The discussion centers on a project using AI and networked microphones to locate a mysterious beep, with users debating the practical efficiency of this high-tech approach versus simple manual methods like physical binary search or unpacking boxes. Participants also argue over whether the project represents genuine learning and utility or merely an unnecessary expenditure of computational resources for a trivial problem.
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superpowers
Shell2025–2026
obra / superpowers
superpowers
An agentic skills framework & software development methodology that works.
64Distinct people
77Mentions
3Explicit recommenders
316.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
An agentic skills framework & software development methodology that works.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
https://github.com/obra/superpowers I use Opus/Sol with for /brainstorming, deepseek (on Pi) for /subagent-driven-development I love it, the docs are easily editable and when…
cthulberg used a recommendation phrase. 3 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- gastownhall/beads · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- github/spec-kit · linked in 2 of the same discussions
- gsd-build/get-shit-done · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 12:45:45 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month77 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2025-10-11 14:41:58 UTC to 2026-09-26 02:10:10 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2025 | 2025-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Nov 2025 | 2025-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Dec 2025 | 2025-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| Jan 2026 | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Feb 2026 | 2026-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 2 | 8 |
| Mar 2026 | 2026-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 3 | 6 |
| Apr 2026 | 2026-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 3 | 9 |
| May 2026 | 2026-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Jun 2026 | 2026-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Jul 2026 | 2026-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Aug 2026 | 2026-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Sep 2026 | 2026-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
6 sourcesSYSyntaf·Oct 23, 2025
Anecdotally I'm using the superpowers[1] skills and am absolutely blown away by the quality increase. Working on a large python codebase shared by ~200 engineers for context, and have never been more stoked on claude code ouput.
[1] https://github.com/obra/superpowers
In Claude MemorySeems like the exact same thing, from front page a few days ago: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/tree/main
In Claude SkillsClaude Code superpowers: core skills library
1 points · Open discussionThe "How to create skills" link is broken. This is the new location: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/blob/personal-superpower...
In Superpowers: How I'm using coding agents in October 2025documents like https://github.com/obra/superpowers/blob/main/skills/testing... are very confusing to read as a human.
"skills" in this project generally don't seem to follow set format and just look like what you would get when prompting an LLM to "write a markdown doc that step by step describes how to do X" (which is what actually happened according to the blog post).
idk, but if you already assume that the LLM knows what TDD is (it probably ingested ~100 whole books about it), why are we feeding a short (and imo confusing) version of that back to it before the actual prompt?
i feel like a lot of projects like this that are supposed to give LLMs "superpowers" or whatever by prompt engineering are operating on the wrong assumption that LLMs are self-learning and can be made 10x smarter just by adding a bit of magic text that the LLM itse
Read the rest
lf produced before the actual prompt.
ofc context matters and if i have a repetitive tasks, i write down my constraints and requirements and paste that in before every prompt that fits this task. but that's just part of the specific context of what i'm trying to do. it's not giving the LLM superpowers, it's just providing context.
i've read a few posts like this now, but what i am always missing is actual examples of how it produces objectively better results compared to just prompting without the whole "you have skill X" thing.
I can't recommend this post strongly enough. The way Jesse is using these tools is wildly more ambitious than most other people.
Spend some time digging around in his https://github.com/obra/Superpowers repo.
I wrote some notes on this last night: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/10/superpowers/
In Superpowers: How I'm using coding agents in October 2025