Superpowers Plugin for Claude Code: How I Ship Big Features with Confidence

After months of using Claude Code as my primary development tool, I hit a ceiling. Small tasks---bug fixes, refactoring a single file, scaffolding a component---worked beautifully. But large features spanning multiple files, requiring architectural decisions, and demanding comprehensive test coverage would cause Claude to lose context, produce inconsistent code, or skip testing entirely.

Then I found the Superpowers plugin by Jesse Vincent, and it fundamentally changed how I approach big feature development with Claude Code.

What Is Superpowers?

Superpowers is an agentic skills framework that layers structured development methodology on top of Claude Code. Rather than letting Claude freestyle its way through a feature, Superpowers enforces a disciplined workflow: brainstorm first, plan second, execute third---with mandatory TDD and code review at every step.

The key insight is that these are not suggestions. When Superpowers is active, Claude literally cannot skip the planning phase or write code before tests. It behaves less like a code generator and more like a disciplined senior developer who happens to type very fast.

Installation

Getting started requires Claude Code 2.0.13 or later:

/plugin marketplace add obra/superpowers-marketplace
/plugin install superpowers@superpowers-marketplace

Restart Claude Code, then verify with /help---you should see /superpowers:brainstorm, /superpowers:write-plan, and /superpowers:execute-plan in the available commands.

The Workflow That Changed Everything

Before Superpowers, my workflow for a large feature looked like this: describe the feature, hope Claude understood the full scope, watch it write code for 10 minutes, then spend an hour fixing the inconsistencies and adding the tests it skipped. With Superpowers, the workflow is structured into distinct phases.

Phase 1: Brainstorming

When I start a new feature, I invoke /superpowers:brainstorm with a rough description of what I want. Instead of immediately writing code, Claude asks clarifying questions, explores edge cases, and presents the design back in short sections for validation.

/superpowers:brainstorm Add a multi-channel notification system that supports
email, SMS, and push notifications with user preference management

Claude will ask questions like: Should users be able to set per-notification-type preferences? Do we need rate limiting? What happens when a delivery channel fails? These are exactly the questions a senior developer would ask before touching a keyboard.

This phase alone has saved me from shipping half-baked features. The number of times Claude surfaced an edge case I had not considered is significant.

Phase 2: Planning

After the design is validated, /superpowers:write-plan produces an implementation plan broken into tasks scoped to roughly 2-5 minutes each. Each task includes exact file paths, verification steps, and acceptance criteria.

The plans are deliberately written to be unambiguous---described as being clear enough for "an enthusiastic junior engineer with no project context" to follow. This level of specificity is what makes the next phase possible.

A typical plan for a notification system feature might break down into 12-15 tasks: database migrations, model creation, service classes, notification channels, user preference API endpoints, frontend components, and integration tests---each as a discrete, verifiable unit of work.

Phase 3: Execution with Subagents

This is where Superpowers shines for large features. /superpowers:execute-plan dispatches each task to a fresh subagent. Instead of Claude burning through its entire context window trying to hold a massive feature in memory, work is split into focused chunks. Progress is persisted to markdown files on disk, not held in memory.

Between tasks, a code review skill activates and checks the completed work against the plan. Issues are reported by severity---critical issues block progress until resolved. This is analogous to having a senior engineer doing continuous code review on every commit.

The subagent approach solves the single biggest problem I had with large features: context window exhaustion. A feature that would previously cause Claude to forget earlier decisions or produce contradictory code now executes cleanly because each subagent starts fresh with only the context it needs.

Mandatory TDD Changed My Testing Culture

The most impactful Superpowers skill for my workflow is the enforced test-driven development. Throughout execution, Claude follows a strict RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle:

1. Write a failing test
2. Confirm it fails
3. Write the minimal code to make it pass
4. Confirm it passes
5. Commit

If Claude attempts to write implementation code before a test exists, Superpowers makes it delete the code and start over. This sounds aggressive, but the results speak for themselves. Features that I previously shipped with minimal test coverage now arrive with comprehensive tests baked in from the start.

// Superpowers enforces this order — test FIRST
describe('NotificationPreferenceService', () => {
  it('should return default preferences for new users', async () => {
    const preferences = await service.getPreferences(newUser.id);
    expect(preferences.email).toBe(true);
    expect(preferences.sms).toBe(false);
    expect(preferences.push).toBe(true);
  });
});

// Only AFTER the test fails does Claude write the implementation

Before Superpowers, I would tell Claude to write tests and it would comply---sometimes. Now testing is not optional. It is a structural requirement of the workflow.

Real-World Impact on Feature Development

I have shipped several large features using Superpowers over the past few months. Here is what I have observed:

Context retention is no longer a problem. Features spanning 15+ files that previously caused Claude to lose track of earlier decisions now execute consistently. The subagent architecture means each task gets a fresh context with exactly the information it needs.

Fewer regressions. The mandatory TDD cycle and inter-task code review catch issues that would previously slip through to production. Problems that I would discover days later during manual testing now surface during the execution phase.

Better architectural decisions. The brainstorming phase forces me to think through the design before any code exists. I cannot count the number of times Claude's clarifying questions led me to a better approach than my initial instinct.

More predictable timelines. When a feature is broken into 12 discrete tasks with clear acceptance criteria, I can estimate completion time with far more accuracy than "Claude will probably figure it out."

When Superpowers Is Overkill

Not every task warrants the full Superpowers workflow. For single-file changes, quick bug fixes, or small refactors, the brainstorm-plan-execute cycle adds overhead without proportional benefit. I reserve Superpowers for:

• Features touching 3+ files
• Work requiring architectural decisions
• Anything that needs comprehensive test coverage
• Features where I am uncertain about the best approach

For everything else, Claude Code's standard workflow remains excellent.

Git Worktree Integration

One underappreciated Superpowers feature is its git worktree management. When starting a new feature, it creates an isolated workspace on a fresh branch, runs project setup, and verifies a clean test baseline before development begins. When the feature is complete, it verifies all tests pass and offers to create a GitHub PR, merge locally, or mark as complete.

This eliminates the friction of branch management during complex feature work. I no longer worry about contaminating my main branch with half-finished implementations.

Key Takeaways

1. Superpowers transforms Claude Code from a code generator into a disciplined development partner that follows structured methodology.
2. The brainstorm-plan-execute workflow prevents the most common failure mode of AI-assisted development: jumping straight into code without understanding the problem.
3. Subagent-driven execution solves context window exhaustion for large, multi-file features.
4. Mandatory TDD produces comprehensive test coverage by default, not as an afterthought.
5. Inter-task code review catches regressions and drift early, before they compound.
6. The overhead is worth it for big features but unnecessary for small, focused tasks.

For developers already using Claude Code and finding that large features are where the experience breaks down, Superpowers is the missing piece. It is the difference between asking an AI to write code and having an AI follow a professional development process.

Related Resources

• Superpowers GitHub Repository - The core skills framework
• Superpowers Marketplace - Plugin installation and updates
• Jesse Vincent's Blog Post on Superpowers - The creator's original explanation
• Claude Code for Laravel: A Practitioner's Workflow - My guide on Claude Code workflows for Laravel projects