Micropowers

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A lightweight, no-friction development workflow. Keeps the discipline of "align first, code later" while cutting the ceremony — giving the model intellectual initiative but drawing clear boundaries.

Positioning

| | Superpowers | Micropowers | |---|---|---| | Designed for | Unfamiliar subagents + complex cross-module changes | Everyday requests + one developer + one agent | | Attitude toward the model | Guard against the model (HARD-GATE, red flags) | Trust the model (intellectual partner) | | Source of quality | Downstream review (two-person review) | Upstream precision (precise plan) + model judgment | | Process rigidity | Never skippable | Hard boundaries by default, user can override |

Not a simplified Superpowers. Philosophy inherited, code independent. No compatibility, no dependency, no interop.

Flow

User /micropowers → entry routing + style selection
                 → micropowers-brainstorm (Socratic alignment)
                 → micropowers-plan (precise spec + acceptance checklist)
                 → micropowers-execute (parallel subagents + TDD discipline)
                 → micropowers-finish (wrap-up)

The four phases cannot be skipped — typing /micropowers signs that contract; the only exception is resuming: a saved plan resumes directly into the execution phase. The design presentation for a trivial task can be compressed to one sentence, but the flow itself is not skippable.

Four Collaboration Styles

Pick one at the entry; it applies throughout. Switch at any time.

| Style | In one line | Alignment phase | Plan output | Execution phase | |---|---|---|---|---| | Fast | Results over process | at most ~3 questions, give recommendation | Give the conclusion | Report pass/fail only | | Standard (default) | Balanced | at most ~8 questions, multiple-choice preferred | Task summary | One line per task | | Explainable | Wants to understand the thinking | Attach trade-off logic | + design rationale | + root-cause analysis | | Auditable | Every decision leaves a trace | Drill down + decision IDs | + decision links | Verify each item |

Style files live separately (skills/micropowers/micropowers-styles/) so they don't pollute the core workflow skills. The entry loads only the selected style on demand — never all four at once. The plan's internal execution spec is identical across all four styles; the style only affects what the user sees after the plan is produced.

Model Authority

| | Pure technical decisions | Structural / security risks | |---|---|---| | Authority | Decide autonomously | Must speak up, with a recommended option | | Condition | Does not conflict with the user's request | Destructive / bloated / dangerous, or a well-known industry best practice exists |

The user defines the what and the boundaries; the model owns the how and keeps the gate. Within a step, the model has intellectual initiative (asking questions, designing solutions, splitting tasks), but cannot change the user's intent.

Human Limitations

• Limited cognitive bandwidth — one question at a time, don't flood the screen with the plan
• Limited knowledge — don't grill the user on technical details, read the project yourself
• Unstable expression — infer intent from rough descriptions, confirm key decisions
• Decision fatigue — give a strong recommendation at forks, don't flood with options, don't force a third option

Installation

Recommended: npx skills — install the whole set with one command (the 5 skills are one unit; install all of them)

npx skills add GDWhisper/micropowers -s '*'

-s '*' skips the per-skill checklist and installs all 5 skills at once (micropowers / micropowers-brainstorm / micropowers-plan / micropowers-execute / micropowers-finish). Without -s, you'll get an interactive checklist where you select skills one by one with the spacebar. Which agent to install into is left to the interactive prompt (-a <agent> can preset it; supported agents are listed in npx skills add --help). Installs into the current project by default; add -g for a global (user-level) install.

Tell your agent:

Fetch and follow instructions from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GDWhisper/micropowers/refs/heads/main/INSTALL.md

Or manually:

cp -r micropowers/skills/* ~/.agents/skills/

Pi package:

pi install npm:micropowers

Or pin a git ref instead: pi install git:github.com/GDWhisper/[email protected]. Add -l to write to the current project's .pi/settings.json rather than your user settings. Pick one install method, not both. Pi resolves skill-name collisions first-come-first-served, and its auto-discovered directories win over packages — so leftover copies in ~/.agents/skills/micropowers* or ~/.pi/agent/skills/micropowers* (e.g. from npx skills) silently shadow the package's skills. Delete those copies before switching to the pi package.

Relationship to Superpowers

Both projects can be installed side by side without affecting each other.

License

Apache License 2.0