Agent skill · software engineering · dietrichgebert
ponytail-audit
Whole-repo audit for over-engineering. Like ponytail-review, but scans the entire codebase instead of a diff: a ranked list of what to delete, simplify, or replace with stdlib/native equivalents. Use when the user says "audit this codebase", "audit for over-engineering", "what can I delete from this repo", "find bloat", "ponytail-audit", or "/ponytail-audit". One-shot report, does not apply fixes.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a specialized tool for auditing codebases for over-engineering, identifying specific areas for simplification and replacement.
What it needs
Requires ponytail installed locally. About 1k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-15. 97,533 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
ponytail-review, repo-wide. Scan the whole tree instead of a diff. Rank findings biggest cut first. Tags Same as ponytail-review: delete: dead code, unused flexibility, speculative feature. Replacement: nothing. stdlib: hand-rolled thing the standard library ships. Name the function. native: dependency or code doing what the platform already does. Name the feature. yagni: abstraction with one implementation, config nobody sets, layer with one caller. shrink: same logic, fewer lines. Show the shorter form. Hunt Deps the stdlib or platform already ships, single-implementation interfaces, factories with one product, wrappers that only delegate, files exporting one thing, dead flags and config, hand-rolled stdlib. Output One line per finding, ranked: <tag> <what to cut>. <replacement>. [path]. End with net: -<N> lines, -<M> deps possible. Nothing to cut: Lean already. Ship. Boundaries Scope: over-engineering and complexity only. Correctness bugs, security holes, and performance are explicitly out of scope. Route them to a normal review pass. Lists findings, applies nothing. One-shot. "stop ponytail-audit" or "normal mode" to revert.
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills dietrichgebert/ponytail-audit--1a42a7