Brooks was right. Until now.
Even when your CLAUDE.md explicitly says “always brainstorm first,” Claude rationalizes its way past it.
Claude jumps straight to coding. No brainstorming, no spec, no design review. The path of least resistance is always to just start writing code.
Security, scalability, and reliability are afterthoughts — not enforced checkpoints. Modularity and testability are never considered before implementation.
Work is declared “done” without code review, testing strategy, or verification. Commits and pushes happen before the workflow is complete.
The root cause: CLAUDE.md instructions are advisory. Claude treats them as suggestions, not constraints. When under time pressure or facing an “obvious” solution, it rationalizes skipping steps. Silver Bullet replaces hope with enforcement.
Silver Bullet is a Claude Code plugin that wraps every session in a 31-step enforced workflow. It doesn't ask Claude to follow a process — it makes skipping one impossible.
PostToolUse hooks intercept every file edit, bash command, and skill invocation. Non-compliance triggers a hard stop before any damage is done.
Five phases — Planning, Execution, Review, Finalization, Deployment — with required checkpoints. Claude cannot proceed to the next phase until the current one is complete.
Every design is verified against the eight software quality dimensions — modularity, reusability, scalability, security, reliability, usability, testability, and extensibility — before a line of code is written.
From hard-stop gates to anti-rationalization prompts, six independent layers ensure compliance. Even if one layer is bypassed, five more remain.
Each layer is independently sufficient. Together, they make skipping the workflow practically impossible.
A PreToolUse hook intercepts every file edit. If planning skills haven’t been completed, the edit is blocked with an explicit error listing exactly what’s missing. No exceptions.
Every tool use triggers a progress display: current phase, completed steps, total score, and the next required action. Compliance is always visible — there’s no hiding from it.
Enforces strict phase ordering: PLANNING → EXECUTION → REVIEW → FINALIZATION. You cannot enter the next phase until all required steps in the current phase are complete.
A PostToolUse hook intercepts git commit, push, and deploy commands. If the full workflow isn’t complete, the operation is blocked with a list of remaining required steps.
The same rules appear in three places: CLAUDE.md, the workflow skill file, and every hook message. Redundancy defeats rationalization — there’s no “I wasn’t told” escape hatch.
Explicit language that names and blocks common excuses: “This is simple enough to skip,” “The user asked me to just do it,” “I’ll do the review mentally.” Named = blocked.
Every design is verified against world-class best practices before a single line of code is written. The eight “-ilities” of software quality — all enforced.
Small, focused modules. File size limits. Change locality max 3–5 files. Single responsibility enforced.
PlanningDRY, composable components. Rule of Three. No duplication across the codebase.
PlanningStateless by default. Indexed queries. Async processing. Resource limits defined upfront.
PlanningOWASP Top 10. Input validation. Secrets management. Defense in depth. No trust boundaries crossed.
PlanningFault tolerance. Retries with backoff. Circuit breakers. Graceful degradation under load.
PlanningIntuitive APIs. Actionable error messages. Accessibility. Progressive disclosure of complexity.
PlanningDependency injection. Pure functions. Test seams. Deterministic behavior. No hidden state.
PlanningOpen-closed principle. Plugin architecture. Versioned interfaces. Change without breakage.
PlanningThese are the actual messages Claude receives from the enforcement hooks. Every message is a hard block — not a warning.
Five phases. Every required step enforced by hooks. No step can be skipped without an explicit block.
| # | Phase | Skill / Step | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PLANNING | using-superpowers | Required |
| 2 | PLANNING | git-worktrees | |
| 3 | PLANNING | brainstorming | Required |
| 4 | PLANNING | write-spec | Required |
| 5 | PLANNING | design-system | |
| 6 | PLANNING | ux-copy | |
| 7 | PLANNING | architecture | Required |
| 8 | PLANNING | system-design | |
| 9 | PLANNING | modularity | Required |
| 10 | PLANNING | reusability | Required |
| 11 | PLANNING | scalability | Required |
| 12 | PLANNING | security | Required |
| 13 | PLANNING | reliability | Required |
| 14 | PLANNING | usability | Required |
| 15 | PLANNING | testability | Required |
| 16 | PLANNING | extensibility | Required |
| 17 | PLANNING | writing-plans | Required |
| 18 | EXECUTION | executing-plans (TDD + subagent-driven) | Required |
| 19 | REVIEW | code-review | Required |
| 20 | REVIEW | requesting-code-review | Required |
| 21 | REVIEW | receiving-code-review | Required |
| 22 | REVIEW | writing-plans (revision) | |
| 23 | REVIEW | executing-plans (revision) | |
| 24 | REVIEW | testing-strategy | Required |
| 25 | REVIEW | systematic-debugging | |
| 26 | FINALIZATION | tech-debt | |
| 27 | FINALIZATION | documentation | Required |
| 28 | FINALIZATION | verification-before-completion | Required |
| 29 | FINALIZATION | finishing-a-development-branch | Required |
| 30 | DEPLOYMENT | CICD pipeline | |
| 31 | DEPLOYMENT | deploy-checklist | Required |
Silver Bullet builds on the Superpowers and Engineering plugins. Install all three, initialize your project, and enforcement begins immediately.
Enforcement starts immediately.
After running /using-silver-bullet, hooks are installed and the workflow is active. Your first attempt to edit source code without completing planning will be blocked with a clear, actionable error.
Silver Bullet turns your development workflow from aspirational guidelines into hard constraints. Every step, every time.
Install Silver Bullet ↓