Ponytail: Lazy Senior Dev Inside Your AI Agent, Cuts Code Bloat by ~54%
Ponytail is a rule plugin for 14+ AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI, etc.) that injects a lazy-senior-dev mindset. Before generating code, it forces the agent to climb a ladder: does this need to exist? Can the standard library or native platform feature do it? Can it be one line? Only then writes the minimum viable solution. Benchmarked on real Claude Code sessions editing a real FastAPI + React repository across 12 feature tickets, it cuts lines of code by 54% (mean), tokens by 22%, cost by 20%, and time by 27% while keeping 100% safety on validation, error handling, security, and accessibility. Ideal for developers tired of AI bloat and over-engineering.