skills vs superpowers
Two of the top skills, plugins and rules, side by side: score, setup, license, activity and what each review found.
skills
Agent skills for planning, TDD, debugging and code review
superpowers
Skill library that enforces a plan-then-TDD workflow in coding agents
| What we compare | skills | superpowers |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 98, widely used | 100, widely used |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 93, healthy | 84, healthy |
| Easy to run | Not scored for this kind | Not scored for this kind |
| Agent-ready | 70, partly | 30, minimal |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 285.4k | 297.4k |
| License | MIT (permissive) | MIT (permissive) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Language | Shell | Shell |
| Docker | No | No |
| GPU | Not needed | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Not stated |
skills
A collection of Markdown skill files for coding agents, split into engineering and productivity groups. It covers grilling sessions that build a project glossary and ADRs, spec and ticket generation, red-green-refactor TDD, a bug diagnosis loop, and diff review. Installs as a plugin for Claude Code, Codex and GitHub Copilot, via gemini skills install for Gemini CLI, or as editable files through npx skills.
Who it is for: Engineers using Claude Code, Codex, Copilot or Gemini CLI on real codebases
Strengths
- Small, composable skills that can be edited; README says they work with any model
- Plugin install for Claude Code, Codex and Copilot, with automatic updates
- Setup skill configures issue tracker (GitHub, GitLab, local files), triage labels and doc locations
- Separates user-invoked orchestration skills from model-invoked discipline skills
Weaknesses
- Manual updates for Gemini CLI and npx installs
- Installing both plugin and npx copies gives every skill twice
- Must run /setup-matt-pocock-skills once per repo before the engineering skills
- Architecture skill is a survey only and will not untangle an old codebase
- no GPU
- Needs Issue tracker (GitHub, GitLab or local files)
- Models: Any model (per README)
superpowers
Superpowers is a set of composable skills plus a session-start bootstrap that makes a coding agent brainstorm a spec, write a task-level plan, and then execute it with red/green TDD and review between tasks. Execution can use a fresh subagent per task or run inline in one session. It installs as a plugin or extension for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, OpenCode and several other harnesses.
Who it is for: Developers using coding agents who want a enforced plan, TDD and review workflow
Strengths
- Installs as a native plugin on about 15 agent harnesses
- Skills trigger automatically through a session-start bootstrap
- Includes a diagnosing-superpowers skill that reads session transcripts for debugging
- MIT licensed; skill behavior tests use a separate eval harness
Weaknesses
- Must be installed separately for each harness you use
- Contributions of new skills are generally not accepted
- Brainstorming visual companion sends version telemetry unless disabled by env var
- Enforced workflow adds planning and review overhead to small tasks
- no GPU