Writing Skills

Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment

309,696 stars 27,549 forksSkill & Plugin Authoring Plugin marketplace

Install

Claude Code plugin

/plugin marketplace add obra/superpowers

The repo is a Claude Code plugin marketplace. Run /plugin afterwards to pick the plugin that includes this skill.

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)

npx skills add obra/superpowers --skill writing-skills

Manual install

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git /tmp/superpowers
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/superpowers/skills/writing-skills ~/.claude/skills/writing-skills

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

# 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](../using-superpowers/references/codex-tools.md) or [gemini-tools.md](../using-superpowers/references/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 fail without the skill, you don't know if the skill teaches the right thing.

**REQUIRED BACKGROUND:** You MUST understand superpowers:test-driven-development before using this skill. That skill defines the fundamental RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle. This skill adapts TDD to documentation.

**Official guidance:** For Anthropic's official skill authoring best practices, see references/anthropic-best-practices.md. This document provides additional patterns and guidelines that complement the TDD-focused approach in this skill.

## What is a Skill?

A **skill** is a reference guide for proven techniques, patterns, or tools. Skills help future agents find and apply effective approaches.

**Skills are:** Reusable techniques, patterns, tools, reference guides

Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name: writing-skills
Repository: obra/superpowers
Path: skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md
License: MIT
Repo updated: 29 October 2026
Listed in: BehiSecc/awesome-claude-skills, ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills, hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code, karanb192/awesome-claude-skills, travisvn/awesome-claude-skills, VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills

FAQ

What does the Writing Skills skill do?

Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment

How do I install the Writing Skills skill?

Claude Code plugin: /plugin marketplace add obra/superpowers. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Writing Skills popular?

It lives in obra/superpowers, which has 309,696 GitHub stars and 27,549 forks, and is included in 6 curated skill lists.

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