---
stable_id: skills/obra-writing-skills
type: skills
title: obra-writing-skills
summary: >-
  ---

  name: writing-skills

  description: Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or
  verifying skills work before deployment

  ---

  # Writing Skills

  ## Overview

  **Writing skills IS Test-Driven Development applied to process
  documentation.**

  **Personal skills live in agent-specific directories (`~/.claude/skills` for
  Claude Code, `~/.agents/skills/` for Codex)**

  You write test cases (pressure scenarios with subagents), watch them fail
  (baseline behavior), write the skill (documentation), watch tests pass (agents
  comply), and refactor (close loopholes).

  **Core principle:** If you didn't watch an agent fail without the skill, you
  don't know if the skill teaches the right thing.
tags:
  - obra
  - source-obra-superpowers
source_url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/obra/superpowers/main/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md
license: ""
upstream_ref: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/blob/main/skills/writing-skills/SKILL.md
github_stars: 101712
github_forks: 8129
github_is_organization: false
retrieved_at: 2026-06-11T08:33:18.279Z
content_sha256: 38ba648975ae6ba512d6695676f146163db61a496b867f716f4bdfb0ee3aca3e
---
