Ponytail for Grok Bot
Ponytail is lazy senior dev mode for coding agents. The agent solves the whole task with the least new code: no feature nobody asked for, the standard library before a new dependency, one clear line over fifty. Every reply ends with what was skipped and any risk you should know about.
This repo packages Ponytail as a skills-only plugin for Grok Bot and the Cursor plugin format.
Credit
Ponytail is created by DietrichGebert. The original project, docs, examples and benchmarks live at DietrichGebert/ponytail.
This is an independent repackaging by Ty Barho under the MIT license. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream author. The skill text is adapted from upstream with minimal edits; report packaging issues here, and send ideas about Ponytail itself upstream.
Skills
| Skill | Use it for |
|---|---|
ponytail | Lazy mode itself. Levels: lite, full (default), ultra. Say "stop ponytail" to turn it off. |
ponytail-review | Review a change (uncommitted work, a commit, a branch or a PR): bugs, security, load, missing tests, speed, what to cut. |
ponytail-audit | The same review for a whole repo or folder, ranked. Report only, changes nothing. |
ponytail-debt | Collect every shortcut: comment into a debt ledger and flag the ones with no upgrade trigger. |
ponytail-gain | Show the upstream benchmark scoreboard. Benchmark averages, never per-repo claims. |
ponytail-help | Quick reference card for levels and skills. |
Install
From the plugin catalog: once Ponytail is listed, install it from the Grok Bot plugin catalog like any other plugin.
Until then: give your bot this repo URL and ask it to add the skills:
Add the skills from https://github.com/tbarho/ponytail to yourself.
The plugin manifest is at .cursor-plugin/plugin.json, with an Agent Plugins
manifest at plugin.json for hosts that read the open standard.
Try it
In any repo, ask:
/ponytail Add a helper that removes duplicates from a list but keeps the original order.
What good looks like: the agent reuses an existing helper if the repo has
one, otherwise writes about one line with the standard library (in Python,
list(dict.fromkeys(items))), adds one small test or assert, and ends with a
line or two on what it skipped and any risk. No new dependency, no options
nobody asked for.
Then run /ponytail-review on that change to see the review format.
Included and excluded
| Upstream piece | In this package | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Skills: ponytail, review, audit, debt, gain, help | Included | The core of Ponytail. Text adapted with minimal edits. |
| MIT license | Included | Upstream copyright kept, packaging line added. |
| Logo | Included | Upstream logo, resized to 512x512. |
| Hooks (session start activation, mode tracker, statusline, band) | Excluded | They depend on a PONYTAIL_DIR path placeholder filled in by upstream's installer, so they break when loaded as a plugin. The band hooks can also post session metrics to a webhook. Skills-only keeps the plugin free of scripts and network calls. |
Always-on rule (.cursor/rules/ponytail.mdc) | Excluded | It would force Ponytail on in every conversation, not just coding work. Turn it on with /ponytail instead. |
| Commands, other agent manifests, benchmarks, tests | Excluded | Skills cover the commands. The rest is upstream tooling for other hosts. |
Because hooks are excluded, there is no automatic activation, no saved default level and no status band. The help skill was edited to say so, and the gain skill links to the upstream benchmark report instead of a local file.
License
MIT. See LICENSE.