Superpowers

Superpowers is a free MIT skills framework that makes coding agents brainstorm, plan, test first and review as they build, in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.

What it is: a fixed way of working, not a single tool

The repo is by Jesse Vincent and the Prime Radiant team, MIT licensed. The README calls it a complete software development methodology for coding agents, built on composable skills plus starting instructions that make the agent use them. The skills fire on their own when the agent sees what you are doing, so you do not have to invoke anything.

• It does not jump into code. It first asks what you are really trying to do, then shows you the spec in chunks short enough to read. Small changes are agreed in chat, and a project gets a written design document.
• After you approve the design, it writes a plan of tasks of 2 to 5 minutes each, with exact file paths, complete code and verification steps, stressing red/green TDD, YAGNI and DRY.
• When you say "go", it either sends a fresh subagent per task with a review after each, which the README calls the most thorough, or runs the tasks inline with one review of the whole branch at the end, which it calls the cheapest. The README says it is not uncommon for the agent to work on its own for a couple of hours without leaving the plan. That is the authors' description.

The seven-step workflow and the skills behind it

• The README's order is brainstorming, using-git-worktrees, writing-plans, subagent-driven-development or executing-plans, test-driven-development, requesting-code-review and finishing-a-development-branch. It says these are mandatory workflows, not suggestions.
• Test-driven development enforces red, green, refactor: write a failing test, watch it fail, write the minimum code, watch it pass, commit. The README says code written before the tests is deleted.
• systematic-debugging is a four-phase root-cause process. verification-before-completion makes the agent check that something is actually fixed. Anthropic's marketplace page adds that it triggers an architecture review after three failed fix attempts.
• The skills/ folder holds 15 skills, including dispatching-parallel-agents, receiving-code-review, writing-skills for making new ones and diagnosing-superpowers, which reads a session transcript and reports what went wrong with line-level evidence.
• The README's philosophy has four lines: tests first, process over guessing, simplicity as the main goal, and evidence over claims.

Where you can install it

• Claude Code:/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official from Anthropic's official marketplace, or add obra/superpowers-marketplace and install superpowers@superpowers-marketplace.
• Others the README gives steps for: Codex app and CLI through the official Codex plugin marketplace, Cursor with /add-plugin superpowers, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Qwen Code, Kimi Code, Grok Build CLI, Factory Droid, Devin CLI, OpenCode, Pi, Antigravity, Muse and Hermes Agent with hermes plugins install obra/superpowers --enable.
• The README says to install it separately for each agent you use. Updates depend on the agent and are often automatic. To check an install worked, it suggests sending "Let's make a react todo list" and seeing whether brainstorming starts before any code is written.

Limits and things to know

• The maintainers say they do not generally accept new skills, that any change to a skill must work across all the supported agents, and that they do not accept agent-written pull requests for issues someone else filed unless a maintainer asked for one.
• There is optional telemetry: the Prime Radiant logo in brainstorming's visual companion is loaded from their website and includes the Superpowers version, nothing about your project, prompt or agent. Set SUPERPOWERS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY to turn it off. It also honors Claude Code's DISABLE_TELEMETRY and CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC opt-outs.
• The old superpowers-skills repo, community-editable skills for the plugin, is archived.

How old it is

• This is not a new project. The repository was created on October 9, 2025, announced on the author's blog that day, and its latest release on GitHub is v7.0.2 from November 3, 2026.
• On November 7 it had about 313,000 stars, about 27,900 forks and 342 open issues and pull requests together.
• Seailife did not install it or run any session with it. The workflow and install steps above are from the README and the Claude marketplace page.