Use when the user asks for best practices, broader validation, GitHub/open-source comparison, official-doc verification, or warns against one-sided thinking. Also use before implementation when official API, framework, or project-pattern facts are needed to avoid rework.
Use for review, PR review, audit, self-review, and regression-risk work. Prioritizes bugs, regressions, missing tests, architecture drift, redundancy, security risk, and verification gaps.
Use before multi-file, unfamiliar, public-contract, or shared-behavior code changes to build a bounded impact set without reading the whole repository or editing from a single file view.
Route non-trivial coding work across target-state implementation, codebase impact, Superpowers, Context7, security review, PR workflow, and verification. Skip for tiny edits or simple reads.
Use before finalizing non-trivial design, architecture, configuration, or implementation decisions. Reduces sycophancy bias by independently evaluating proposals, surfacing risks, and presenting alternatives. Auto-triggers on design_or_config and complex_feature routes.
Use before architecture, configuration, workflow, dependency, or high-impact implementation decisions to align goals, constraints, options, tradeoffs, recommendation, acceptance criteria, and user confirmation. Skip for tiny obvious tasks.
Use for non-trivial code changes after the plan is confirmed. Enforces target-state implementation: minimal necessary scope, existing patterns, no avoidable MVP residue, no duplicate logic, synchronized callers/tests/types/errors/config, and verification.
Use for branch, commit, pull request, GitHub issue, CI, release, or review-comment loops. Keeps PR work scoped, verified, and reviewable.