Superpowers’ brainstorming skill now reads your project before it asks you anything

3 weeks ago

Superpowers fixed how its brainstorming skill opens. In version 7 it offered to skip the questions even after you asked for brainstorming, and asked about your project before reading it. Now it reads the project first, plays back what you want, and asks one design question. The fix is on the dev branch, tested in Claude Code and Codex CLI. https://github.com/obra/superpowers/pull/2560 https://github.com/obra/superpowers

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Chapters

  1. 0:00Superpowers’ brainstorming skill now reads your project before it asks you anything
  2. 0:26Version 7 opened every session with the same two lines
  3. 0:42It asked about things the code already answered
  4. 0:57New rule: look before you ask
  5. 1:12When you’ve said what you want, it plays it back
  6. 1:27For a real fork, it recommends one way to build it
  7. 1:45The skip offer now comes only when you didn’t ask
  8. 2:00It’s on the dev branch, tested in Claude Code and Codex
  9. 2:16Replies still run past 200 words
Show transcript
  1. Superpowers fixed how its brainstorming skill opens, in a change merged October 20. In version 7, it offered to skip the questions even after you asked for brainstorming, and asked about your project before reading it. Now it reads your project first, plays back what you want, and asks one design question. If you hand it a spec, its first reply now starts from that spec.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming merged Oct 20, 2026
    “If you’d rather skip the questions, say so.” reads first · plays back · one question
    obra/superpowers · pull request #2560 · fixes issue #2530
  2. Version 7 opened with two fixed lines: an offer to skip the questions, then a question about the moment you wished this existed. The skip line opened 9 of 12 sessions on version 7, against 0 of 134 on version 6.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming Superpowers 7
    1. One line letting them know that if they’d rather skip the questions and have you just start, they can say so.
    2. One open question … “What’s the moment you find yourself wishing this existed?”
    9 of 12 sessions on version 7 opened with the skip line
    0 of 134 sessions on version 6
    skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md in Superpowers 7 · PR #2560
  3. It also asked before it looked. With part of a spec already built, it asked how the experience was. On a detailed request to build against AWS, it asked who opens the web app and what they do with the PNG, instead of how to reach AWS.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming Superpowers 7

    phase one of a spec already built

    “I see that part A was implemented. How was your experience?”

    a detailed request to build against AWS

    “Who opens this web app, and what do they do with the PNG?”
    issue #2530 reports, quoted in PR #2560
  4. The fix adds a section called Look Before You Ask. When you hand the agent a spec, a plan or files, it reads them and the code they touch before its first message. It skips any question the project already answers.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming merged Oct 20, 2026
    ## Look Before You Ask
    … read what they referred to and the parts of the project it touches. Enough to ask better questions, not a full survey.
    Never ask what the project or their context already answers.
    skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md on the dev branch · PR #2560
  5. If you've already said what you want, the first reply is a playback of about 200 words: what the project showed, and the two or three guesses that matter most. It ends with one line inviting corrections and one design question.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming first reply · about 200 words
    1. 01What the project showed
    2. 02Two or three guesses, marked as guesses
    3. 03One line inviting corrections
    4. 04One design question
    skills/brainstorming/SKILL.md, “Your First Message” · PR #2560
  6. Where there's a real choice in how to build it, the agent recommends one approach, names the alternatives and what each trades, and offers to dig in. On that AWS request, Opus and Sonnet now recommend a Postgres driver, because the AWS CLI can't run queries.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming Think wide, then recommend
    Propose the one you recommend, name the alternatives you’d genuinely hesitate between and what each would trade, and offer to dig into any of them.

    the AWS request, after the fix

    The AWS CLI only mints a DSQL auth token and can’t run queries. Use a Postgres driver.
    SKILL.md “Think wide, then recommend” · Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 runs, PR #2560
  7. The skip offer moves to the last line, and only when brainstorming started on its own, after a request like make a React to-do list. Across 12 runs each, it appeared every time the user hadn't asked, and in 0 runs where they had.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 · 12 runs each
    opening line “Or if you’d rather I just dive in, say so.”
    You asked for brainstorming
    skip offer in 0 of 12
    It started on its own
    skip offer in 12 of 12
    SKILL.md, how the message ends · evaluation in PR #2560
  8. The fix landed on the dev branch. The version 7 release and the main branch still open with the skip line. It was tested in Claude Code on Opus, Sonnet, Haiku and Fable, and in Codex CLI on GPT-6 Astra and Luna, on earlier wording.

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming dev branch · not in a release yet
    7.0.0 release · main branch dev branch · merged Oct 20
    Claude Code Opus 5.5 · Sonnet 5.5 · Haiku 5.5 · Fable 5.1
    Codex CLI GPT-6 Astra · GPT-6 Luna, earlier wording only
    releases and main-branch SKILL.md · PR #2560 environment table
  9. The 200 words is a target, and replies run longer, up to about 360 words on Sonnet. The full change is in Superpowers pull request 2560. Which agent do you run Superpowers brainstorming in?

    Slide text
    github.com/obra/superpowers · brainstorming known gaps
    223–261 words per reply on Opus 5.5
    245–357 words per reply on Sonnet 5.5

    Which agent do you run Superpowers brainstorming in?

    obra/superpowers pull request #2560, “Known gaps”

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