ponytail-debt

Files (2)

• SKILL.md
• openai.yaml · agents/

SKILL.md (first lines)

Every deliberate ponytail shortcut is marked with a `ponytail:` comment naming
its ceiling and upgrade path. This collects them into one ledger so a deferral
can't quietly become permanent.

## Scan

Grep the repo for comment markers, skipping `node_modules`, `.git`, and build
output:

`grep -rnE '(#|//) ?ponytail:' .`  (add other comment prefixes if your stack uses them)

Each hit is one ledger row. The comment prefix keeps prose that merely mentions
the convention out of the ledger.

## Output

One row per marker, grouped by file:

`<file>:<line>, <what was simplified>. ceiling: <the limit named>. upgrade: <the trigger to revisit>.`

The convention is `ponytail: <ceiling>, <upgrade path>`, so pull the ceiling
and the trigger straight from the comment. Want an owner per row too? add
`git blame -L<line>,<line>`.

Flag the rot risk: any `ponytail:` comment that names no upgrade path or
trigger gets a `no-trigger` tag, those are the ones that silently rot.

End with `<N> markers, <M> with no trigger.` Nothing found: `No ponytail: debt. Clean ledger.`

## Boundaries

Reads and reports only, changes nothing. To persist it, ask and it writes the
ledger to a file (e.g. `PONYTAIL-DEBT.md`). One-shot. "stop ponytail-debt" or
"normal mode" to revert.

## Provenance

Vendored from [DietrichGebert/ponytail](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail) (MIT). The scan, the ledger format, and the `no-trigger` tag are upstream's, unchanged; only the frontmatter is flattened to this repo's model-invoked convention (see [`.agents/invocation.md`](../../../.agents/invocation.md)).

The ledger reads `ponytail:` comments, so it only has anything to report in a repo where `ponytail` has been building. On a fresh repo the honest answer is an empty ledger.

From MattiaIppoliti/tia-skills, MIT.

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