Hermes Ponytail -- Setup Guide¶

Ponytail makes your Hermes agent think like the laziest senior developer. YAGNI-first. Stdlib-first. No unrequested abstractions. The shortest diff that works.

Packaged as 7 pure SKILL.md skills for Hermes Agent by tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail.

1. Prerequisites¶

Hermes Agent installed and running
Hermes skills CLI (hermes skills install)

No Python dependencies, no tools, no API keys -- these are pure skill files.

2. Installation¶

Install all 7 skills at once:

hermes skills install tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail/ponytail --yes
hermes skills install tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail/ponytail-review --yes
hermes skills install tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail/ponytail-audit --yes
hermes skills install tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail/ponytail-debt --yes
hermes skills install tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail/ponytail-gain --yes
hermes skills install tensakulabs/hermes-ponytail/ponytail-help --yes

Or install individual skills as needed.

Skills land in ~/.hermes/skills/ and are auto-discovered on the next restart.

3. Skill Reference¶

`ponytail` -- Lazy Senior Dev Mode¶

Core mindset skill. Activates YAGNI-first thinking: - No unrequested abstractions (no factories, no patterns without a problem) - Stdlib before dependencies - Shortest diff that works - Delete code before adding code - Question every dependency, every abstraction layer

Load via: skill_view(name='ponytail')

`ponytail-review` -- Diff Review¶

Review any diff for over-engineering. Output: one line per thing to delete, one line per thing to simplify.

Usage: Load before reviewing PRs or when asked to review code.

`ponytail-audit` -- Whole-Repo Audit¶

Systematic audit of the entire repo for over-engineering. Produces a ranked list of what to cut -- most impactful simplifications first.

Usage: Load when doing architectural health checks or before major refactors.

`ponytail-debt` -- Tech Debt Ledger¶

Harvests every ponytail: shortcut comment in the codebase into one tracked debt ledger. Comments like # ponytail: this abstraction is premature become tracked items.

Usage: Run periodically to maintain visibility of intentional shortcuts and planned simplifications.

`ponytail-gain` -- Impact Scoreboard¶

Measures Ponytail's impact: less code, lower costs, faster builds. Trackable metrics over time.

Usage: Load for monthly retrospectives or to demonstrate simplification ROI.

`ponytail-help` -- Quick Reference¶

One-page reference of all Ponytail modes and skills with one-liner descriptions.

4. CorpusIQ Use Cases¶

Agent skill development -- Use ponytail-review when reviewing new skill SKILL.md files before publishing
Infrastructure code -- ponytail-audit on the Mac Mini and DGX Spark automation scripts
Growth ops -- Keep automation scripts minimal; ponytail mindset prevents over-engineered workflows
Docs management -- Audit the corpusiq-docs repo structure for unnecessary complexity

5. Limitations¶

On-demand only -- Hermes skills load when triggered, unlike Claude Code/Codex hooks that run every turn. If you want Ponytail governing every Hermes turn, append the ruleset from ponytail/SKILL.md into Hermes' base system prompt or build it as a Hermes plugin (pre_llm_call hook).
No code execution -- These are pure behavioral skills. They change how the agent thinks, not what tools it has.
Not for urgent hotfixes -- Ponytail's simplification-first mindset can slow down emergency patches where speed trumps elegance. Disable or unload for critical incidents.

6. Verification¶

After installation, verify the skills are available:

hermes skills list | grep ponytail

Expected output: all 6 ponytail skills listed (ponytail, ponytail-review, ponytail-audit, ponytail-debt, ponytail-gain, ponytail-help).

7. Uninstall¶

hermes skills uninstall ponytail
hermes skills uninstall ponytail-review
hermes skills uninstall ponytail-audit
hermes skills uninstall ponytail-debt
hermes skills uninstall ponytail-gain
hermes skills uninstall ponytail-help

← Skills Catalog | Hermes Ponytail Repo →