---
name: Ponytail Gain
slug: ponytail-gain-2
category: Data
description: Ponytail Gain displays a plain ASCII scoreboard showing measured benchmark medians for lines of code, cost, and speed across five everyday tasks and three models. Use it to see the impact of the ponytail approach without editing files or changing modes.
github: "https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/tree/main/.openclaw/skills/ponytail-gain"
language: JavaScript
stars: 101674
forks: 5587
install: "npx degit https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/tree/main/.openclaw/skills/ponytail-gain ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-gain"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-gain
source_path: .openclaw/skills/ponytail-gain/SKILL.md
collection_size: 13
category_size: 668
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/DietrichGebert/ponytail"
added: 2026-08-13T07:35:45.763Z
last_synced: 2026-08-13T07:35:45.763Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/ponytail-gain-2"
---

# Ponytail Gain

Ponytail Gain displays a plain ASCII scoreboard showing measured benchmark medians for lines of code, cost, and speed across five everyday tasks and three models. Use it to see the impact of the ponytail approach without editing files or changing modes.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/tree/main/.openclaw/skills/ponytail-gain ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-gain
```

## README

# Ponytail Gain

Display this scoreboard when invoked. One-shot: do NOT change mode, write flag
files, or persist anything.

The figures are the published benchmark medians (5 everyday tasks: email
validator, debounce, CSV sum, countdown timer, rate limiter; three models:
Haiku, Sonnet, Opus). They are measured, not computed from the current repo.
Source: `benchmarks/` and the README.

## Scoreboard

Render plain ASCII bars. The bar length shows the measured range; the label
carries the exact figure:

```
  ponytail gain                     benchmark median · 5 tasks · 3 models

  Lines of code   no-skill  ████████████████████  100%
                  ponytail  ██▌·················    6–20%   ▼ 80–94%
  Cost            no-skill  ████████████████████  100%
                  ponytail  █████▌··············   23–53%  ▼ 47–77%
  Speed           ponytail  ▸ 3–6× faster

  This repo:  /ponytail-debt  (shortcuts you deferred)
              /ponytail-audit (what's still cuttable)
```

## Honesty boundary

These are benchmark medians, not this repo. NEVER print a per-repo savings
number ("you saved X lines/tokens here"): the unbuilt version was never
written, so there is no real baseline to subtract from in a live repo. The
only real per-repo figures come from `/ponytail-debt` (a counted ledger), and
this card points there instead of inventing one.

## Boundaries

One-shot display. Edits nothing, changes no mode.
"stop ponytail" or "normal mode": revert.