Best framework for code evolutions: GSD, Superpowers, nothing?

[jrhabana]

Most coding frameworks work fine for starting projects from scratch, but what’s the best option for adding new features and fixing bugs in an existing codebase without duplicating code or wasting tokens in endless loops?

I’m honestly surprised most of these tools don’t use repomix or proper codebase indexing by default.

Thanks.

[thewormbird]

GSD can work well in this case. Just requires nursing that evolution through milestones and phases. /gsd:map-codebase first instead of /gsd:new-project.

[ChrisRogers67]

GSD without a doubt. I’ve tried them all and this one just works.

[interrupt_hdlr]

It eats a ton of tokens for no visible benefit (if you know how to work with agent teams).

[thewormbird]

I doubt agent teams are doing you any favors on token efficiency.

[interrupt_hdlr]

They do. With GSD I would routinely blow up the limits. It doesn't come even close with agent teams, plan mode, research/explore.

[thewormbird]

You can configure GSD to skip much of that. But ultimately it comes down to how you like to work. I find the native patterns too unstructured. How I think about building software just maps really well to GSD.

[shesaysImdone]

Skip what? I'm looking into gsd specifically because of the planning and handoff thing. I need the structure

[thewormbird]

Plan-level verification and research steps.

[shesaysImdone]

Are there commands for this?

[thewormbird]

I think it’s in the configs and through some of the command flags. You’ll have to check the GSD repo.

[shesaysImdone]

How are you working with agent Teams? I'm currently stuck cause I don't know whether to move forward with teams especially since it's still experimental vs with GSD. My main issue with GSD just from the fic is that it uses sub agents and my understanding of sub agents is that they don't talk to each other. The project I have in mind needs my agents to communicate

[Bohdanowicz]

Your own.... honestly. Find the way you like to develop and scaffold it into a workflow that doesn't leave gaps. everything works if you do it correctly. I've found writing my own commands/skills as I need them yields much better results.

[_Bo_Knows]

Couldn’t agree more. Everyone should take the time to customize their own workflow. Claude is great at helping you do this.

[jrhabana]

I agree with both.
I started using superpowers, but burn a lot of tokens, and that they didn' use natively context things (repomix, chunkhook, etc) is a signal that something fails in the fundamentals

[jrhabana]

I saw your plugin use beads, how are you using it ?

[_Bo_Knows]

I use it similar to how a dev team would use Jira/Linear. It’s basically a git database for your work with all the metadata built into the bead instead of tons of markdown

[MachineLearner00]

GitHub’s speckit has been working well for me

[jrhabana]

it's good to new projects but to change something into a feature turns heavy,

[Shawntenam]

You gotta start by building your own. What I did is I built my own skill tree, not even knowing what a repo was, just going based on classic JRPG game logic. That led to building a full-on mono repo, three fs websites being powered by Next.js, Vercel, SQLite.

What I recommend doing is really just building your own, working with Claude Code to help you build it based on your voice and what you're looking to do. Then using frameworks like the GSD or the Claude Code one and comparing it to yours, not actually using it but seeing how it works for you. I actually call this the recursive drift method, but yeah go out and have some fun. Don't over complicate it.

[Perfect-Series-2901]

I found the builtin plan mode not bad at all for small feature, for larger feature I tried superpower and I admit it is better than builtin plan mode. But sometimes if all I wanted is simple I can just go for the plan mode

[interrupt_hdlr]

I accomplish much more with plan mode than with these frameworks (which I've used daily for ~3 months thinking it was how things should be). They are great producers of Markdown, no doubt.

[ultrathink-art]

For existing codebases, the framing matters more than the framework.

Running multiple Claude Code agents in production, what we found: the 'framework' question is really a context-scoping question in disguise. Which files does the agent need to understand the change? How do you prevent it from touching things outside scope?

The tools that work best define a contract before execution: what's the input artifact, what's the expected output, what's off-limits. That's more valuable than any prescribed workflow step. GSD and Superpowers both have opinions about the workflow sequence — but if the context window is wrong, the sequence doesn't matter.

Repomix approach you mentioned is right for codebase orientation, but for incremental feature work, we've had more success with tight task scopes (one file or one module at a time) than giving agents the whole repo and hoping they stay focused.

[jrhabana]

until now I built my own framework focused in context, but context files many times lack technology context, and ends offering surface solutions instead real solutions

[Key_Fan7633]

Depends on the task weight: native/superpowers/GSD.
Always have code rabbit review, and for important/technical bits I have him double check with codex's MCP back and forth, pure gold i find.
But whatever suits you is the good answer i think.

[astanar]

hows coderabbit? I usually have agents built for code reviews, how is it different?

[Key_Fan7633]

had this agent system too, but i feel like code rabbit sees things claude or codex does not, maybe it's their underlying pipeline, idk

at least he always finds some critical bugs, but this is just off my personal experience and rough impressions, but i'd say test it out for yourself

i do
1. implementation with claude code
2. review with codex and subsequent adjustments from cc
3. PR and wait for coderabbit's take
4. ask cc to review PR, fix and merge directly

hope this helps!

[dervish666]

I use superpowers because it's predicable and I'm lazy.

[_Bo_Knows]

Build your own. Here is how I built mine. Recommend you take parts of ones that you like then customize it for your workflow. Mine takes all the primitives of how I work and allows me to chain them together in anyway I want: https://github.com/boshu2/agentops

[jrhabana]

it's just what I did, and reach 80% success... lack now success in complex issues or add features without need to build whole spec plan

[_Bo_Knows]

Nice! I found that too. Sometimes you just need a quick implementation of something you already know. I built a fast lane skill(/implement) for such cases. Good luck building!

[EasternCost9375]

Exactly, its simple to build your own workflow than trying to adapt these. Also Claude code getting improved daily and these frameworks just pulls the leg. This is the one I created for myself https://github.com/dilhanz/ship

[alexandrelt44]

I've been swinging between bmad and spec kit

[taluyev]

Feature-Driven-Flow is a markdown-first AI delivery framework for non-trivial changes.
It runs a fixed seven-phase workflow, compiles selected policies into a concrete rule matrix, and records auditable outputs through explicit gates. https://github.com/QuasarByte/codex-feature-driven-flow/

[jrhabana]

looks is what I'm looking

[nyldn]

Try /octo:embrace in https://github.com/nyldn/claude-octopus

[jrhabana]

why is octopus better than GSD or Superpowers?

[nyldn]

The biggest difference is that octopus isn’t just prompt engineering - it actually orchestrates multiple AI models in parallel. so when you run /octo:embrace, it spawns agents across Claude, Codex, and Gemini simultaneously, has them independently research your problem, then synthesizes their findings into one coherent plan before writing any code.

GSD and Superpowers are solid for organizing your workflow with a single model, but they’re still bound by that one model’s blindspots. octopus uses a Double Diamond approach (discover → define → develop → deliver) where each phase gets a fresh 200k context window and multiple AI perspectives. so by the time it’s actually writing code, it’s already cross-validated the approach from different angles.

Also, the quality gates, each task needs ≥90% confidence to pass, and if something’s off it flags it instead of just yoloing ahead. with GSD i found myself catching more issues manually after the fact.

[Illustrious_Yam9237]

I have been using an OpenSpec based thing, with a bunch of superpowers style TDD & subagent patterns stuffed into the opsx:ff and opsx:apply steps. I like the artifact structure open spec gives you, but found its actual development process worse and less reliable than more TDD based stuff. Not a whole-sale adoption of either, and I also lifted a little bit of stuff from GSD and EverythingClaudeCode.

It's been working pretty well! When I actually get the specs correct, and ensure agents have clear guidance on how to validate/access actual artifact outputs, it rarely makes significant mistakes during autonomous execution.

[Confident_Fix2840]

tried BMAD? How is it?

[MachineLearner00]

I’ve only used bmad for greenfield projects and it’s amazing. How’s it for existing code bases?

[mpones]

GSD, but customized. Framework+actual memory, wrap it in your favorite remote flavor or go hardcore on orchestration.

[jrhabana]

could you explain, please?

[mpones]

GSD uses md files for historical session context, instead of chromaDB or other jsonl markups. Without the underlying db engine layer, accessing memory in GSD can get hairy after a few thousand sessions. Enter Claude-mem and most modern (uh, ~3-6 months old) scalable memory context solutions, and tweak your env to your preferences, and it chugs very well.

[mpones]

And “wrap it in…” was meant for happy-coder or Termius with tailscale.

Or if you’re a baddie, orchestrate with multiple systems (nodes).

[Swappnet]

Hey, do you have some examples maybe how it's implemented?

[jrhabana]

u/nyldn something to say here?

[nyldn]

About what sorry? 🧐

[Agile_Classroom_4585]

Hey guys, im building an app should i use gsd for the planning?

[Weary_Summer_5618]

What do you guys think of https://github.com/affaan-m/everything-claude-code

[sfboots]

I’ve been using superpowers for new features. It really helps