Teach your coding agent to write less code, like a senior dev
Made by DietrichGebert
View profile on GitHub (opens in a new tab)Ponytail is a plug-in skill that teaches AI coding assistants to write less code: the agent learns to prefer the shortest change that works — the project frames it as thinking "like the laziest senior dev in the room." The creator measured it on real Claude Code sessions across twelve feature tasks and reports about 54% less code on average (up to 94% where the agent would otherwise over-build, as with a date picker), roughly 20% lower cost and 27% faster runs, with every safety guard kept.
It installs into some twenty supported agents and editors. Benchmarks are published with a full writeup so others can reproduce them.
Can I use this?
You'll need An AI coding assistant it plugs into, such as Claude Code or Cursor
Worth knowing The savings are the creator’s measured averages on their own benchmark tasks — your mileage will vary, and the project notes savings are near zero where the code is already minimal. BuildTube has not run or verified this software.
Why it's here
- 7,948 people starred it on GitHub this week — 155,602 in total.
Numbers from the snapshot taken 5 October 2026; not refreshed since.
Behind it
See the code on GitHubBuildTube has not run or verified this project. Everything above is written from what the creator published.
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