Claude Code out of the box is a chat with file access. A short list of repos turns it into an agent stack: orchestration, browser hands, planning discipline, and context plumbing.
Why a list, and why this one
If you run Claude Code daily, you probably suspect you are using a fraction of it. So you save the roundups. And every roundup you saved repeats the same star counts nobody checked, copied from someone else's screenshot of a list that was already three months old.
This list is different in one boring, load-bearing way: every star count and every URL below was checked against the live repo on July 17, 2026, the day I drafted this. Anything I could not verify got cut, and the cuts are listed near the bottom. Curation without a cut list is a link dump.
The grouping is by job, not by hype. Three tiers. Start with the first, add the second when the agent needs hands, add the third when you are running real work through it.
Start here: the foundation tier
The smallest set that changes daily work. These give Claude Code reusable judgment: skills and specialist agents it loads when relevant, instead of you re-typing your standards into every session.
obra/superpowers. A skills framework and a development methodology in one plugin. The heavyweight of this list at 218,563 stars. If you install one thing this week, install this and read how it structures its skills before you write your own. https://github.com/obra/superpowers
wshobson/agents. Subagent and orchestration packs, 35,739 stars. Superpowers gives your agent a method. This gives it a bench of specialists to delegate to. https://github.com/wshobson/agents
davila7/claude-code-templates. A CLI for configuring and monitoring Claude Code, 27,737 stars. The right first stop if you want setup handled instead of hand-rolled. https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates
Pick one and live with it for a week. Installing all three on day one just gives you three half-learned tools. And whenever you start a new project, carry the configuration forward the same way I carry a starter kit forward, the duplicate and strip pattern from your starter kit is your last project.
Give it hands: the browser and web tier
The second tier lets the agent act outside the repo: click, browse, and pull the web in.
browser-use/browser-use. The default open-source answer for letting an agent drive a browser, 95,984 stars. Point it at the task, it operates the site. https://github.com/browser-use/browser-use
microsoft/playwright-mcp. Playwright as an MCP server, 35,197 stars. Structured, deterministic browser control. My pick when the job is testing or scraping a site you own. https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp
firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server. Web scraping and search as MCP tools, 6,980 stars. Turns messy pages into clean markdown the agent can actually use. https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl-mcp-server
The honest cost: every MCP server you leave connected pays a context tax on every session, whether you use it or not. Browser tools are the hungriest of the bunch. Connect them for the task, disconnect after. A tool that is always plugged in is pretty much a subscription you pay in tokens.
Make it plan: the discipline tier
This is the tier that separates an agent stack from a fast chatbot. Not more capability. More discipline.
OthmanAdi/planning-with-files. Persistent, file-based plans for long-running agent work, 25,448 stars. The plan lives in markdown on disk, so it survives a crashed session, a cleared context, and tomorrow. https://github.com/OthmanAdi/planning-with-files
czlonkowski/n8n-mcp. An MCP server that lets the agent build and route into n8n workflows, 22,311 stars. The bridge between your agent and the automations you already run. https://github.com/czlonkowski/n8n-mcp
Plans that live in files survive sessions. That is the same pattern my whole content system runs on, one vault, many agents reading it, and the same reason a swipe file should live in files you own.
The skip list
What got cut, and why. This part is the trust move.
Everything Claude Code. A well-known configuration collection I wanted to include as the reference index. I could not verify the canonical repo at draft time: search surfaces translations and copies of it ranking above the original. When the copies outrank the source, I skip rather than link the wrong one.
obra/superpowers-skills. The older community skills repo for Superpowers. Verified archived. The plugin above replaced it. Star counts on archived repos are history, not signal.
Most MCP servers in the directory. If the job is deterministic, a script does it cheaper than a server that sits in your context all day. An MCP earns its slot when the agent needs to decide things mid-task, not just execute.
Anything whose figures I could only find in someone else's roundup. No exceptions. That rule cost me an entry I wanted to include, and it is the whole reason to trust the eight that stayed.
The decision rule
Do not install this list. Install one repo: the one that removes the manual step you repeated most this week. Ignore the rest until one of them earns a slot the same way.
I keep the maintained version of this list as a checklist, updated as counts and maintenance status change. It goes out with The Production Layer, my newsletter, so the copy you get is never the three-month-old screenshot.
Eight repos, one install, verified on the day you read the date above. That is the whole system.
