bigpowers — Best-in-Class Agentic Skills

61 agent skills for high-integrity, spec-driven, test-first software development by solo developers.

bigpowers provides a prescriptive, vertical-slice methodology for building software with AI agents (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Cursor, pi). It bridges the gap between raw LLM capabilities and professional engineering standards.

Published on npm: bigpowers@2.0.0

---

🚀 Quick Start

npm (recommended)

# One-shot setup — downloads, syncs artifacts, and links skills to your tools
npx bigpowers

# Or install globally and run the setup command anytime
npm install -g bigpowers
bigpowers

Both commands sync skill artifacts and link them to Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Cursor (see Prerequisites).

From source (contributors)

git clone https://github.com/danielvm-git/bigpowers.git && cd bigpowers
npm install          # runs postinstall: sync + link
# or manually:
bash scripts/install.sh
npm run sync

---

🛠 Prerequisites

• Bash: Required for all scripts.
• Node.js: v14+ (required for npm/npx).
• jq: (Highly Recommended) Used for robust configuration of tool settings.
• AI Tools: One or more of:
  • Claude Code
  • Gemini CLI
  • Cursor
  • pi — coding agent harness

---

🔄 Maintenance (Update & Uninstall)

Update

npm install:

npm update -g bigpowers
bigpowers    # re-sync and refresh symlinks

git clone:

git pull
npm run sync

Install uses symlinks — re-running setup refreshes links without duplicating files.

Uninstall

npm install:

bash "$(npm root -g)/bigpowers/scripts/install.sh" --uninstall
npm uninstall -g bigpowers

git clone:

bash scripts/install.sh --uninstall

Reinstall

npx bigpowers
# or, if installed globally:
bigpowers

---

🔌 pi Support

bigpowers generates pi Agent Skills and prompt templates alongside Cursor and Gemini artifacts via sync-skills.sh.

Install as a pi package

# Clone and sync to generate pi artifacts
cd bigpowers
bash scripts/sync-skills.sh

# Install from local path as a pi package
pi install .

# Or install as a pi npm package (once published with pi-package keyword)
pi install npm:bigpowers

What you get:

• 62 pi skills in .pi/skills/ — loaded automatically into pi's system prompt as <available_skills>
• 62 pi prompt templates in .pi/prompts/ — slash commands like /survey-context, /plan-work
• pi package manifest in .pi/package.json — enables pi install with auto-discovery

Skills are loaded on-demand via progressive disclosure: only descriptions are always in context; the full SKILL.md loads when the agent reads it. Prompt templates expand in pi's editor with autocomplete.

🔧 MCP Server (Model Context Protocol)

bigpowers ships an MCP server that exposes all skills as callable MCP tools. Agents can discover and invoke skills dynamically instead of relying on a static system prompt.

Start the server

node scripts/mcp-server.js

Add to Claude Code

claude mcp add bigpowers node /path/to/bigpowers/scripts/mcp-server.js

Or add manually to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bigpowers": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/bigpowers/scripts/mcp-server.js"]
    }
  }
}

Available MCP tools

Tool	Description
bigpowers_list_skills	List all 68 skills with name, description, phase. Optional phase filter.
bigpowers_get_skill	Get full SKILL.md content for any skill by name.
bigpowers_search_skills	Keyword/semantic search — returns ranked matches for a query.
bigpowers_get_state	Get current specs/state.yaml (active flow, epic, step).
bigpowers_invoke_skill	Get skill instructions with optional context for agent invocation.

---

🏗 The v2.0.0 Lifecycle

Every project follows the orchestrate-project 6-phase model (full SOP: docs/WORKFLOW-SOP-v2.md):

ONE TIME    seed-conventions  (CLAUDE.md, .claude/, .gemini/, agents/, skill sync)
              ↓
ONCE/PROJECT orchestrate-project
              │
              ├─ Ph1 DISCOVER   survey-context, research-first, elaborate-spec
              ├─ Ph2 ELABORATE  model-domain, grill-me, define-language, deepen-architecture
              ├─ Ph3 PLAN       scope-work, slice-tasks, plan-work → release-plan.yaml (BCP baseline)
              ├─ Ph4 BUILD      build-epic × N stories
              │
              │  Per story — 8-step build-epic cycle:
              │   1. survey-context   ← stamps story_start in state.yaml
              │   2. plan-work        ← [BCP N] tasks + verify: commands
              │   3. kickoff-branch   ← worktree + feature branch
              │   4. develop-tdd      ← RED → GREEN → REFACTOR
              │   5. verify-work      ← UAT gate
              │   6. audit-code       ← quality gate ≥ 94%
              │   7. commit-message   ← Conventional Commits + semver
              │   8. release-branch   ← land to main; writes story_end + cycle-times.yaml
              │
              ├─ Ph5 VERIFY     run-evals, verify-work (project-level)
              └─ Ph6 RELEASE    semantic-release → v1.0.0 MVP tag

Semver: projects start at 0.0.0-β; each feat: story → minor bump; developer declares MVP → 1.0.0.

BCP accounting: every task labeled [BCP N]; story total in state.yaml; BCP/hr logged to specs/metrics/cycle-times.yaml.

next_skill signaling: each critical-path skill writes handoff.next_skill to state.yaml. Call survey-context after any interruption to resume exactly where you left off.

---

📖 Hierarchy of Truth

Level	Document	Responsibility
Vision	docs/PRINCIPLES.md	Philosophical foundations and evolution.
Context	specs/tech-architecture/TECH_STACK_LATEST.md	Tech stack, architecture, and domain notes.
Scope	specs/product/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml	In-scope / out-of-scope and success criteria.
Vision	specs/product/VISION_LATEST.yaml	North star and initiative success criteria.
Decisions	specs/adr/	Architectural Decision Records (irreversible choices).
Roadmap	specs/release-plan.yaml + specs/epics/	WSJF-prioritized epics and stories with BCP baseline.
Current	specs/state.yaml	Session flow, active epic, handoff.next_skill, timestamps.
Metrics	specs/metrics/cycle-times.yaml	Per-story BCPs, cycle minutes, BCP/hr (v2.0.0).
Index	SKILL-INDEX.md	Canonical list of all active skills.
Style	CONVENTIONS.md	Coding, testing, and naming standards.

---

📁 Project Structure

• scripts/: Installation, syncing, and compliance tools.
• specs/: YAML cockpit — state.yaml, release-plan.yaml, epics/, execution-status.yaml, requirements/.
• specs/metrics/: Cycle-time ledger (cycle-times.yaml) — per-story BCPs, timestamps, BCP/hr (v2.0.0).
• dashboard/: Live monitoring tool — TUI (npm run dashboard) and web (npm run dashboard:web, port 7742).
• docs/: Guides including WORKFLOW-SOP-v2.md (full SDLC SOP) and using-bigpowers.md.
• docs/references/: Theoretical foundations (Uncle Bob, Ousterhout, Karpathy, etc.).
• [skill-name]/: Source files for each of the 61 skills.

---

🤝 References & Credits

bigpowers stands on the shoulders of giants. It integrates patterns from:

• Akita: Architectural patterns.
• BMAD: Bold, Minimal, Actionable, Durable documentation.
• Clean Code: Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob).
• A Philosophy of Software Design: John Ousterhout.
• GSD (Get Stuff Done): Pragmatic workflow frameworks.

---

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

---

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, but integrity is the ultimate requirement.”