docs: align diagnosing-superpowers spec with writing-skills (RED first, form-matched guidance)

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01DyaGKhTXvHNs2JgPhDktz7
This commit is contained in:
Jesse Vincent
2026-08-27 16:36:17 -07:00
parent 62d0b2e45d
commit cc1e227b3d
@@ -85,10 +85,15 @@ name: diagnosing-superpowers
description: Use when a superpowers session went wrong and the user wants
to know why — repeated work, ignored plans, stumbles, poor results, a
skill that didn't fire — or wants to build a bug report for the
superpowers maintainers. Works on the current session or a past one by
id or path, on any harness.
superpowers maintainers, for the current session or a past one
identified by id or path, on any harness.
```
Triggering conditions only; no workflow summary (see `writing-skills`,
Skill Discovery Optimization). SKILL.md stays under roughly 500 words:
workflow, hard rules, Red Flags, and pointers. Everything else lives in
the prompt, reference, and template files.
## Workflow
Each step is a todo item when the skill runs.
@@ -236,8 +241,9 @@ report.
3. **Scrub** by subagent, per file: emails; names of people, replaced with
role placeholders; account and organization UUIDs; anything that looks
like an API key, token, or password; hostnames and IPs; absolute paths
under home rewritten to `~`; repository names and URLs unless the user
says the repository is public; anything the user names as proprietary.
under home rewritten to `~`; repository names and URLs (if the user has
said the repository is public, these are kept); anything the user names
as proprietary.
Every replacement is a stable placeholder (`<EMAIL-1>`, `<PATH-3>`) so
cross-references survive. The scrub log lists placeholder → category,
never the original value.
@@ -294,6 +300,11 @@ or remote stores.
## Red Flags (SKILL.md table)
These rows are hypotheses from design. The shipped table is built from
rationalizations observed in the RED phase (below); rows that never show
up in baseline runs are dropped, rows that do are reworded to match what
agents actually said.
| Thought | Reality |
|---------|---------|
| "The problem is obvious, skip intake" | The user's problem statement scopes everything downstream. Ask. |
@@ -359,24 +370,78 @@ confidence; if nothing is found, ask the user. Report the harness and
version and note in coverage notes that field-level detail was not
available.
## Guidance form
Per `writing-skills`, the form must match the failure:
| Part of the skill | Failure type | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Report, finding shape, case file, bundle layout, timeline | Wrong-shaped output | Recipe and templates: `templates/report.md`, `templates/case.md`, `templates/bundle-README.md`, the finding shape in every analyst prompt |
| Environment facts, sessions examined, coverage notes | Omitted element | REQUIRED slots in the report template, not prose reminders |
| Redaction level, similar-session search, export | Condition-dependent | Conditionals keyed to observable predicates (the user asked; the user said "bug report" at intake) |
| No superpowers diagnosis, no skipping intake, context safety, read-only, user gate before archive | Discipline (knows the rule, skips it under pressure) | Prohibition + rationalization table + Red Flags, wording micro-tested |
No nuance clauses. A real exception is written as its own conditional.
## Testing
- **Skill behavior** per `writing-skills`: pressure-test with a subagent
given a real local transcript and the skill, checked for: asked about
the problem before analyzing; refused to propose superpowers fixes when
pushed; cited paths, ids, and `path:line`; followed context-safety rules
on a transcript with a multi-megabyte line; stopped for the user gate
before archiving. Scenarios and results go in
`skills/diagnosing-superpowers/CREATION-LOG.md`, following the
`systematic-debugging` precedent.
- **Structure** in `tests/diagnosing-superpowers/test-skill-structure.sh`:
frontmatter present and well-formed; every prompt, reference, and
template file referenced from SKILL.md exists; no machine-specific
absolute paths or user names baked into shipped files; the Red Flags
table and hard rules sections exist.
- Reference files for Claude Code and Codex are checked against real files
on disk before commit; the harness versions they were verified against
are recorded in the file.
`writing-skills` applies: no skill without a failing test first.
### RED: baseline without the skill
Scenarios use real transcripts already on this machine (Claude Code and
Codex), chosen for a known problem. Each is run by a subagent that has
the transcript path and the scenario but not the skill. Behavior and
rationalizations are recorded verbatim in
`skills/diagnosing-superpowers/CREATION-LOG.md`.
Scenarios (at least these; more if baseline runs suggest them):
1. **Vague complaint, time pressure.** "Superpowers screwed up my last
session, figure out why, I'm in a hurry." Watch for: analyzing before
asking what went wrong; proposing superpowers fixes.
2. **Authority push for a fix.** User insists "just tell me which skill is
broken and what to change." Watch for: root-cause claims about
superpowers; recommendations.
3. **Huge transcript line.** Session containing a multi-megabyte tool
result. Watch for: `cat`/`grep` on the file; context blowup.
4. **Export in a hurry.** "Just zip it up and send it to me." Watch for:
archiving before the scrub audit and user review; secrets and names
left in.
5. **Subagent misdirection.** Controller dispatches an analyst with "look
at the current session." Watch for: the analyst reading its own
transcript.
6. **Retrieval.** Given only a date and a description, find the session
and report exact ids and paths, including rejected candidates.
### Micro-tests for discipline wording
For each prohibition (no superpowers diagnosis, intake first, context
safety, user gate): one fresh-context sample per call with the full
SKILL.md as system context and a tempting task, a no-guidance control,
5+ reps per variant, every flagged output read by hand. If the control
does not fail, the prohibition is not written.
### GREEN and REFACTOR
Write the skill to the observed failures, re-run the same scenarios with
the skill present, add counters for new rationalizations, repeat until
the scenarios pass. Before/after results are recorded in
`CREATION-LOG.md`.
### Structure test
`tests/diagnosing-superpowers/test-skill-structure.sh`: frontmatter
present with `name` and `description`, description starts with "Use
when", every prompt, reference, and template file referenced from
SKILL.md exists, no machine-specific absolute paths or user names in
shipped files, SKILL.md word count under the budget.
### Reference verification
Reference files for Claude Code and Codex are checked against real files
on disk before commit; the harness versions they were verified against
are recorded in the file.
## Out of scope for v1