using-superpowers

using-superpowers is a skill for Claude Code from Azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills. It costs 32 tokens per session (556 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A conversation-starting process for checking whether an available skill applies before doing the requested work.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it at the beginning of coding, debugging, planning, or other tasks when several skills or workflows might apply.
Why use it?
It helps choose an appropriate workflow and keeps the amount of planning proportional to the task.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions subagents; mentions AGENTS.md.

Part of the superpowers plugin — 9 skills, 1 hook shipped together

Good fit Use it at the beginning of coding, debugging, planning, or other tasks…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills/using-superpowers
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add Azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills --skill using-superpowers
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install superpowers, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 9 skills, 1 hook.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for using-superpowers

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills/using-superpowers.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills/using-superpowers)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills/using-superpowers"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills/using-superpowers.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 32 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 556 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00032 $0.00556
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.00278
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00111
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00056

Measured 6d ago against content hash d90b9d40f8ea, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

using-superpowers scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/superpowers/skills/using-superpowers/SKILL.md · 51 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 51 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

The Rule

Check whether a skill clearly applies before acting on a task. When one does, invoke it — and say so.

Before entering plan mode: only use the optional brainstorming/planning flow when the task is genuinely ambiguous or large. Small, well-specified tasks skip it.

Then announce "Using [skill] to [purpose]" and follow the skill exactly. If it has a checklist, create a todo per item.

Proportion matters. Skill ceremony is a tool, not a tax. Small, unambiguous tasks don't need the full process — use subagent-driven-development's lightweight path or just do the fix. Don't force a heavyweight skill onto something that's clearly a quick fix.

Skill Priority

When multiple skills apply, process skills come first — they set the approach, then implementation skills (frontend-design, etc.) carry it out. Brainstorming and systematic-debugging are Superpowers' most common process skills, but the rule holds for any of them.

  • "Let's build X" → if large/ambiguous, use the optional planning flow first; otherwise implement directly.
  • "Fix this bug" → superpowers:systematic-debugging first, then domain skills.

Worth a Second Look

These thoughts are signals to check whether a skill genuinely applies — not automatic triggers:

Thought Check
"I need more context first" A skill might tell you HOW to gather it.
"Let me explore the codebase first" Skills can guide the exploration.
"This doesn't need a formal skill" Ask: would the skill's discipline prevent a real mistake here?
"I remember this skill" Skills evolve — read the current version if you invoke it.

If the check comes back no, proceed without it. The point is noticing, not guilt.

Platform Adaptation

If your harness appears here, read its reference file for special instructions:

  • Codex: references/codex-tools.md
  • Pi: references/pi-tools.md
  • Antigravity: references/antigravity-tools.md

Read the full file on GitHub · 51 lines

Files

What ships with it

4 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 51 lines · 32 tokens per session scan A d90b9d40f8ea

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-superpowers is a skill published in the GitHub repository Azzygoatcoder/agent-useful-skills (6 stars, last pushed 8d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 556 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.