Overview
Superpowers is a software development methodology delivered to coding agents as a set of composable skills, plus the initial instructions that make an agent actually reach for them. Built by Jesse Vincent and the team at Prime Radiant, it changes what happens the moment you ask an agent to build something: instead of writing code immediately, the agent steps back, teases a specification out of the conversation, and shows it to you in chunks short enough to read.
Once a design is signed off, the agent produces an implementation plan broken into two-to-five-minute tasks, each with exact file paths, complete code and verification steps — written, as the project puts it, to be followable by an enthusiastic junior engineer with no project context and an aversion to testing. Execution then runs as subagent-driven development: a fresh subagent per task with a two-stage review (spec compliance, then code quality), under a red/green TDD discipline that deletes code written before its test.
The skills trigger automatically, so there is no separate invocation to remember, and the library covers testing, systematic debugging, planning, parallel subagent dispatch, code review on both sides, git worktrees, branch finishing, and a meta skill for writing new skills. Installation is per harness — Claude Code, Antigravity, the Codex app and CLI, Cursor, Devin CLI, Factory Droid, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Grok Build CLI, Kimi Code, OpenCode, Pi and Hermes Agent each have their own documented path.
What it does
- A spec-first workflow: brainstorming refines the idea and presents the design in reviewable sections before any code is written
- Plans broken into 2–5 minute tasks with exact file paths, complete code and verification steps for each
- Subagent-driven development — a fresh subagent per task with two-stage review for spec compliance and then code quality
- Enforced RED-GREEN-REFACTOR test-driven development, plus a 4-phase systematic-debugging skill and verification-before-completion
- Skills trigger automatically from the agent's own skill check, so the workflows are mandatory rather than opt-in
- Installs into fourteen documented harnesses, including Claude Code (via the official plugin marketplace), Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and Pi
Getting started
Installation differs by coding agent, and if you use more than one you install Superpowers separately for each. Two of the paths are shown below; the README documents the rest.
Claude Code
Superpowers is published on Anthropic's official plugin marketplace.
/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-officialOr add the Superpowers marketplace
The project's own marketplace carries Superpowers plus related plugins.
/plugin marketplace add obra/superpowers-marketplace
/plugin install superpowers@superpowers-marketplaceAntigravity
Antigravity installs it straight from the repository and runs the plugin's session-start hook, so Superpowers is active from the first message. Re-run the same command to update.
agy plugin install https://github.com/obra/superpowersJust start building
There is nothing to invoke. Ask your agent to build something and the brainstorming skill activates before it writes code, then carries you through worktree setup, planning, subagent execution, review, and finishing the branch.
Commands and code are distilled from the project's own documentation — always check the official repo for the latest.
When to use it
- Stop a coding agent from jumping straight to code on a task that needs a design conversation first
- Run long autonomous sessions that stay on plan, by handing each task to a fresh subagent with its own review pass
- Impose TDD, systematic debugging and pre-merge review on agent-written code without writing the prompts yourself
- Keep one development methodology across several coding harnesses, since the same skills install into all of them
How Superpowers compares
Superpowers alongside other open-source agent skills & plugins tools AI/TLDR tracks, ranked by GitHub stars.
| Tool | Stars | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Superpowers | ★ 282k | A skills plugin that installs a whole development methodology into your coding agent |
| AREX-Skill | ★ 186 | A library of 5,000+ executable Agent Skills distilled from 1,000+ ML repositories, plus the DisCo CLI that distils a repository into skills and a router that narrows them to one branch. |
| Portal AI Plugins | — | Spotify's plugin marketplace that brings Portal's software catalog, docs search and actions into Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, plus shunt, which routes bulk file reads to a cheaper model. |