Superpowers for OpenCode

September 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

Complete guide for using Superpowers with OpenCode.ai.

Installation

OpenCode V2 requires version 2.0.4 or later.

OpenCode V1

Use the existing V1 plugin configuration:

{
  "plugin": ["superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git"]
}

OpenCode V2 (2.0.4 or later)

Use the V2 plugin configuration:

{
  "plugins": ["superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git"]
}

For a local V2 installation, configure the repository directory containing index.js. OpenCode 2.0.4 and 2.0.7 reject a configured direct JavaScript-file path. Discovered plugin symlinks remain supported.

Restart OpenCode. V2 uses the opencode command; opencode2 may be available as an alias. The plugin installs through OpenCode's plugin manager and registers all skills.

Verify by asking: "Tell me about your superpowers"

If you previously installed superpowers using git clone and symlinks, remove the old setup:

# Remove old symlinks
rm -f ~/.config/opencode/plugins/superpowers.js
rm -rf ~/.config/opencode/skills/superpowers

# Optionally remove the cloned repo
rm -rf ~/.config/opencode/superpowers

# Remove skills.paths from opencode.json if you added one for superpowers

Then follow the installation steps above.

Usage

Finding Skills

Use OpenCode's native skill tool to list all available skills:

use skill tool to list skills

Loading a Skill

use skill tool to load brainstorming

Personal Skills

Create your own skills in ~/.config/opencode/skills/:

mkdir -p ~/.config/opencode/skills/my-skill

Create ~/.config/opencode/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md:

---
name: my-skill
description: Use when [condition] - [what it does]
---

# My Skill

[Your skill content here]

Project Skills

Create project-specific skills in .opencode/skills/ within your project.

V2 Skill Priority: Project skills > Personal skills > Superpowers skills. On tested V1 1.18.31, bundled Superpowers skills take precedence when a personal or project skill has the same name; use distinct names for personal and project skills. This behavior is unchanged by the migration.

Updating

OpenCode installs Superpowers through a git-backed package spec. Some OpenCode and Bun versions pin that resolved git dependency in a lockfile or cache, so a restart may not pick up the newest Superpowers commit. If updates do not appear, clear OpenCode's package cache or reinstall the plugin.

To pin a specific version, add a tag or commit to the spec (same form for the V1 plugin key and the V2 plugins key):

{
  "plugin": ["superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git#v6.4.1"]
}

On V2, pin v6.4.1 or later; v6.3.0 and earlier releases load only on V1.

How It Works

The plugin does two things, using host-flavor-specific APIs:

  1. Registers the skills directory so OpenCode discovers all superpowers skills without symlinks or manual config.
    • V1: via the config hook, injecting into config.skills.paths
    • V2: via the setup() function using ctx.skill.transform() (V2 native API, confirmed active at runtime)
  2. Injects bootstrap context with a flavor-specific tool mapping: V1 sessions get the V1 tool names below, and V2 sessions get the V2 names.
    • V1: via experimental.chat.messages.transform hook
    • V2: via ctx.session.hook("context") — the V2 equivalent (confirmed active at runtime)

Controller sessions receive the using-superpowers bootstrap in transient model context. Delegated child sessions keep access to native skills but do not receive the controller bootstrap. A manual fork without a parent session keeps controller behavior. When V2 native compaction retains earlier user messages (the default compaction.keep.tokens budget), the bootstrap goes into the first retained user message ahead of the checkpoint, as in an uncompacted session. When compaction removes all user messages, the plugin appends a transient bootstrap message after the checkpoint. Saved history is unchanged either way.

If session lookup fails, the plugin keeps bootstrap for that request and retries on the next request. Failed lookups are not cached as controller decisions.

Tool Mapping

Skills speak in actions rather than naming any one runtime's tools. The bootstrap maps them to the tools your OpenCode flavor actually exposes.

V1 (opencode 1.x):

  • "Create a todo" / "mark complete in todo list" → todowrite
  • Subagent (general-purpose): template → OpenCode's task tool with subagent_type: "general" (or "explore" for codebase exploration)
  • "Invoke a skill" → OpenCode's native skill tool
  • "Read a file" → read
  • "Create a file" / "edit a file" / "delete a file" → apply_patch
  • "Run a shell command" → bash
  • "Search file contents" / "find files by name" → grep, glob
  • "Fetch a URL" → webfetch

V2 (opencode 2.0.4 or later; opencode2 may be available as an alias):

  • "Create a todo" → V2 has no todo tool of any kind; the mapping tells the model to track the plan in a markdown file (or the harness's plan facility) instead
  • Subagent (general-purpose): template → OpenCode's subagent tool with agent: "general" (or "explore"); pass sessionID to continue a previous subagent
  • "Invoke a skill" → OpenCode's native skill tool
  • "Read a file" → read
  • "Create, edit, or delete files" → use patch with patchText when available; otherwise use write to create or overwrite files, edit for targeted changes, and shell for deletion
  • "Run a shell command" → shell (command, workdir, timeout, background)
  • "Search file contents" / "find files by name" → grep, glob
  • "Fetch a URL" → webfetch
  • "Search the web" → websearch

In short, V2 renamed task → subagent (the agent name moved from subagent_type to agent, and continuation happens by re-invoking with sessionID), apply_patch → patch, and bash → shell, and it dropped the todo tool entirely. The available mutation tools depend on the selected model: patch is available for selected GPT model IDs, while other models use write and edit.

(V1 list verified against the installed OpenCode 1.18.x CLI's tool inventory; V2 list verified against the OpenCode 2.0.4 and 2.0.7 host contracts.)

Troubleshooting

Plugin not loading

V1: Check OpenCode logs:

opencode run --print-logs "hello" 2>&1 | grep -i superpowers

V2: Plugins load in the background server, whose logs --print-logs only shows with --standalone:

opencode run --standalone --print-logs "hello" 2>&1 | grep -i superpowers

Or inspect ~/.local/share/opencode/log/opencode.log, filtering for role=server.

Also verify the plugin path in your opencode.json is correct and that you're running a recent version of OpenCode.

Windows install issues

Some Windows OpenCode builds have upstream installer issues with git-backed plugin specs, including cache paths for git+https URLs and Bun not finding git.exe even when it works in a normal terminal. If OpenCode cannot install the plugin, try installing with system npm and pointing OpenCode at the local package:

npm install superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git --prefix "$HOME\.config\opencode"

Then use the absolute path of the installed package in opencode.json for your OpenCode version. OpenCode does not expand ~; a ~/... entry is treated as a package name, not a local directory.

V1:

{
  "plugin": ["C:\\Users\\<you>\\.config\\opencode\\node_modules\\superpowers"]
}

V2 (2.0.4 or later):

{
  "plugins": ["C:\\Users\\<you>\\.config\\opencode\\node_modules\\superpowers"]
}

Skills not found

  1. Use OpenCode's skill tool to list available skills
  2. Check that the plugin is loading (see above)
  3. Each skill needs a SKILL.md file with valid YAML frontmatter

Bootstrap not appearing

  • V1: Check OpenCode version supports experimental.chat.messages.transform hook. Restart OpenCode after config changes.
  • V2: The plugin uses ctx.session.hook("context") for bootstrap injection. Verify the plugin loaded via opencode api get /api/plugin. Restart with opencode service restart after config changes. The opencode2 command may be available as an alias.

Getting Help