/reference/skills

Skills reference

Complete reference for all 14 Superpowers skills, including triggers, behaviors, and cross-references.

This page provides a complete reference for all Superpowers skills. Use it when you need to understand what a skill does, when it triggers, or which skills relate to each other.

Collaboration skills

Skill	Trigger	Purpose	Required by
brainstorming	Starting work without approved design	Refine ideas through Socratic questioning	—
using-git-worktrees	After design approval	Create isolated workspace on new branch	subagent-driven-development, executing-plans
writing-plans	Have approved design	Break work into bite-sized tasks	subagent-driven-development, executing-plans
subagent-driven-development	Have written plan	Execute with subagents and two-stage review	—
executing-plans	Have written plan, no subagents	Batch execution with checkpoints	—
requesting-code-review	Completing tasks	Review against plan with severity levels	—
receiving-code-review	Receiving feedback	Respond to feedback systematically	—
finishing-a-development-branch	Tasks complete	Merge/PR decision and cleanup	—
dispatching-parallel-agents	2+ independent tasks	Concurrent subagent workflows	—

Testing skills

Skill	Trigger	Purpose	Includes
test-driven-development	Implementing features	RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle	Testing anti-patterns reference
verification-before-completion	Before declaring fix	Ensure it’s actually fixed	Evidence requirements

Debugging skills

Skill	Trigger	Purpose	Includes
systematic-debugging	Encountering bugs	4-phase root cause process	root-cause-tracing, defense-in-depth, condition-based-waiting

Meta skills

Skill	Trigger	Purpose	Includes
using-superpowers	First use	Introduction to skills system	Platform-specific guidance
writing-skills	Creating skills	Best practices for skill creation	Testing methodology

Skill dependencies

Some skills require others as background:

brainstorming
    ↓
using-git-worktrees → writing-plans
                           ↓
              subagent-driven-development or executing-plans
                           ↓
              test-driven-development (during execution)
                           ↓
              requesting-code-review
                           ↓
              finishing-a-development-branch

dispatching-parallel-agents, systematic-debugging, verification-before-completion, and receiving-code-review can be called at various points as needed.

Skill file locations

In the Superpowers source repository, skills live in:

skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md

For example:

skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md
skills/test-driven-development/SKILL.md
skills/writing-plans/SKILL.md

Each skill is a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter defining:

name: Skill identifier (kebab-case)
description: When the skill triggers (not what it does)
version: Skill version

Skill frontmatter example

---
name: test-driven-development
description: Implementing features before writing code
version: 1.0.0
---

Important: The description should say when to use the skill, not what it does. Testing revealed that descriptions summarizing workflow cause agents to follow the description instead of reading the skill body.

Platform support

All skills work across supported platforms (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI). The skills adapt their behavior based on platform capabilities:

Platform	Subagents	Hooks	Notes
Claude Code	Yes	Yes	Full feature support
OpenAI Codex CLI	Yes	Yes	Full feature support
OpenAI Codex App	Yes	Yes	Full feature support
Cursor	Yes	Yes	Plugin marketplace install
OpenCode	Yes	Yes	Via INSTALL.md script
GitHub Copilot CLI	Limited	Yes	Tool mapping provided
Gemini CLI	Limited	Yes	Extension install

Cross-references

Skills reference each other using these markers:

REQUIRED BACKGROUND: Prerequisite understanding
REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Mandatory workflow dependency
Complementary skills: Optional but helpful related skills

Example from subagent-driven-development:

REQUIRED BACKGROUND: writing-plans
REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: using-git-worktrees
Complementary skills: test-driven-development, requesting-code-review

Testing skills

The writing-skills skill includes a complete testing methodology. When creating new skills:

Test on all supported platforms
Verify trigger conditions fire correctly
Check that cross-references resolve
Validate output format matches expectations
Run edge cases (empty input, malformed data)

Updating skills

Skills update automatically when the plugin updates:

Claude Code: /plugin update superpowers
Gemini CLI: gemini extensions update superpowers
Other platforms: Varies by update mechanism

Updates are backward-compatible unless the major version changes.

Custom skills

You can create custom skills following the writing-skills guide. Key requirements:

Kebab-case naming
Proper frontmatter
Clear trigger conditions
Cross-platform compatibility
Test coverage

Note: The Superpowers project generally does not accept contributions of new skills to the core library. Custom skills are for personal or team use.

Learn more

Read the Skills guide for a tour of available skills
See How it works for the philosophy
Check Quick start to see skills in action