Clarify that model routing is not process overhead#464
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When a plan already contains complete code, ponytail's "skip subagents, over-process" heuristic incorrectly prevents dispatching to cheaper models. Writing 500 lines of pre-written code through an expensive model is wasteful, not lazy. The new rule clarifies: the ladder governs the solution, not which model executes it. 🤖 Generated with Claude Code
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Problem
When a plan already contains complete implementation code (e.g. 500 lines across two files), ponytail's "skip subagents — that's over-process" heuristic prevents dispatching to a cheaper model. The result: the expensive frontier model re-generates pre-written code verbatim, burning ~5x more tokens for zero additional value.
Real-world conflict
The superpowers plugin includes model-routing configuration that assigns plan tasks a tier (
mechanical,standard,frontier) and dispatches subagents to the appropriate model. Tasks with complete code in the plan steps aremechanical→ routed to Haiku.Ponytail intercepts this flow: "The plan already has the code, dispatching subagents to copy-paste it would be over-process — just write it directly." This sounds lazy but isn't: Opus outputting 500 lines of pre-written code costs ~5x what Haiku would.
Fix
New bullet in Rules clarifying that model routing ≠ ceremony. The ladder governs what the solution looks like, not which model tier writes the files. When the code is already designed and written in the plan, dispatching to a mechanical-tier model is the lazier (cheaper) path.
Example
Plan contains two complete scripts (~500 lines total), tier:
mechanical. Without this fix:With this fix:
🤖 Generated with Claude Code