mcpField
P
ponytail-debt

ponytail-debt

github.com/dietrichgebertDevelopment179.1k45.0k installsUpdated 2w ago
Repository

About ponytail-debt

ponytail-debt is a read-only skill that collects deliberate shortcut comments from a repository into a grouped ledger. It highlights missing upgrade paths or triggers so deferred work can be tracked.

Key features

  1. 01Scan repository comment markers
  2. 02Group ledger entries by file
  3. 03Extract ceilings and upgrade paths
  4. 04Flag markers without triggers
  5. 05Read-only reporting

Use cases

  1. 01Reviewing deferred implementation work
  2. 02Finding shortcuts with no upgrade path
  3. 03Preparing a tracked technical-debt ledger

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/dietrichgebert/ponytail --skill ponytail-debt

After installing, type/ponytail-debtin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Details

From the project README

Every deliberate ponytail shortcut is marked with a shortcut: comment naming its ceiling and upgrade path (older code may say ponytail:). This collects them into one ledger so a deferral can't quietly become permanent.

Scan

Grep the repo for comment markers, skipping .git and everything the .gitignore files ignore (dependencies, build output, caches, in any stack):

git grep --no-index --exclude-standard -nE '(#|//|/[*]) ?(shortcut|ponytail):' (add other comment prefixes if your stack uses them)

If the user names their own marker word (/ponytail-debt TODO), grep for that word instead.

Each hit is one ledger row. The comment prefix keeps prose that merely mentions the convention out of the ledger. Skip hits that are not a deferral, like a note about a keyboard shortcut.

Output

One row per marker, grouped by file:

<file>:<line>, <what was simplified>. ceiling: <the limit named>. upgrade: <the trigger to revisit>.

The convention is shortcut: <ceiling>, <upgrade path>, so pull the ceiling and the trigger straight from the comment. Want an owner per row too? add git blame -L<line>,<line>.

Flag the rot risk: any marker comment that names no upgrade path or trigger gets a no-trigger tag, those are the ones that silently rot.

End with <N> markers, <M> with no trigger. Nothing found: No shortcut debt. Clean ledger.

Boundaries

Reads and reports only, changes nothing. To persist it, ask and it writes the ledger to a file (e.g. PONYTAIL-DEBT.md). One-shot.

Comments

Markdown supported