superpowers README

The project's README from github.com/obra/superpowers. As one markdown file: README.md.

Superpowers

Superpowers is a complete software development methodology for your coding agents, built on top of a set of composable skills and some initial instructions that make sure your agent uses them.

Table of Contents

How it works

It starts from the moment you fire up your coding agent. As soon as it sees that you're building something, it doesn't just jump into trying to write code. Instead, it steps back and asks you what you're really trying to do.

Once it's teased a spec out of the conversation, it shows it to you in chunks short enough to actually read and digest.

After you've signed off on the design, your agent puts together an implementation plan that's clear enough for an enthusiastic junior engineer with poor taste, no judgement, no project context, and an aversion to testing to follow. It emphasizes true red/green TDD, YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It), and DRY.

Next up, once you say "go", it launches a subagent-driven-development process, having agents work through each engineering task, inspecting and reviewing their work, and continuing forward. It's not uncommon for your agent to work autonomously for a couple hours at a time without deviating from the plan you put together.

There's a bunch more to it, but that's the core of the system. And because the skills trigger automatically, you don't need to do anything special. Your coding agent just has Superpowers.

Commercial Services

If you're using Superpowers in enterprise and could benefit from commercial support, additional tooling, or managed spending, please don't hesitate to drop us a line at [email protected].

Installation

Installation differs by harness. If you use more than one, install Superpowers separately for each one.

Claude Code

Superpowers is available via the official Claude plugin marketplace

Official Marketplace

Superpowers Marketplace

The Superpowers marketplace provides Superpowers and some other related plugins for Claude Code.

Antigravity

Install Superpowers as a plugin from this repository:

agy plugin install https://github.com/obra/superpowers

Antigravity runs the plugin's session-start hook, so Superpowers is active from the first message. Reinstall with the same command to update.

Codex App

Superpowers is available via the official Codex plugin marketplace.

Codex CLI

Superpowers is available via the official Codex plugin marketplace.

Cursor

Devin CLI

Factory Droid

Gemini CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI

Grok Build CLI

Superpowers is available via the official Grok plugin marketplace.

Kimi Code

Superpowers is available in Kimi Code's plugin marketplace.

OpenCode

OpenCode uses its own plugin install; install Superpowers separately even if you already use it in another harness.

Pi

Install Superpowers as a Pi package from this repository:

pi install git:github.com/obra/superpowers

For local development, run Pi with this checkout loaded as a temporary package:

pi -e /path/to/superpowers

The Pi package loads the Superpowers skills and a small extension that injects the using-superpowers bootstrap at session startup and again after compaction. Pi has native skills, so no compatibility Skill tool is required. Subagent and task-list tools remain optional Pi companion packages.

Hermes Agent

Install Superpowers as a Hermes plugin from this repository:

hermes plugins install obra/superpowers --enable

Restart any active Hermes sessions after installing. Note: Hermes has no post-compaction hook, so a very long session that compacts over its first turn loses the bootstrap — start a fresh session if skills stop triggering.

The Basic Workflow

  1. brainstorming - Activates before writing code. Refines rough ideas through questions, explores alternatives, presents design in sections for validation. Saves design document.

  2. using-git-worktrees - Activates after design approval. Creates isolated workspace on new branch, runs project setup, verifies clean test baseline.

  3. writing-plans - Activates with approved design. Breaks work into bite-sized tasks (2-5 minutes each). Every task has exact file paths, complete code, verification steps.

  4. subagent-driven-development or executing-plans - Activates with plan. Dispatches fresh subagent per task with two-stage review (spec compliance, then code quality), or executes in batches with human checkpoints.

  5. test-driven-development - Activates during implementation. Enforces RED-GREEN-REFACTOR: write failing test, watch it fail, write minimal code, watch it pass, commit. Deletes code written before tests.

  6. requesting-code-review - Activates between tasks. Reviews against plan, reports issues by severity. Critical issues block progress.

  7. finishing-a-development-branch - Activates when tasks complete. Verifies tests, presents options (merge/PR/keep/discard), cleans up worktree.

The agent checks for relevant skills before any task. Mandatory workflows, not suggestions.

Community

Superpowers is built by Jesse Vincent and the rest of the folks at Prime Radiant.

What's Inside

Skills Library

Testing

Debugging

Collaboration

Meta

Philosophy

Read the original release announcement.

Contributing

The general contribution process for Superpowers is below. Keep in mind that we don't generally accept contributions of new skills and that any updates to skills must work across all of the coding agents we support.

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Switch to the 'dev' branch
  3. Create a branch for your work
  4. Follow the writing-skills skill for creating and testing new and modified skills
  5. Submit a PR, being sure to fill in the pull request template.

Skill-behavior tests use the drill eval harness from superpowers-evals, cloned into evals/ — see evals/README.md for setup. Plugin-infrastructure tests live at tests/ and run via the relevant run-*.sh or npm test.

See skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md for the complete guide.

Updating

Superpowers updates are somewhat coding-agent dependent, but are often automatic.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Visual companion telemetry

Because skills and plugins don't provide any feedback to creators, we have no idea how many of you are using Superpowers. By default, the Prime Radiant logo on brainstorming's optional visual companion feature is loaded from our website. It includes the version of Superpowers in use. It does not include any details about your project, prompt, or coding agent. We don't see your clicks or anything about what you're building. This helps us have a rough idea of how many folks are using Superpowers and which version of Superpowers they're using. It's 100% optional. To disable this, set the environment variable SUPERPOWERS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY to any true value. Superpowers also honors Claude Code's DISABLE_TELEMETRY and CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC opt-outs.

superpowers (obra/superpowers)

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Superpowers
Что это такое?Superpowers — это методология разработки ПО для кодинг-агентов: набор собираемых навыков (skills) и стартовые инструкции, которые направляют агента в дисциплинированный процесс сборки вместо того, чтобы просто писать код.
То есть это не отдельное приложение — как оно тогда проявляется в моём агенте?Оно живёт внутри кодинг-агента, которым вы уже пользуетесь: устанавливаете один раз как плагин, и с тех пор навыки автоматически срабатывают в ваших сессиях.
Что нужно, чтобы добавить его в Claude Code?Установите плагин из официального маркетплейса Claude Code от Anthropic (или из собственного маркетплейса проекта); у каждой обёртки свои инструкции, и в каждый агент устанавливать нужно отдельно.
Он будет работать с моим кодинг-агентом?Скорее всего да: он поддерживает Claude Code, Antigravity, Codex App и CLI, Cursor, Devin CLI, Factory Droid, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Grok Build CLI, Kimi Code, OpenCode, Pi и Hermes Agent.
Насколько он командует процессом после установки?Очень: рабочие процессы там обязательные, а не рекомендации — TDD соблюдается в стиле red-green-refactor, и код, написанный до тестов, просто удаляется.
При установке он отправляет что-то обратно авторам?Только одна необязательная функция: визуальный компаньон для мозгового штурма загружает логотип с их сайта, и в запросе передаётся лишь номер версии — ни промптов, ни деталей проекта; отключается это переменной окружения.
Как его рабочий процесс выглядит день за днём?Он вместе с вами прорабатывает дизайн, создаёт изолированный git worktree, разбивает работу на задачи по 2–5 минут, запускает для каждой задачи свежего субагента с двухэтапной проверкой, а затем предлагает варианты: слить (merge), оформить PR или прибраться.
Какие навыки идут в комплекте, помимо этого рабочего процесса?Четырёхфазный процесс систематической отладки (systematic-debugging), проверка результатов перед завершением, параллельный запуск агентов, чек-листы для код-ревью и writing-skills — навык для написания собственных.
После того как я одобрил план, он будет постоянно со мной сверяться?Не обязательно — он может автономно работать по пару часов за раз, не отходя от плана; есть и пакетный режим с контрольными точками, где участие остаётся за человеком.
Могу ли я научить его своим навыкам?Да — встроенный навык writing-skills описывает, как их писать и тестировать, но апстрим редко принимает новые навыки, поскольку каждый должен работать во всех поддерживаемых агентах, так что свои навыки обычно остаются локальными.
What are similar projects?superpowers-zh, skills, Waza, BMAD-METHOD, orca, pstack, pstack-claude, ai-website-cloner-template
Which topics is it in?methodology, software-development, tdd, git-worktrees, coding, gemini-cli, github-copilot, code-review, debugging, opencode, git, cursor
Creator
obra
Size
7.5 MB
Stars
300.8K
Updated
CommitOct 10Releasev7.0.0Oct 10
Age
1y
Commits · 90 Days