Meta-Pattern Recognition

Meta-Pattern Recognition is a skill for Claude Code from obra/superpowers-skills. It costs 17 tokens per session (423 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A method for finding the same underlying pattern in at least three different areas. For example, caching in a CPU, database, and network can suggest a broader principle about keeping frequently used data nearby.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to compare patterns such as caching, layering, queuing, pooling, and rate limiting across systems. It guides you to describe the shared form, differences, and other places to try it.
Why use it?
It helps turn isolated observations into reusable ideas without tying them to one technology or project. This can make it easier to recognize where a solution may apply elsewhere.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: when-to-use in frontmatter.

Good fit Use it to compare patterns such as caching, layering, queuing, pooling, and…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/obra/superpowers-skills/meta-pattern-recognition
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 obra/superpowers-skills --skill meta-pattern-recognition
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/obra/superpowers-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

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 Meta-Pattern Recognition

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/obra/superpowers-skills/meta-pattern-recognition.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/obra/superpowers-skills/meta-pattern-recognition)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/obra/superpowers-skills/meta-pattern-recognition"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/obra/superpowers-skills/meta-pattern-recognition.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 17 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 423 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 $0.00017 $0.00423
Opus 5 $0.00009 $0.00211
Sonnet 5 $0.00003 $0.00085
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00042

Measured 7d ago against content hash 2a579c471488, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

Meta-Pattern Recognition 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 7d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

3 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

skills/problem-solving/meta-pattern-recognition/SKILL.md · 55 lines

What it actually says

Meta-Pattern Recognition

Overview

When the same pattern appears in 3+ domains, it's probably a universal principle worth extracting.

Core principle: Find patterns in how patterns emerge.

Quick Reference

Pattern Appears In Abstract Form Where Else?
CPU/DB/HTTP/DNS caching Store frequently-accessed data closer LLM prompt caching, CDN
Layering (network/storage/compute) Separate concerns into abstraction levels Architecture, organization
Queuing (message/task/request) Decouple producer from consumer with buffer Event systems, async processing
Pooling (connection/thread/object) Reuse expensive resources Memory management, resource governance

Process

  1. Spot repetition - See same shape in 3+ places
  2. Extract abstract form - Describe independent of any domain
  3. Identify variations - How does it adapt per domain?
  4. Check applicability - Where else might this help?

Example

Pattern spotted: Rate limiting in API throttling, traffic shaping, circuit breakers, admission control

Abstract form: Bound resource consumption to prevent exhaustion

Variation points: What resource, what limit, what happens when exceeded

New application: LLM token budgets (same pattern - prevent context window exhaustion)

Red Flags You're Missing Meta-Patterns

  • "This problem is unique" (probably not)
  • Multiple teams independently solving "different" problems identically
  • Reinventing wheels across domains
  • "Haven't we done something like this?" (yes, find it)

Remember

  • 3+ domains = likely universal
  • Abstract form reveals new applications
  • Variations show adaptation points
  • Universal patterns are battle-tested
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. 7d ago First seen · 55 lines · 17 tokens per session scan A 2a579c471488

Subscribe to this mod's changes

Meta-Pattern Recognition is a skill published in the GitHub repository obra/superpowers-skills (745 stars, last pushed 10mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 17 tokens to every session and 423 once invoked, about $0.0001 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 2026-08-30.

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