Add Modern Web Guidance as the rung-3 lookup for web tasks (#82)

Scoped, optional reference to Modern Web Guidance so the agent can look
up native platform features on web work, filling the gap at rung 3 of
the ladder. Three additive changes, no compact-ruleset surgery:

- skills/ponytail/SKILL.md: "Web tasks: rung 3 lookup" section after the
  ladder. Runtime source only, not byte-compared, so no six-file sync.
- README.md: one "Pairs well with" line, matching the Caveman pattern.
- examples/web-platform-lookup.md: a <dialog closedby> vs Radix
  before/after in the date-picker.md style.

Lookup, not license: MWG suggests, the ladder filters. Absent CLI
changes nothing. No new INVARIANT phrase; rule-copy check stays green.

Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Liad Yosef
2026-06-19 00:26:36 +02:00
committed by GitHub
co-authored by Claude
parent b0c5820bb1
commit fe963cae99
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@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ With ponytail:
More survivors in [examples/](examples/).
> **Pairs well with** [Modern Web Guidance](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/modern-web-guidance) for web work: ponytail decides *whether* to lean on the platform, MWG is how the agent looks up *which* native feature does the job. See [examples/web-platform-lookup.md](examples/web-platform-lookup.md).
## Numbers
The honest measurement is a real agent doing real work: a headless Claude Code session editing [tiangolo's full-stack-fastapi-template](https://github.com/fastapi/full-stack-fastapi-template) (a real FastAPI + React repo), scored on the `git diff` it leaves behind. Twelve feature tickets, the same agent with and without the skill, n=4, Haiku 4.5.
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# Web Platform Lookup
**Task:** "Add a modal dialog that closes when you click the backdrop."
Rung 3 of the ladder is "native platform feature covers it?" On web work the
trap is that the agent forgets what the platform already does and reaches for a
library. When ponytail has [Modern Web Guidance](https://github.com/GoogleChrome/modern-web-guidance)
on hand, rung 3 gets a lookup: `modern-web search "modal dialog light dismiss"`.
## Without Ponytail
```bash
npm install @radix-ui/react-dialog
```
```jsx
import * as Dialog from "@radix-ui/react-dialog";
export default function Modal({ open, onOpenChange, children }) {
return (
<Dialog.Root open={open} onOpenChange={onOpenChange}>
<Dialog.Portal>
<Dialog.Overlay className="overlay" />
<Dialog.Content className="content">
{children}
<Dialog.Close className="close">×</Dialog.Close>
</Dialog.Content>
</Dialog.Portal>
</Dialog.Root>
);
}
```
A dependency, a portal, an overlay node, and controlled open state, to put a
box on top with a backdrop.
## With Ponytail
`modern-web search "modal dialog light dismiss"`
`modern-web retrieve light-dismiss-a-dialog`. The platform has it:
```html
<!-- ponytail: <dialog> + closedby, browser does the backdrop, focus trap, and Esc -->
<dialog closedby="any">
<p>...</p>
</dialog>
```
```js
document.querySelector("dialog").showModal();
```
**1 dependency + portal/overlay machinery → 0 dependencies + a `<dialog>`.**
The `::backdrop` is free, focus is trapped and restored for you, `Esc` closes
it, and `closedby="any"` adds click-outside dismissal. The browser team did the
work.
## The point
MWG suggests the cutting edge, ponytail keeps only the rung that holds. The
lookup found `light-dismiss-a-dialog`; the ladder took it because it deletes a
dependency. The same search would have offered scroll-driven animations and
view transitions for other tasks, and the ladder would have skipped them when
the task didn't need them. Lookup, not license.
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@@ -40,6 +40,16 @@ Stop at the first rung that holds:
The ladder is a reflex, not a research project. Two rungs work → take the
higher one and move on. The first lazy solution that works is the right one.
## Web tasks: rung 3 lookup
On web work, rung 3 is where the laziest win hides: a native element or CSS
behavior the agent forgot exists. If a web task turns on whether the platform
covers it (a date input, dialog, popover, view transition, container query),
and the `modern-web` CLI is available, look it up: `modern-web search "<task>"`,
then `modern-web retrieve <id>`. It is a lookup, not a license, the answer
still goes through the ladder. MWG suggests the cutting edge; you keep only the
rung that holds. Not installed? Skip it, the ladder runs fine without it.
## Rules
- No unrequested abstractions: no interface with one implementation, no factory for one product, no config for a value that never changes.