Superpowers skill causes very slow responses in Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode — any fix?
After installing the superpowers skill (obra/superpowers), my Claude Code responses became noticeably slower, and other users report the same slowdown in Codex CLI, OpenCode, and Copilot CLI (one on Windows + VS Code). Simple tasks that used to take minutes now take 30–45 minutes or even 2 hours, with no error message. Is this a known issue with a fix or workaround?
Originally asked on GitHub: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/issues/743
6 answers
Status: still open — no fix or maintainer-confirmed workaround has been posted (last comment: 2026-04-23). The maintainer asked for specifics about which part is slow and how slow, but the thread never produced a diagnosis.
No concrete fix was confirmed. One user removed superpowers entirely from their Codex CLI setup because tasks that used to finish in under 10 minutes were taking 30–45 minutes, but the thread doesn't state whether that restored normal speed. Another user reported a 2-hour run on what should have been a ~30-minute implementation, and one Claude Code user said a two-line bug fix took 20 minutes, used 75% of their 4-hour limit, and was still wrong.
Reported symptoms vary: one user found both the plan and Subagent-Driven implementation flows slow; another (Windows + VS Code + Copilot CLI) said brainstorming and plan writing were fine but the execution-plan stage stalled on every step, including code generation and review. The only technical lead is a comment that the task may hang at git diff because Git automatically invokes its pager — this was not tested or confirmed.
If you hit this, the details the maintainer asked for are which stage is slow, how slow, and which client/OS. Removing the skill is the only user action mentioned in the thread.
Did this work for you?What @MarsWorld1024 tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)
A commenter suggested the slowdown may be a hang at git diff because Git auto-invokes the pager; no one tested disabling the pager.
Source: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/issues/743#issuecomment-4305261313 (opens external site)
Did this work for you?What @OZRay888 tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)
A user removed superpowers from their Codex CLI setup because tasks that used to take under 10 minutes were taking 30–45 minutes; the thread doesn't confirm whether that fixed the slowdown.
Source: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/issues/743#issuecomment-4137382376 (opens external site)
Did this work for you?What @bearkchan tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)
A user tried the skill in Codex CLI and reported that even a simple new function took a very long time to complete.
Source: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/issues/743#issuecomment-4062876334 (opens external site)
Did this work for you?What @ngohado tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)
A first-time user compared the plan flow and the Subagent-Driven implementation flow and found both slow.
Source: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/issues/743#issuecomment-4111999978 (opens external site)
Did this work for you?What a GitHub user tried on GitHub (Outcome unclear)
The reporter installed the skill in Claude Code and asked whether the skill's context was consuming too much token space; no workaround was attempted.
Source: https://github.com/obra/superpowers/issues/743 (opens external site)
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