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Ponytail Debt Ledger

Collects shortcut comment markers in a repo into one report of deferred work

Source Download skill
Repository
DietrichGebert/ponytail
Stars
182,496
Licence
MIT
Files
1 file

What it does

When you ask, the agent searches your project's source files for special comments that mark deliberate shortcuts, such as 'shortcut:' notes naming a limit and the trigger for revisiting it. It then produces a single list of these deferrals, one row per marker, and flags any that have no clear upgrade trigger so they don't quietly become permanent. It reads and reports only; it changes nothing unless you ask it to save the list to a file.

Great for

  • Developers maintaining a codebase that uses shortcut or ponytail comment conventions
  • Teams doing periodic cleanup of technical debt
  • Anyone who wants a quick audit of deferred work before a release

Skip it if

  • Projects that do not use the shortcut: or ponytail: comment convention; the scan will return little or nothing useful unless you name a different marker word
  • Non-code projects, since the scan depends on source-code comment syntax

Try asking

  • “Run the ponytail-debt skill on this repo and list every shortcut marker”
  • “Scan for TODO markers instead of shortcut markers and group them by file”
  • “Show me which shortcut comments have no upgrade trigger”
Step-by-step guide: how to use Ponytail Debt LedgerInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs

Install in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Download the skill

    The ZIP contains the 1 original files, the MIT licence and an attribution note.

    ponytail-debt.zip
  2. 2

    Add it to your agent

    Claude Code (all projects)

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip ponytail-debt.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/

    Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)

    mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip ponytail-debt.zip -d .claude/skills/

    Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.

  3. 3

    Ask for the task

    No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.

Get better results

  • Run it from the repository root so the git grep scan covers the whole project
  • Add the comment conventions your stack uses, since the default pattern covers only # // and block comment prefixes
  • Ask the agent to save the result to PONYTAIL-DEBT.md if you want a persistent record

What's inside

  • SKILL.md

Redistributed unmodified from DietrichGebert/ponytail under the MIT licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.