How to turn on the Ponytail band to show task cost and tokens above the Claude Code prompt

Ponytail is an open-source plugin that makes a coding agent look for existing code and built-in features before it writes new code. Since version 5.3, released October 16, it puts a "band" above the Claude Code prompt showing what the current task has cost, its tokens and agent time, how often it reused existing code, and whether the tests passed after the last change.

1. In Claude Code, add the marketplace and install the plugin. Enter the two lines separately.

/plugin marketplace add DietrichGebert/ponytail

/plugin install ponytail@ponytail

1. Use the band's buttons to switch the level or run /ponytail-review or /ponytail-audit. Other buttons copy the task as Markdown or fold the band into one line. Board opens a local page with every task across your projects.

2. To add your past Claude Code sessions to the board, run this once (5.3.2 or later). Each session comes in with its cost, agent time and tokens.

/ponytail band import

1. To hide the band, run the command below; run it again to bring the band back. To turn the ruleset itself off, use /ponytail off.

/ponytail band

The band needs Claude Code 2.1.290 or later and shows only in the terminal and the desktop app, not in the VS Code chat panel, cloud sessions or claude -p. By default its data stays on your machine in ~/.config/ponytail/band/. The author says to install only from DietrichGebert/ponytail on GitHub or @dietrichgebert/ponytail on npm; a copy that ships .exe or .dll files is not genuine.