obra/superpowers

Metadata

• **Stars:** 148,122
• **License:** MIT
• **Last pushed:** 2026-04-10 (very actively maintained)
• **Topics:** (none)
• **Fork:** No
• **Author:** Jesse Vincent (obra)

Archetype: methodology-repo

The dominant open-source software development methodology for coding agents. A complete Claude Code plugin (v5.0.7) with 14 composable skills covering the full development lifecycle: brainstorming, planning, TDD, debugging, code review, subagent orchestration, and branch management.

Structure

- brainstorming - writing-plans (+ plan-document-reviewer-prompt.md) - executing-plans - subagent-driven-development (+ implementer-prompt.md, spec-reviewer-prompt.md, code-quality-reviewer-prompt.md) - dispatching-parallel-agents - test-driven-development (+ testing-anti-patterns.md) - systematic-debugging (+ defense-in-depth.md, root-cause-tracing.md, find-polluter.sh, condition-based-waiting.md) - requesting-code-review - receiving-code-review - finishing-a-development-branch - using-git-worktrees - using-superpowers (meta-skill) - verification-before-completion - writing-skills

• .claude-plugin/plugin.json + marketplace.json -- official Claude plugin
• .codex/, .cursor-plugin/, .opencode/ -- multi-harness support
• CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, GEMINI.md -- harness-specific instructions
• skills/ with 14 SKILL.md-based skills:
• agents/, commands/, hooks/ -- plugin infrastructure
• gemini-extension.json -- Gemini CLI extension

IMPORTANT CONTEXT

Superpowers is already installed as a plugin in the babysitter project (skills are visible in the skill list as superpowers:*). This repo is the upstream source. The investigation here is about identifying what methodology patterns could be assimilated as babysitter-native processes, beyond what's already available via the plugin.

Extractable Value

Processes

**HIGH VALUE -- Full dev methodologies (methodologies/):**

• **TDD quality convergence** (methodologies/): The test-driven-development skill is a rigorous Red-Green-Refactor methodology with "Iron Law" enforcement (no production code without failing test first). Includes anti-patterns reference. This maps to a babysitter process with breakpoints at each phase transition (RED->GREEN->REFACTOR) and quality gates.

• **Systematic debugging** (methodologies/): Four-phase debugging methodology (Root Cause Investigation -> Hypothesis Formation -> Targeted Fix -> Verification). Includes supplementary materials on defense-in-depth, root-cause tracing, and condition-based waiting. Maps to a babysitter process with mandatory phase completion gates.

• **Plan-execute-review pipeline** (methodologies/): The writing-plans + executing-plans + verification-before-completion chain describes a complete plan-driven development methodology. Writing-plans includes a plan-document-reviewer-prompt. This is a three-phase babysitter process with breakpoints between planning, execution, and verification.

**MEDIUM VALUE -- Orchestration patterns (specializations/shared/):**

• **Subagent orchestration pattern** (specializations/shared/): The subagent-driven-development skill defines a dispatch-implement-review cycle with two-stage review (spec compliance then code quality). Each stage has dedicated prompts (implementer-prompt.md, spec-reviewer-prompt.md, code-quality-reviewer-prompt.md). This maps to a babysitter parallel.map() process with nested review breakpoints.

• **Parallel agent dispatch** (specializations/shared/): The dispatching-parallel-agents skill describes patterns for identifying independent tasks and farming them out. Maps to babysitter's parallel.all() effect pattern.

**LOWER VALUE -- Workflow patterns:**

• **Code review cycle** (specializations/shared/): requesting-code-review + receiving-code-review describe a bidirectional review process. Could become a babysitter process with breakpoint-based review gates.

• **Branch finalization** (specializations/shared/): finishing-a-development-branch describes the decision tree for squash vs merge vs rebase and cleanup. Useful as a lightweight babysitter process.

Plugin Ideas

• **Superpowers methodology bridge plugin:** Since superpowers is already installed as a plugin, the value is in converting its skill-based methodology into deterministic babysitter processes that can be replayed, journal-tracked, and state-cached. A marketplace plugin could provide babysitter harness:call --process superpowers-tdd etc.

Library Mapping

Plugin Marketplace Mapping

SKIP

• using-superpowers meta-skill (skill-management)
• writing-skills (skill-management)
• using-git-worktrees (utility, not a process methodology)
• brainstorming (already lightweight enough as a skill, doesn't benefit from process orchestration)
• The plugin infrastructure (hooks, commands, agents) -- babysitter has its own