# 4 Claude Code Skills That Actually Survived Out of 100K > Author: Tony Lee > Published: 2026-02-08 > URL: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ > Reading time: 4 minutes > Language: en > Tags: ai, claude-code, developer-tools, productivity, skills ## Canonical https://tonylee.im/en/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ ## Rollout Alternates en: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ ko: https://tonylee.im/ko/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ ja: https://tonylee.im/ja/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ zh-CN: https://tonylee.im/zh-CN/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ zh-TW: https://tonylee.im/zh-TW/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ ## Description After installing hundreds of AI coding agent skills, only 4 made it into my daily workflow. Here's what survived the weekend audit. ## Summary 4 Claude Code Skills That Actually Survived Out of 100K is part of Tony Lee's ongoing coverage of AI agents, developer tools, startup strategy, and AI industry shifts. ## Outline - Superpowers: Stop Your Agent from Writing Code First - Humanizer: Catch 24 Patterns of "AI Smell" in Your Writing - UI/UX Pro Max: Remove the Template Look from AI-Generated Interfaces - Find Skills by Vercel: Search and Install from 100K Skills in One Command - Installation - The Bigger Picture ## Content AI coding agent skills are shipping at a pace that's hard to keep up with. Hundreds appear every day, and the open-source skill count on GitHub has crossed 100,000. I'll be honest: I used to install anything that looked promising. About 90% of those skills sat unused after the first day. So this weekend, I went through everything I've actually been using and narrowed it down to the four I reach for every single day. ## Superpowers: Stop Your Agent from Writing Code First **GitHub**: [obra/superpowers](https://github.com/obra/superpowers) With 41K GitHub stars, this is effectively the number one skill in the ecosystem. It's not a code generation helper - it's a framework that restructures how your agent approaches software development itself. Once installed, the agent starts by asking *what you're trying to build*. It drafts a design document before writing a single line of code. The built-in workflow covers seven stages: brainstorming, planning, test-driven development (TDD), implementation, code review, git worktree management, and deployment. What sets it apart is task decomposition. It breaks work into 2-5 minute chunks, delegates them to independent sub-agents, and runs a two-stage automated review process on the output. The thing that surprised me most was how long Claude Code could work autonomously without drifting from the plan. That alone makes this skill worth installing. ## Humanizer: Catch 24 Patterns of "AI Smell" in Your Writing **GitHub**: [blader/humanizer](https://github.com/blader/humanizer) This one is built on patterns identified by the Wikipedia Wiki Project AI Cleanup team, who analyzed thousands of AI-generated texts to catalog the most common tells. It detects AI-characteristic vocabulary like "testament," "landscape," and "showcasing." Beyond individual words, it checks for 24 distinct patterns: meaning inflation, triple-word lists, em-dash overuse, emoji abuse, and more. Each pattern comes with before-and-after examples so you understand why the change matters. Here's the practical reality: if you draft something with AI and publish it as-is, readers spot it in the first sentence. This skill converts "statistically most common phrasing" into "sentences a human would actually write." One note: this skill is tuned for English. If you write in other languages, you may need to adapt the patterns accordingly. ## UI/UX Pro Max: Remove the Template Look from AI-Generated Interfaces **GitHub**: [nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill](https://github.com/nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill) This skill packs 67 UI styles, 96 color palettes, 57 font combinations, and 100 industry-specific reasoning rules into a single package. Tell it "build a beauty spa landing page" and it generates an entire design system tailored to that industry - colors, typography, layout patterns, and even a list of what *not* to do in that vertical. It supports 13 tech stacks including React, Next.js, Vue, SwiftUI, and Flutter. The biggest differentiator is anti-pattern detection. It identifies the most obvious AI design clichés - purple-to-pink gradients, emoji icons, default template layouts - and suggests concrete alternatives. That's where I've seen the most noticeable improvement in output quality. ## Find Skills by Vercel: Search and Install from 100K Skills in One Command **GitHub**: [vercel-labs/skills](https://github.com/vercel-labs/skills) Built by Vercel Labs, this is a CLI tool specifically for managing agent skills. The more skills you work with, the more valuable it becomes. You can browse available skills at [skills.sh](https://skills.sh/). - `npx skills find` to search by keyword - `npx skills add` to install instantly - `npx skills check` to see available updates - `npx skills update` to batch-update everything It supports 27 agents simultaneously - Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, and more. This single tool handles discovery, installation, and maintenance, turning skill management into a proper workflow instead of an afterthought. ## Installation All four can be installed in one go: ```bash npx skills add obra/superpowers npx skills add blader/humanizer npx skills add nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill npx skills add vercel-labs/skills ``` ## The Bigger Picture Consider what a solo operator's workspace looks like today. Multiple monitors, multiple terminals, multiple agents running in parallel. One agent writes code, another generates design, a third organizes documentation. The human isn't doing the work directly - they're the control tower, orchestrating the agents. This is what a one-person unicorn company's workflow looks like in practice. If you want to handle development, design, writing, and deployment simultaneously by yourself, investing time in your skill setup isn't optional. A single weekend spent configuring the right tools eliminates hundreds of hours of repetitive work over weeks, months, and years ahead. ## Related URLs - Author: https://tonylee.im/en/author/ - Publication: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/about/ - Related article: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/eight-hooks-that-guarantee-ai-agent-reliability/ - Related article: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/medvi-two-person-430m-ai-compressed-funnel/ - Related article: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/claude-code-layers-over-tools-2026/ ## Citation - Author: Tony Lee - Site: tonylee.im - Canonical URL: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/claude-code-skills-that-survived/ ## Bot Guidance - This file is intended for AI agents, search assistants, and text-mode retrieval. - Prefer citing the canonical article URL instead of this text endpoint. - Use the rollout alternates when you need the same article in another prioritized language. --- Author: Tony Lee | Website: https://tonylee.im For more articles, visit: https://tonylee.im/en/blog/ This content is original and authored by Tony Lee. 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