Measured September 3, 2026 — three runs per arm
Claude Code + Opus 5: with vs. without Ponytail
Does a minimalism add-on reduce implementation size without reducing task success?
Held constant
- Recipe commit 864230d8099302b48c074e4b5cebcba4c5caa79e
- Same prompt and fixture hashes
- Claude Code 2.1.259 with claude-opus-5 at high effort
- Same $1 list-cost cap, tools, permissions, container, verifier, and artifact rubric
- Three fresh runs per arm
Only changed variable
Ponytail 4.8.4 in full mode was mounted for one arm only.
Measures
- Acceptance-test success
- Regressions
- Human intervention
- Elapsed time
- Usage cost
- Lines and dependencies added
Measured result
Both arms passed 3/3 and every label-blind artifact scored 10/10. Ponytail lowered median elapsed time and reported list cost on this tiny task; it did not reduce median implementation size.
| Median, n=3 per arm | Claude Code only | + Ponytail 4.8.4 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task success | 3/3 | 3/3 | none |
| Artifact score | 10/10 | 10/10 | none |
| Elapsed time | 38.425 s | 27.231 s | -29.1% |
| Turns | 9 | 6 | -33.3% |
| Output tokens | 2,698 | 1,844 | -31.7% |
| Reported list cost | $0.2686005 | $0.191269 | -28.8% |
| Implementation lines | 7 | 7 | none |
The account used a subscription; dollar amounts are Claude Code list estimates. One tiny task cannot establish a universal winner.
Inspect the protocol and exact artifacts ↗