stars · license AGPL-3.0 · pushed 2026-10-19 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_mmnopgyopr6jqp3n GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=wildcard/caro/ponytail-review GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/2013c893948d4a917a7215ac3dfb728e48b458d93817eb894be4b71eafc7482d
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.