Hook error on missing Node (macOS native Claude install)

[gajicm93]

REGRESSED duplicate of: #51

Every session reports (ponytail 4.9.0):

UserPromptSubmit hook error
Failed with non-blocking status code: /bin/sh: node: command not found

Claude Doctor analysis:

Your hook error: answered first

It's the ponytail plugin, and it's a missing prerequisite rather than a code bug.

Ponytail registers three hooks (scripts Claude Code runs automatically on events) in ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/ponytail/hooks/claude-codex-hooks.json, and all three invoke node:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│                    Event                    │          Script          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ SessionStart (startup/resume/clear/compact) │ ponytail-activate.js     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ SubagentStart                               │ ponytail-subagent.js     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ UserPromptSubmit                            │ ponytail-mode-tracker.js │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

Node.js isn't installed on this Mac — which node finds nothing, in this shell and in a login shell. So every one of those fails. Your transcripts show 22 failed hook runs in the last 33 days: 10 on UserPromptSubmit (that one fires on every prompt), 7 on SubagentStart, 5 on SessionStart. You only notice the SessionStart one because it's the loudest.

The other installed plugin, superpowers, ships a run-hook.cmd wrapper instead of calling node directly — that's why it works and ponytail doesn't. The failures are non-blocking, so nothing breaks; ponytail's mode tracking just never activates. Fix is either: install Node, or remove ponytail. More on which I'd pick below.