writing-skills
Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment
Before you install
- Last update
- Files in folder
- 7
- Scripts
- Contains scripts. Review them before running.
- SKILL.md size
- 26 KB (about 6,656 tokens of context each time it loads)
- License
- MIT
- Source on GitHub
- obra/superpowers
Skills are plain text instructions the agent follows, sometimes with scripts. Check the source, prefer repositories with many installs and stars, and read any script it ships.
Install
npx skills add obra/superpowers@writing-skillsRuns in a terminal with Node.js 18 or newer. Add -y to skip the prompts and -g to install for every project instead of this one.
Install for your agent
npx skills add obra/superpowers@writing-skills --agent claude-code -y- Project install writes to
.claude/skills/writing-skills- Global install writes to
~/.claude/skills/writing-skills
Start a new session afterwards so the agent picks the skill up. In Claude Code you can also call it directly with /writing-skills.
What it does
Writing Skills Overview Writing skills IS Test-Driven Development applied to process documentation. Personal skills live in your runtime's skills directory (~/.claude/skills/ on Claude Code) — see codex-tools.md or gemini-tools.md for the path on those runtimes. Codex, Copilot CLI, and Gemini CLI all also recognize ~/.agents/skills/ as a cross-runtime alias. You write test cases (pressure scenarios with subagents), watch them fail (baseline behavior), write the skill (documentation), watch tests pass (agents comply), and refactor (close loopholes). Core principle: If you didn't watch an agent…
Excerpt from the skill's own SKILL.md. Read the full file on GitHub before installing: skills run with your agent's permissions.
Categories
Related skills
- brainstorming
obra/superpowers
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, modifying behavior, or planning anything new, in software or out of it (a talk, a business, a renovation).
- systematic-debugging
obra/superpowers
Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes
- writing-plans
obra/superpowers
Use when you have a spec or requirements for a multi-step task, before touching code
- using-superpowers
obra/superpowers
Use when starting any conversation - establishes how to find and use skills, requiring skill invocation before ANY response including clarifying questions
265K installs 301K - requesting-code-review
obra/superpowers
Use when completing tasks, implementing major features, or before merging to verify work meets requirements
- verification-before-completion
obra/superpowers
Use when about to claim work is complete, fixed, or passing, before committing or creating PRs - requires running verification commands and confirming output before making any success claims; evidence before assertions always