LLM-Server/docs/research/ponytail-audit-2026-09-09.md

Ponytail audit — repo-wide over-engineering scan, 2026-09-09

Whole-tree audit (ponytail-audit skill), not a diff review. The only real code in this repo is scripts/update.sh (253L) and scripts/switch-model.sh (50L), plus docker-compose.yml and .env.example; the rest is docs. switch-model.sh and the compose comments (ROCm GID workarounds, GPU_MAX_HW_QUEUES rationale, lazytainer label placement) are load-bearing and lean — left alone. Scope: over-engineering and complexity only; correctness/security/performance out of scope. Findings ranked biggest cut first. One-shot report — nothing was applied.

Findings

1. delete: the downloader-fast line — it references a service removed in 5d6a17f ("feat: remove llama-server-fast") and no longer exists in docker-compose.yml. Under set -euo pipefail, docker compose run downloader-fast errors on the unknown service and aborts every update.sh run right after config sync, before omniroute comes up. Dead code that also breaks the mandatory deploy flow. Remove the line. [scripts/update.sh:235]

2. delete: the entire gum path — ensure_gum() (~27L, L59–85), the GUM_VERSION/GUM_DIR/GUM_BIN vars (L56–58), the vendored scripts/vendor/gum_0.14.5_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz (4.4MB checked into git), the download fallback, and the if [ -n "$gum_bin" ] branch (L123, L127–130). The plain-bash fallback (L131–148) already makes the identical decision (which keys take the new value) whenever gum is absent; the gum TUI is a speculative nicer prompt on top of a working path. ~4.4MB in git + arch detection + a .cache/gum layer, all to prettify a rare interactive conflict. Replacement: nothing — always use the plain-bash one-screen prompt. [scripts/update.sh, scripts/vendor/]

3. delete: stale llama-server-fast / fastModel references — the fast model was removed but the docs still describe a two-model Qwen Code setup. .env.example:98 comment still lists it; docs/coding-cli-setup/index.md:32 says "2 models: chat + fastModel"; and docs/coding-cli-setup/qwen-code.md carries a whole fast-model section (11 refs: the fastModel config block, LLAMA_FAST_CTX_SIZE notes, Qwen3-4B). Rewrite to single-model. [docs/coding-cli-setup/ qwen-code.md, index.md, .env.example:98]

4. shrink: the 3× repeated test -f … || curl … blocks in downloader-comfyui (YAML L85–99, ~15 lines) → a for loop over the 3 model files (~5 lines). Low confidence: the env var names are non-uniform (COMFYUI_DIFFUSION_MODEL_FILE / TEXT_ENCODER_FILE / VAE_FILE), so the loop needs a small case — marginal win, and it matches the house "one-off downloader" style. [docker-compose.yml]

5. yagni: (verify-first) qdrant + neo4j run with no consumer in the stack yet — added ahead of the RAG app via the feat-rag-databases merge; nothing writes to them. Two always-on DBs for a feature that isn't wired. Confirm the RAG consumer is still on the roadmap before keeping both; the compose comment already concedes neo4j "can absorb qdrant's job later." Low confidence — deliberate tracked decision, and cheap to leave running. [docker-compose.yml]

Net

net: -45 lines script/compose (+~15 stale doc lines), -1 dep (gum, 4.4MB vendored binary) possible.

No out-of-scope (correctness/security/performance) findings. #1 is the one to fix first — it's not just bloat, it's the deploy script halting on every run.