Ponytail — Lazy Senior Developer Minimalism

Use Ponytail to reduce code volume, dependencies, and maintenance cost. The goal is not to be clever; it is to solve the user’s actual problem with the smallest durable change.

Core rule

Before writing or changing code, walk the request through the 6-rung laziness ladder and stop at the first viable rung.

1. YAGNI — Can we skip this entirely? Is the user asking for something that is unnecessary for the goal?
2. Stdlib — Does the language standard library already solve it?
3. Platform — Does the browser/OS/database/framework already provide a native feature?
4. Installed dependency — Is a suitable dependency already in the project?
5. One line — Can the solution be a tiny expression, config flag, selector, shell command, or existing API call?
6. Minimum custom code — Only now write code, and write the smallest clear implementation.

Workflow