dgebertandClaude Fable 5
9c99843725
Six no-skill control arms re-run through the same harness so all three arms share one model. README Numbers section and chart now cite the complete dataset: -47% tokens, 3x faster, 490 vs 3,629 LOC, extension 96 vs 1,115 lines, probes green everywhere. Em dashes removed. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
87 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
<p align="center">
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<img src="assets/logo.png" width="220" alt="Ponytail, the lazy senior dev">
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</p>
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<h1 align="center">Ponytail</h1>
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<p align="center">
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<em>He says nothing. He writes one line. It works.</em>
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</p>
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---
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You know him. Long ponytail. Oval glasses. Has been at the company longer than the version control. You show him fifty lines; he looks at them, says nothing, and replaces them with one.
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Ponytail puts him inside your AI agent.
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## Before / after
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You ask for a date picker. Your agent installs flatpickr, writes a wrapper component, adds a stylesheet, and starts a discussion about timezones.
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With ponytail:
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```html
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<!-- ponytail: browser has one -->
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<input type="date">
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```
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More survivors in [examples/](examples/).
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## How it works
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Before writing code, the agent stops at the first rung that holds:
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```
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1. Does this need to exist? → no: skip it (YAGNI)
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2. Stdlib does it? → use it
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3. Native platform feature? → use it
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4. Installed dependency? → use it
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5. One line? → one line
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6. Only then: the minimum that works
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```
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Lazy, not negligent: trust-boundary validation, data-loss handling, security, and accessibility are never on the chopping block.
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## Install
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The most effort ponytail will ever ask of you:
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```
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/plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail
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/plugin install ponytail@ponytail
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```
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That was it. He'd be proud. He won't say it.
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Active every session. `/ponytail-review` finds what to delete in your diff. `/ponytail ultra` exists for when the codebase has wronged you personally. `/ponytail-help` explains the rest.
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Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, Aider: copy the matching rules file from this repo ([`.cursor/rules/`](.cursor/rules/), [`.windsurf/rules/`](.windsurf/rules/), [`.clinerules/`](.clinerules/), [`.github/copilot-instructions.md`](.github/copilot-instructions.md), [`AGENTS.md`](AGENTS.md)).
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## FAQ
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**Does it need a config file?**
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No.
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**What if I really need the 120-line cache class?**
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You don't. Insist anyway and he'll build it. Slowly. Correctly. While looking at you.
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**Does it scale?**
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The code you never wrote scales infinitely. Zero bugs, zero CVEs, 100% uptime since forever.
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**Why "ponytail"?**
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You know exactly why.
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## Numbers
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Six tasks: streaming log parser, atomic file sync, notification dispatcher, validation engine, auth module, concurrent money ledger. One spec each, one fresh agent per arm, same model. Three arms: no skill, the [caveman](https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman) skill, and ponytail. Every arm passes the same adversarial security and concurrency probes. Then the agreement ends:
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<p align="center">
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<img src="assets/benchmark-loc.svg" width="860" alt="Lines of code per task: ponytail 490 total vs caveman 1,440 vs no-skill control 3,629, all passing the same adversarial probes">
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</p>
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**47% fewer tokens than the no-skill agent. 3× faster. A seventh of the code.** The 3,139 lines nobody wrote have never caused an incident. When a surprise feature request hit two of the tasks, ponytail extended in 96 changed lines; caveman needed 413, the no-skill agent 1,115. Every shortcut ponytail took is marked in the code with a `ponytail:` comment naming its upgrade path. Data: [benchmarks/](benchmarks/).
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## License
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[MIT](LICENSE). The shortest license that works.
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