Skills Overview¶
Skills are reusable workflows that provide structured approaches to common development tasks. They encode best practices and ensure consistent, high-quality work.
How to Use Skills¶
In Claude Code¶
Skills are invoked automatically when relevant, or explicitly:
In Other Platforms¶
See Platform Support for platform-specific invocation methods.
Skill Categories¶
Core Workflow Skills¶
Foundational skills for structured development (from obra/superpowers):
| Skill | When to Use |
|---|---|
| brainstorming | Before coding - explore requirements and design |
| writing-plans | After brainstorming - create implementation plan |
| executing-plans | Execute a written plan systematically |
| test-driven-development | Implementing any feature or fix |
| debugging | Unified debugging entry point - routes to appropriate methodology |
| using-git-worktrees | Isolating feature work from main codebase |
| finishing-a-development-branch | Complete development work with merge/PR/cleanup options |
Code Quality Skills¶
Skills for maintaining and improving code quality:
| Skill | When to Use |
|---|---|
| auditing-green-mirage | Auditing test suite quality |
| fixing-tests | Fixing failing or weak tests |
| fact-checking | Verifying claims and assumptions |
| finding-dead-code | Identifying unused code |
| requesting-code-review | Requesting structured code review |
Feature Development Skills¶
Skills for building and reviewing features:
| Skill | When to Use |
|---|---|
| develop | End-to-end feature implementation |
| reviewing-design-docs | Reviewing design documents |
| reviewing-impl-plans | Reviewing implementation plans |
| devils-advocate | Challenging assumptions and decisions |
| merging-worktrees | Merging parallel worktrees |
| resolving-merge-conflicts | Resolving git merge conflicts with synthesis |
Specialized Skills¶
Domain-specific skills:
| Skill | When to Use |
|---|---|
| async-await-patterns | Writing async JavaScript/TypeScript |
Meta Skills¶
Skills about skills and subagent orchestration:
| Skill | When to Use |
|---|---|
| using-skills | Understanding how to invoke and use skills |
| writing-skills | Creating new skills |
| writing-commands | Creating new commands |
| instruction-engineering | Effective prompt engineering for subagents and LLMs |
| optimizing-instructions | Reducing token usage in instruction files |
| documenting-tools | Writing documentation for MCP tools and APIs |
| dispatching-parallel-agents | Parallel subagent orchestration |
| smart-reading | Reading files/output without blind truncation |
Creating Custom Skills¶
See Writing Skills for instructions on creating your own skills.
Personal skills placed in ~/.claude/skills/ take priority over spellbook skills.