Superpowers

Superpowers — main development method

Always-on skill. Every non-trivial task goes through 5 phases.

The Cycle

PLAN ──→ TDD ──→ IMPLEMENT ──→ VERIFY ──→ REPORT
  │        │         │            │          │
  ▼        ▼         ▼            ▼          ▼
Spec    Red test  Green code   Evidence    Outcome
first   first     minimal      observed    first

Phase skills (obra accretion)

Kit v2: each phase has a granular skill helper. A phase is not replaced, but deepened:

• PLAN → brainstorming (design questions, spec), writing-plans (execution plan)
• IMPLEMENT → dispatching-parallel-agents (parallel slices), per-plan implementation with checkpoints
• VERIFY → verification-before-completion (fresh output), requesting-code-review, fable-judge (adversarial)
• Debug → systematic-debugging
• Git → using-git-worktrees, finishing-a-development-branch

Phase 1: PLAN

Formulate what "done" means — concrete, observable.

• What should be true when the task is done?
• Which files do you touch? Which do you NOT touch?
• What assumptions do you make?
• Split by independently verifiable outcomes and shared interfaces, not file or step counts.

Scope discipline: touch only what the task requires. Not "I'll clean up along the way".

Phase 2: TDD

Red test → green code → refactoring.

• Define an observable check before changing behavior; reproduce a bug before its fix.
• Test names express consumer rules, not implementation details. Keep a permanent regression only where a plausible bug would fail it; a throwaway probe or rendered UI interaction can provide the appropriate proof.
• A test verifies behavior, not implementation.

Prove-It Pattern (bug fix)

Bug report → test reproducing the bug → test FAILS → fix → test GREEN

Phase 3: IMPLEMENT

Smallest correct implementation of the full request.

• Do not reduce requested scope to fit the current test or increment.
• Match existing patterns. Repair in-scope gaps; avoid unrelated cleanup.
• Share a source where duplication is genuinely the same knowledge, not merely similar text.

Phase 4: VERIFY

Evidence, not inference.

• Test green? → observed.
• Tests appropriate to the change green? → ran; broaden when scope warrants (shared code touched, or a failure the targeted check exposed). Re-running an unchanged check with no new changes, failures, or unresolved concerns is ceremony, not verification.
• No test that merely mirrors a reversible low-impact change? → skipped it.
• Build/lint checks applicable to affected paths pass; no unrelated runtime or production-store demand.
• Bug fix → TWINS: searched for the same pattern in the codebase.

Completion and ownership

1. Resolve material ambiguity. Inspect code, config and requirements; decide ordinary implementation details. Ask only for information that remains unavailable and changes the outcome. Planning is not an approval gate.
2. Separate tracking from signoff. Update your execution checklist from evidence. Never toggle a separately owned reviewer approval or claim their acceptance. Missing signoff does not prohibit authorized implementation.
3. Converge by repair. Before reporting, compare the deliverable against every requested requirement. Add missed work, fix in-scope gaps and verify them. Record out-of-scope findings without silently expanding the task. A review-only request produces findings, not edits. A single small change's direct verification can be the audit; no extra review ceremony is required.

Continue through these steps without yielding at a phase boundary. Stop only for user revocation or a concrete unavailable prerequisite under AGENTS.md.

Phase 5: REPORT

Result first line.

• What was done.
• Which files were touched.
• What was verified.
• What's next (if any).

When NOT to use

• One-line fix, typo — verify is enough.
• Pure documentation — plan + verify.

Gotchas

• Most common mistake: skipping TDD. "I'll just write the code, then the test". No. Test FIRST.
• Second: scope creep. "I'll also clean up the neighboring file". No. Separate task.
• Third: "seems to work". No. Observed that it works.