Claude Tools / Plugins / ponytail
Audited plugin listing
ponytail
Enforces YAGNI and minimal code by scanning for over-engineering, dead code, and unnecessary dependencies.
Listing signals
Install check
✓ Pass
Risk scan
✓ Clean
Implementation
Code-backed
Assessment
Verdict
Ponytail earns its place: a well-structured minimal-code plugin with a ladder-of-minimalism prompt backed by real agentic benchmarks, not handwaved claims. The original 80-94% LOC reduction headline has been publicly retracted — the README now states a corrected 54% mean from a properly isolated Claude Code run, names the contamination bug found in their own prior numbers, and discloses the critic by name. Hooks are entirely local with no network calls. The correction is a trust signal, not a red flag: teams that find and publish their own methodology errors are exactly the kind of maintainers who belong in a curated directory.
Installation
Add to Claude Code
Evidence
Audit receipts
This listing is tied to a specific source commit and records both installation and risk checks.
Install check
✓ Pass
Has .claude-plugin/ with marketplace.json and plugin.json (v4.8.4). Hooks for SessionStart, SubagentStart, UserPromptSubmit. Node required for lifecycle hooks; skills work without it.
Risk scan
✓ Clean
Composition
What was measured
Prose lines
5,056
Code lines
6,245
Prose / code
0.81