Amplifier Superpowers
Superpowers v2
Major Methodology Refresh
Comprehensive update to our Amplifier-native Superpowers — better enforcement, richer guidance, leaner skill footprint, more resilient recipes.
Active — Live on main
March 2026
Overview
What Changed
A significant update bringing our Amplifier-native Superpowers current with obra's latest methodology thinking. Every layer was touched — skills, modes, agents, and recipes.
📡
Live Upstream Skills
Methodology content pulled directly from obra's repo. No more stale copies.
🎛️
6 Modes Enriched
Every mode updated with latest methodology on enforcement, escalation, and completion discipline.
🤖
Smarter Agents
Status protocols, architecture-level review, and institutional distrust.
🔧
Hardened Recipes
Retry blocks, proper sub-recipe composition, tuned timeouts.
Architecture
Live Skills from obra/superpowers
As Jesse iterates on anti-rationalization, TDD, debugging, brainstorming, and everything else —
we get those improvements automatically. We went from maintaining 7 bundle-owned skill copies to 2 Amplifier-specific ones.
Before: 7 bundle-owned copies
- Skills copied into our bundle repo
- Drift from upstream as obra iterates
- Manual sync needed for every update
- Unclear which version we're running
After: 2 Amplifier-specific skills
- Methodology skills pulled live from obra's repo
- Our skills listed first — can override when needed
- Automatic methodology updates
- Clear ownership boundary
The Right Architecture
We own the platform integration and enforcement mechanisms. Jesse owns the methodology content. Our bundle references his skills at runtime. When we need Amplifier-specific behavior, we override with our own skill — listed first in the resolution order.
Modes
All 6 Modes Enriched
Every mode now carries the latest thinking on methodology enforcement, escalation signals, and completion discipline.
💡
Brainstorm
- Architecture guidance: design for isolation, testability, minimal interfaces
- Scope assessment
🐛
Debug
- "3+ fixes → question the architecture" escalation
- Human partner signal recognition
⚡
Execute-plan
- Implementer status protocol: DONE / DONE_WITH_CONCERNS / NEEDS_CONTEXT / BLOCKED
- Model selection guidance
✅
Verify
- Red-Green regression test pattern
📝
Write-plan
- File structure planning
- Plan size guidance: >15 tasks → split into phases
🔄
Mode Activation
- Agents now activate modes via tool call on user consent
- Not just conversational — actual tool invocation
Agents
Smarter Agents
Three agents got meaningful upgrades — better status reporting, architectural awareness, and institutional distrust.
🔨
Implementer
- Status protocol — structured exit codes (DONE, DONE_WITH_CONCERNS, NEEDS_CONTEXT, BLOCKED) instead of free-form text
- Architecture guidance — knows when to escalate vs. proceed
🔍
Code Quality Reviewer
- Architecture-level checks — not just line-by-line
- YAGNI enforcement at the review layer
🛡️
Spec Reviewer
- Strengthened institutional distrust framing
- "The implementer finished suspiciously quickly" — built-in skepticism
Recipes
Recipe Hardening
Reliability improvements across the recipe pipeline — retries, composition fixes, and timeout tuning.
🔁
Retry with Backoff
Exponential backoff on all agent steps. API hiccups no longer kill pipeline runs.
🔗
Sub-Recipe Composition
Full-development-cycle recipe now properly composes the SDD recipe via staged sub-recipe composition. Fixes a quality gap where the full cycle was using self-review instead of the three-agent review pipeline.
⏱️
Timeout Tuning
Plan-writer and load-plan timeouts bumped for large plans. No more premature timeouts on complex projects.
Anti-Rationalization
One Source of Truth
Cross-mode anti-rationalization content — spirit vs. letter, YAGNI, false completion prevention — now lives in a shared context file, @-mentioned from every mode. One place to update, consistent enforcement everywhere.
Before
- Anti-rationalization text duplicated across modes
- Updates required editing each mode individually
- Drift between modes was inevitable
After
- Shared context file with all anti-rationalization content
- @-mentioned from mode bodies — always in attention when a mode is active
- Enabled by a new ecosystem capability: mode bodies now resolve @-mentions
What's Enforced
- Spirit vs. letter compliance
- YAGNI — you aren't gonna need it
- False completion detection
- Scope creep prevention
Ecosystem
Platform Improvements
Shipped alongside as improvements for everyone — not just Superpowers users.
🧩
Staged Sub-Recipe Composition
Any recipe can now compose staged sub-recipes with approval gates. Gates surface through the parent — no lost prompts.
📎
@-mention in Mode Bodies
Modes can reference shared context files using @-mentions. This is what enabled the shared anti-rationalization pattern.
⚙️
Bundle Source Overrides
Point any bundle to a different version or local path via settings.yaml. Useful for any bundle development or testing.
Sources
Sources & Links
Date: March 2026
Feature status: Active — live on main branch
Repositories:
Contributors:
- • Brian Krabach — v2 integration, enforcement mechanisms, ecosystem improvements
- • Jesse Vincent — methodology content (obra/superpowers)
Get Started
Update, then start.
Update Amplifier to get the latest bundles, then start or restart your session. The improvements are active immediately.
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