How Skills Work

Metapowers skills are structured prompts. When you run /design:empathize button, the skill provides Claude with a detailed process to follow — what to research, how to structure the output, where to save it.

You don't need to write detailed prompts. The skill handles that. Your job is to provide good arguments and answer questions when the skill asks them.

Writing Good Arguments

The argument you pass to a skill ($ARGUMENTS) determines the scope and focus.

Be Specific

# Too vague
/research:discover marketing

# Better
/research:discover user onboarding friction for SaaS products

Use Descriptive Names

The argument becomes the folder name in .metapowers/. Use names that are clear when you see them later.

# Hard to find later
/development:plan feature-1

# Easy to find
/development:plan stripe-payment-integration

Match the Domain

Each domain expects different kinds of arguments:

Domain	Argument Type	Examples
Design	Component name	`button`, `checkout-form`, `navigation`
Research	Topic or question	`user onboarding friction`, `pricing strategy`
Development	Feature name	`auth-system`, `api-migration`, `search`
Branding	Brand name	`acme`, `startup-xyz`
Accessibility	Target	`checkout-flow`, `landing-page`, `modal`
Marketing	Campaign/project	`product-launch`, `q4-campaign`
Coaching	File or subject	`src/components/Modal.tsx`, `login-form`
Leadership	Team or topic	`engineering-team`, `q3-okrs`

Answering Skill Questions

Some skills ask questions before proceeding — especially discovery and strategy phases. Good answers lead to better output.

Be Honest About Constraints

Skill: "Who is your target audience?"

# Weak answer
Everyone

# Strong answer
Small SaaS teams (5-20 people) who are technical but
don't have a dedicated designer. Budget-conscious, 
moving fast, care about quality but not perfection.

Provide Context

If you have existing work, mention it. Skills can read files you point them to.

Skill: "Are there existing brand elements?"

# Helpful answer
Yes — we have a logo in .metapowers/branding/acme/assets/logo/
and a color palette defined in the Figma file. The current
brand feels too corporate, we want to be more approachable.

Skip Checks

Skills enforce phase ordering — you can't run Phase 3 without completing Phase 2. If you need to bypass this:

/design:ideate button --skip-checks

Use sparingly. Phase ordering exists because later phases depend on earlier artifacts.

Tips

Run phases in order. Each phase builds on the previous one. Skipping phases means missing context.
Review artifacts between phases. Read what was produced before moving to the next phase. Edit if something is off.
Combine domains. A great product launch uses research, design, development, branding, accessibility, and marketing together.
Use coaching anytime. Coaching skills are utilities — run them on any work product at any time for expert feedback.
Commit artifacts. The .metapowers/ directory is meant to be version-controlled. Commit artifacts so your team can reference them.

Prompting