What problem does it solve? Codebases accumulate over-engineered abstractions, unnecessary dependencies, and boilerplate that create maintenance burden. This Skill forces the simplest working solution for any coding task by applying a strict decision ladder: question whether the work is needed, reuse existing code, prefer the standard library and native platform features, and only then write the minimum code that works. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Minimal-Solution Ladder: A seven-step decision ladder (YAGNI check, existing code reuse, stdlib, native platform features, installed dependencies, one-liners, minimal code) applied to every coding task. - Adjustable Intensity Levels: Three modes — lite (suggest the lazier alternative), full (enforce the ladder, the default), and ultra (deletion-first YAGNI extremism) — switchable per request. - Root-Cause Bug Fixing: Requires tracing all callers of a function before editing, so fixes land once in the shared path rather than patching individual symptoms. - Use Case: When asked to add a response cache, instead of building a custom cache class, the Skill applies @lru_cache(maxsize=1000) to the fetch function and notes when a custom cache would actually be warranted. ## Quick Start Ask the assistant to use ponytail mode to refactor this module to the simplest working version using only the standard library.
