using-superpowers

A set of process rules for deciding which coding-agent skills to use, including required skill checks before responding or taking action.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it at the start of conversations to select applicable skills and follow their required workflows.
Why use it?
It helps ensure that specialized instructions are applied consistently when a task matches them.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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.

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

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 28 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 712 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
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 $0.00028 $0.00712
Opus 5 $0.00014 $0.00356
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00142
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00071

Measured 2d ago against content hash 30f2ab78e20d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, 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 2d 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

8 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

skills/using-superpowers/SKILL.md · 64 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 64 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

IF A SKILL APPLIES TO YOUR TASK, YOU DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE. YOU MUST USE IT.

This is not negotiable. You cannot rationalize your way out of this.

The Rule

Invoke relevant or requested skills BEFORE any response or action — including clarifying questions, exploring the codebase, or checking files. If it turns out wrong for the situation, you don't have to use it.

Before entering plan mode: if you haven't already brainstormed, invoke the brainstorming skill first.

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

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" → superpowers:brainstorming first, then implementation skills.
  • "Fix this bug" → superpowers:systematic-debugging first, then domain skills.

Red Flags

These thoughts mean STOP—you're rationalizing:

Thought Reality
"This is just a simple question" Questions are tasks. Check for skills.
"I need more context first" Skill check comes BEFORE clarifying questions.
"Let me explore the codebase first" Skills tell you HOW to explore. Check first.
"I can check git/files quickly" Files lack conversation context. Check for skills.
"Let me gather information first" Skills tell you HOW to gather information.
"This doesn't need a formal skill" If a skill exists, use it.
"I remember this skill" Skills evolve. Read current version.
"This doesn't count as a task" Action = task. Check for skills.
"The skill is overkill" Simple things become complex. Use it.
"I'll just do this one thing first" Check BEFORE doing anything.
"This feels productive" Undisciplined action wastes time. Skills prevent this.
"I know what that means" Knowing the concept ≠ using the skill. Invoke it.

Read the full file on GitHub · 64 lines

Files

What ships with it

5 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. 2d ago First seen · 64 lines · 28 tokens per session scan A 30f2ab78e20d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

using-superpowers is a skill published in the GitHub repository obra/superpowers (280,216 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 28 tokens to every session and 712 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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