---
name: Ponytail Gain
slug: ponytail-gain
category: Data
description: "Ponytail Gain displays a compact scoreboard of ponytail's measured impact: less code, less cost, more speed, using benchmark medians from five tasks and three models. Use /ponytail-gain to see savings and link to per-repo debt and audit commands."
github: "https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/tree/main/skills/ponytail-gain"
language: JavaScript
stars: 101673
forks: 5587
install: "npx degit https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/tree/main/skills/ponytail-gain ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-gain"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/ponytail-gain
source_path: skills/ponytail-gain/SKILL.md
collection_size: 13
category_size: 668
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/DietrichGebert/ponytail"
added: 2026-08-13T07:35:44.467Z
last_synced: 2026-08-13T07:35:44.467Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/ponytail-gain"
---

# Ponytail Gain

Ponytail Gain displays a compact scoreboard of ponytail's measured impact: less code, less cost, more speed, using benchmark medians from five tasks and three models. Use /ponytail-gain to see savings and link to per-repo debt and audit commands.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail/tree/main/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.