Claude Code on Steroids
The complete, production-grade Claude Code skill system — packaged, optimized, and update-proof.
Built on obra/superpowers by Jesse Vincent. Extended with 10 new skills, specific engineering improvements directed by GadaaLabs, and an override infrastructure that makes your skills survive plugin updates automatically.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GadaaLabs/claude-code-on-steroids/main/install.sh | bash
Requires: Claude Code CLI · Node.js 20+
Karpathy Guidelines — Always-On Behavioral Layer
Derived from Andrej Karpathy's observations on LLM coding mistakes.
A lightweight addition to your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md that works alongside the skill stack — no invocation required.
Why this complements the skill stack: Skills need to be invoked. A CLAUDE.md is ambient — it fires on every session automatically. These two principles fill the gap when a skill wasn't invoked:
| Principle | What it enforces | Covered by a skill? |
|---|
| Think Before Coding | Surface assumptions · present interpretations · ask before picking | Partial — architect covers design intent, not assumption surfacing |
| Goal-Driven Execution | Verifiable success criteria per step before writing code | Partial — forge + sentinel go deep, but only when invoked |
Add to your global CLAUDE.md in one command:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GadaaLabs/claude-code-on-steroids/main/examples/karpathy-guidelines.md >> ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
Full annotated example → examples/karpathy-guidelines.md
How This Compares to the Original
| obra/superpowers | Claude Code on Steroids |
|---|
| Total skills | 14 | 24 |
| New skills not in obra | — | +10 (oracle, chronicle, vector, horizon, legion, pathfinder, gradient, nexus, ironcore, prism) |
| Domain expertise (ML/AI/EE/UI) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Intelligence layer (classifier, memory, router) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-agent swarm templates | Concepts only | 4 topology prompt templates |
| API pre-verification in TDD | ✗ | ✓ (forge + blueprint) |
| Skill chain recipes | ✗ | 6 end-to-end chains |
| Domain trigger system | ✗ | 13 scenario → skill mappings |
| Override protection | ✗ | ✓ 100% update survivability |
| One-command install | ✗ | ✓ |
| Token usage analytics | ✗ | ✓ /tokenburn |
Installation
New users (no superpowers installed)
Run one command. The installer handles everything — installs the superpowers plugin, copies all 24 skills, builds the tokenburn CLI, and wires up the SessionStart hook:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GadaaLabs/claude-code-on-steroids/main/install.sh | bash
Then open any project:
cd your-project && claude
/oracle # start here for every non-trivial task
/tokenburn # see where your tokens are going
Requirements: Claude Code CLI (npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code) and Node.js 20+.
Migrating from obra/superpowers (already installed)
No need to uninstall anything. The installer detects your existing superpowers installation and installs directly into it. Your plugin infrastructure, version, and settings remain intact — only the skill files are upgraded.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GadaaLabs/claude-code-on-steroids/main/install.sh | bash
That's it. The next time you open Claude Code, the new skills are live.
What changes: 24 skill files are written into your existing superpowers skills directory. A SessionStart hook is added to ~/.claude/settings.json so your pinned overrides survive any future plugin update.
What stays the same: Your plugin version, all other plugin settings, Claude Code configuration, any custom CLAUDE.md files.
What the installer does
- Detects whether superpowers is installed; installs it if not
- Copies all 24 skill files into the superpowers skills directory
- Builds the
tokenburn CLI (npm install && npm run build && npm link) from the bundled TypeScript source
- Installs the
/tokenburn slash command
- Adds a
SessionStart hook that runs apply.sh on every Claude Code session open
apply.sh copies 9 pinned skill overrides into the live plugin directory so they survive plugin updates
The Token Burn Problem — Why This Exists
The biggest pain point in Claude Code is not missing workflows. It is token burn.
