Minimalism reference — counter generation-time bloat

Autonomous agents over-produce: needless abstractions, new dependencies where the standard library would do, duplicated logic, boilerplate. Reviewing that bloat is exactly the human cost the-loop exists to reduce. This is advisory guidance that informs generation (minimalism.enabled / minimalism.intensity); it does not gate a merge.

When it applies

Apply the ladder at the two cheapest points:

1. Design time — the cheapest place to remove code is before it exists (a dependency never added needs no review). Reflect the outcome in design.md.
2. Implementation self-review — re-check the diff against the ladder before opening the PR.

The decision ladder

For any new capability, prefer the earliest rung that works:

1. YAGNI — does this need to exist at all? Delete the requirement if not.
2. Standard library — can the language's stdlib do it?
3. Native platform feature — a built-in of the runtime/framework already present.
4. An already-present dependency — reuse what the project already pulls in.
5. A small inline solution — a few lines local to the call site.
6. Only then a new abstraction or a new dependency.

Every new dependency must be justified in design.md (what rung 1–5 could not do it).

Guardrail — minimalism never removes necessary code

This is about removing gratuitous code, never necessary code. Do not trade away input validation, error handling, security, or accessibility in the name of fewer lines. Correctness and safety win over brevity every time.

intensity tunes how aggressively the ladder is applied (low / standard / high); enabled: false turns the pass off entirely.

Also a token lever

Not generating gratuitous code is also a token-economy lever (issue-37): code never written is tokens never emitted and never resent on later turns and never reviewed. The ladder is the generation-side rung of reference/token-economy.md; the same guardrail binds both — minimalism/token economy never remove necessary code or rigor. This ladder is ponytail's "lazy senior developer" ladder expressed natively; ponytail is registered in config.externalTools for operators who prefer the packaged skill.