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ADR-0005: Let the superpowers chain own the process on Claude Code and keep oh-my-claudecode for agents

  • Status: accepted
  • Date: 2026-10-21
  • Supersedes: the Claude Code decision and the precedence order in ADR-0004

Context

ADR-0004 gave oh-my-claudecode the plan and execute steps on Claude Code and kept only brainstorming and the discipline skills from superpowers. In use, that split cuts the superpowers chain at its first handoff:

  • brainstorming ends by invoking writing-plans; that is its only terminal state on the architectural path. The adapter forbade the very next step the skill requires, so every design session hit a conflict between the skill and the adapter and resolved it ad hoc, sometimes one way and sometimes the other.
  • ADR-0004 rejected superpowers on Claude Code because oh-my-claudecode's plan and execute workflows are wired to its agent catalog and model routing. subagent-driven-development carries its whole task in prompt templates and requires only that each dispatch names a model. Its templates name general-purpose as the subagent type, but nothing in the flow depends on that type, so the adapter can route the same templates to oh-my-claudecode agents without bypassing the companion.
  • Codex already runs the superpowers chain. Two process owners in one hub means two process descriptions to keep consistent.

Decision

  • On Claude Code, the superpowers chain owns the process: brainstorming → writing-plans → the execution mode the user picks at its handoff, subagent-driven-development or executing-plans. Each execution mode runs its own reviews and ends in finishing-a-development-branch. The discipline skills — test-driven-development, systematic-debugging, requesting-code-review, receiving-code-review, verification-before-completion — apply wherever they fit.
  • oh-my-claudecode stays required and owns the agent catalog, model routing, and hooks. The adapter overrides the templates' general-purpose subagent type: implementers and fixes go to executor, reviewers to code-reviewer. The skill's prompt template replaces the agent's default task and report format, and the skill's model tiers map to haiku, sonnet, and opus.
  • oh-my-claudecode workflows (plan, ralplan, deep-interview, execute, review, verify, autopilot, ralph, team, ultragoal) run only when the user types the slash command or asks for one by name; a keyword detected in incidental text does not count. The adapter states that the workflow list in oh-my-claudecode's managed block does not set the process.
  • The shared precedence order becomes: user and project instructions, then the superpowers process chain, then the runtime's orchestration layer, then the base defaults. A marker-delimited block that a companion's tooling writes into the user's instruction file ranks as that companion, not as a user instruction.
  • The rest of ADR-0004 stands: interaction defaults yield to companion process skills, Codex is unchanged, and orchestrator-workflow and refactor-workflow stay deleted.

Alternatives considered

  • Keep oh-my-claudecode as the process owner and allow writing-plans as an exception. Rejected: the chain continues past planning into an execution mode and finishing-a-development-branch, so a single exception moves the conflict one step later instead of removing it.
  • Drop oh-my-claudecode on Claude Code. Rejected: superpowers ships no agent catalog, model routing, or hooks, and the user-invoked autonomous modes have no superpowers equivalent.
  • Let both chains coexist and choose per task. Rejected: this is the overlap ADR-0004 removed; an agent choosing between two process owners on every turn is the failure being fixed.

Consequences

  • Claude Code and Codex run the same superpowers chain; the adapters differ in dispatch mechanics and agent catalogs.
  • Specs land in docs/superpowers/specs/ and plans in docs/superpowers/plans/ and are committed to the target repository, unlike oh-my-claudecode's git-ignored .omc/plans/.
  • oh-my-claudecode reviewer agents carry their own output contracts and cannot write files. Dispatches rely on the superpowers template overriding the contract, and fixes always go to executor.
  • The oh-my-claudecode managed block still lists its own canonical workflows. Agents must apply the precedence rule for managed blocks to ignore it.
  • Users who relied on plan or ralplan running by default must now invoke them by name.