## Overview
This commit represents a complete overhaul of the BMAD agent creation system, establishing clear standards for agent development, installation workflows, and persona design. The changes span documentation, tooling, reference implementations, and field-specific guidance.
## Key Components
### 1. Agent Installation Infrastructure
**New CLI Command: `agent-install`**
- Interactive agent installation with persona customization
- Supports Simple (single YAML), Expert (sidecar files), and Module agents
- Template variable processing with Handlebars-style syntax
- Automatic compilation from YAML to XML (.md) format
- Manifest tracking and IDE integration (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.)
- Source preservation in `_cfg/custom/agents/` for reinstallation
**Files Created:**
- `tools/cli/commands/agent-install.js` - Main CLI command
- `tools/cli/lib/agent/compiler.js` - YAML to XML compilation engine
- `tools/cli/lib/agent/installer.js` - Installation orchestration
- `tools/cli/lib/agent/template-engine.js` - Handlebars template processing
**Compiler Features:**
- Auto-injects frontmatter, activation, handlers, help/exit menu items
- Smart handler inclusion (only includes action/workflow/exec/tmpl handlers actually used)
- Proper XML escaping and formatting
- Persona name customization (e.g., "Fred the Commit Poet")
### 2. Documentation Overhaul
**Deleted Bloated/Outdated Docs (2,651 lines removed):**
- Old verbose architecture docs
- Redundant pattern files
- Outdated workflow guides
**Created Focused, Type-Specific Docs:**
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/understanding-agent-types.md` - Architecture vs capability distinction
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/simple-agent-architecture.md` - Self-contained agents
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/expert-agent-architecture.md` - Agents with sidecar files
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/module-agent-architecture.md` - Workflow-integrated agents
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/agent-compilation.md` - YAML → XML process
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/agent-menu-patterns.md` - Menu design patterns
- `src/modules/bmb/docs/index.md` - Documentation hub
**Net Result:** ~1,930 line reduction while adding MORE value through focused content
### 3. Create-Agent Workflow Enhancements
**Critical Persona Field Guidance Added to Step 4:**
Explains how the LLM interprets each persona field when the agent activates:
- **role** → "What knowledge, skills, and capabilities do I possess?"
- **identity** → "What background, experience, and context shape my responses?"
- **communication_style** → "What verbal patterns, word choice, quirks, and phrasing do I use?"
- **principles** → "What beliefs and operating philosophy drive my choices?"
**Key Insight:** `communication_style` should ONLY describe HOW the agent talks, not restate role/identity/principles. The `communication-presets.csv` provides 60 pure communication styles with NO role/identity/principles mixed in.
**Files Updated:**
- `src/modules/bmb/workflows/create-agent/instructions.md` - Added persona field interpretation guide
- `src/modules/bmb/workflows/create-agent/brainstorm-context.md` - Refined to 137 lines
- `src/modules/bmb/workflows/create-agent/communication-presets.csv` - 60 styles across 13 categories
### 4. Reference Agent Cleanup
**Removed install_config Personality Bloat:**
Understanding: Future installer will handle personality customization, so stripped all personality toggles from reference agents.
**commit-poet.agent.yaml** (Simple Agent):
- BEFORE: 36 personality combinations (3 enthusiasm × 3 depths × 4 styles) = decision fatigue
- AFTER: Single concise persona with pure communication style
- Changed from verbose conditionals to: "Poetic drama and flair with every turn of a phrase. I transform mundane commits into lyrical masterpieces, finding beauty in your code's evolution."
- Reduction: 248 lines → 153 lines (38% reduction)
**journal-keeper.agent.yaml** (Expert Agent):
- Stripped install_config, simplified communication_style
- Shows proper Expert agent structure with sidecar files
**security-engineer.agent.yaml & trend-analyst.agent.yaml** (Module Agents):
- Added header comments explaining WHY Module Agent (design intent, not just location)
- Clarified: Module agents are designed FOR ecosystem integration, not capability-limited
**Files Updated:**
- `src/modules/bmb/reference/agents/simple-examples/commit-poet.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmb/reference/agents/expert-examples/journal-keeper/journal-keeper.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmb/reference/agents/module-examples/security-engineer.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmb/reference/agents/module-examples/trend-analyst.agent.yaml`
### 5. BMM Agent Voice Enhancement
**Gave all 9 BMM agents distinct, memorable communication voices:**
**Mary (analyst)** - The favorite! Changed from generic "systematic and probing" to:
"Treats analysis like a treasure hunt - excited by every clue, thrilled when patterns emerge. Asks questions that spark 'aha!' moments while structuring insights with precision."
**Other Notable Voices:**
- **John (pm):** "Asks 'WHY?' relentlessly like a detective on a case. Direct and data-sharp, cuts through fluff to what actually matters."
- **Winston (architect):** "Speaks in calm, pragmatic tones, balancing 'what could be' with 'what should be.' Champions boring technology that actually works."
- **Amelia (dev):** "Ultra-succinct. Speaks in file paths and AC IDs - every statement citable. No fluff, all precision."
- **Bob (sm):** "Crisp and checklist-driven. Every word has a purpose, every requirement crystal clear. Zero tolerance for ambiguity."
- **Sally (ux-designer):** "Paints pictures with words, telling user stories that make you FEEL the problem. Empathetic advocate with creative storytelling flair."
**Pattern Applied:** Moved behaviors from communication_style to principles, keeping communication_style as PURE verbal patterns.
**Files Updated:**
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/analyst.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/pm.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/architect.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/dev.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/sm.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/tea.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/tech-writer.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/ux-designer.agent.yaml`
- `src/modules/bmm/agents/frame-expert.agent.yaml`
### 6. Linting Fixes
**ESLint Compliance:**
- Replaced all `'utf-8'` with `'utf8'` (unicorn/text-encoding-identifier-case)
- Changed `variables.hasOwnProperty(varName)` to `Object.hasOwn(variables, varName)` (unicorn/prefer-object-has-own)
- Replaced `JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(...))` with `structuredClone(...)` (unicorn/prefer-structured-clone)
- Fixed empty YAML mapping values in sample files
**Files Fixed:**
- 7 JavaScript files across agent tooling (compiler, installer, commands, IDE integration)
- 1 YAML sample file
## Architecture Decisions
### Agent Types Are About Architecture, Not Capability
- **Simple:** Self-contained in single YAML (NOT limited in capability)
- **Expert:** Includes sidecar files (templates, docs, etc.)
- **Module:** Designed for BMAD ecosystem integration (workflows, cross-agent coordination)
### Persona Field Separation Critical for LLM Interpretation
The LLM needs distinct fields to understand its role:
- Mixing role/identity/principles into communication_style confuses the persona
- Pure communication styles (from communication-presets.csv) have ZERO role/identity/principles content
- Example DON'T: "Experienced analyst who uses systematic approaches..." (mixing identity + style)
- Example DO: "Systematic and probing. Structures findings hierarchically." (pure style)
### Install-Time vs Runtime Configuration
- Template variables ({{var}}) resolve at compile-time
- Runtime variables ({user_name}, {bmad_folder}) resolve when agent activates
- Future installer will handle personality customization, so agents should ship with single default persona
## Testing
- All linting passes (ESLint with max-warnings=0)
- Agent compilation tested with commit-poet, journal-keeper examples
- Install workflow validated with Simple and Expert agent types
- Manifest tracking and IDE integration verified
## Impact
This establishes BMAD as having a complete, production-ready agent creation and installation system with:
- Clear documentation for all agent types
- Automated compilation and installation
- Strong persona design guidance
- Reference implementations showing best practices
- Distinct, memorable agent voices throughout BMM module
Co-Authored-By: BMad Builder <builder@bmad.dev>
Co-Authored-By: Mary the Analyst <analyst@bmad.dev>
Co-Authored-By: Paige the Tech Writer <tech-writer@bmad.dev>
Major milestone: Epics & Stories now generated AFTER Architecture
- New Frame Expert agent with Excalidraw workflows
- Time estimate prohibition across all workflows
- Platform-specific command filtering (ide-only/web-only)
- Agent customization enhancement (prompts & memories)
- Workflow configuration standardization
Bug Fixes:
- Fix manifestPath error in ide-config-manager causing installation failures
- Fix installer option display to show full labels instead of just values for single/multi-select
- Add conditional documentation installation - users can now opt out of installing docs
Improvements:
- Add install_user_docs configuration option (defaults to true)
- Improve config question display with descriptive labels for better UX
- Update CONTRIBUTING.md to remove references to non-existent 'next' branch
Maintenance:
- Closed 54 legacy v4 issues (older than 1 month) to maintain clean issue tracker
Introduce automated validation for agent YAML files using Zod to ensure
schema compliance across all agent definitions. This feature validates
17 agent files across core and module directories, catching structural
errors and maintaining consistency.
Schema Validation (tools/schema/agent.js):
- Zod-based schema validating metadata, persona, menu, prompts, and critical actions
- Module-aware validation: module field required for src/modules/**/agents/,
optional for src/core/agents/
- Enforces kebab-case unique triggers and at least one command target per menu item
- Validates persona.principles as array (not string)
- Comprehensive refinements for data integrity
CLI Validator (tools/validate-agent-schema.js):
- Scans src/{core,modules/*}/agents/*.agent.yaml
- Parses with js-yaml and validates using Zod schema
- Reports detailed errors with file paths and field paths
- Exits 1 on failures, 0 on success
- Accepts optional project_root parameter for testing
Testing (679 lines across 3 test files):
- test/test-cli-integration.sh: CLI behavior and error handling tests
- test/unit-test-schema.js: Direct schema validation unit tests
- test/test-agent-schema.js: Comprehensive fixture-based tests
- 50 test fixtures covering valid and invalid scenarios
- ESLint configured to support CommonJS test files
- Prettier configured to ignore intentionally broken fixtures
CI Integration (.github/workflows/lint.yaml):
- Renamed from format-check.yaml to lint.yaml
- Added schema-validation job running npm run validate:schemas
- Runs in parallel with prettier and eslint jobs
- Validates on all pull requests
Data Cleanup:
- Fixed src/core/agents/bmad-master.agent.yaml: converted persona.principles
from string to array format
Documentation:
- Updated schema-classification.md with validation section
- Documents validator usage, enforcement rules, and CI integration
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
* feat: add OpenCode integration implementation plan for BMAD-METHOD
* installer(opencode): add OpenCode target metadata in install.config.yaml
* chore(deps): add comment-json for JSONC parsing in OpenCode integration
* feat(installer/opencode): implement setupOpenCode with minimal instructions merge and BMAD-managed agents/commands
* feat(installer): add OpenCode (SST) to IDE selector and CLI --ide help
* fix(opencode): align generated opencode.json(c) with schema (instructions as strings; agent.prompt; command.template; remove unsupported fields)
* feat(installer): enhance OpenCode setup with agent selection and prefix options
* fix: update configuration file references from `bmad-core/core-config.yaml` to `.bmad-core/core-config.yaml` across multiple agent and task files for consistency and clarity.
* refactor: streamline OpenCode configuration prompts and normalize instruction paths for agents and tasks
* feat: add tools property to agent definitions for enhanced functionality. Otherwise opencode consders the subagents as readonly
* feat: add extraction of 'whenToUse' from agents markdown files for improved agent configuration in opencode
* feat: enhance task purpose extraction from markdown files with improved parsing and cleanup logic
* feat: add collision warnings for non-BMAD-managed agent and command keys during setup
* feat: generate and update AGENTS.md for OpenCode integration with agent and task details
* feat: add compact AGENTS.md generator and JSON-only integration for OpenCode
* chore(docs): remove completed OpenCode integration implementation plans
* feat: enable default prefixes for agent and command keys to avoid collisions
* fix: remove unnecessary line breaks in 'whenToUse' descriptions for QA agents to mathc the rest of the agents definitions and improve programatic parsing of whenToUse prop
* fix: update OpenCode references to remove 'SST' for consistency across documentation and configuration
* fix: update agent mode from 'subagent' to 'all' for consistency in agent definitions
* fix: consolidate 'whenToUse' description format for clarity and consistent parsing
- Update various direct and transitive project dependencies.
- Remove the circular `bmad-method` self-dependency.
- Upgrade ESLint, Prettier, Jest, and other dev tools.
- Update semantic-release and related GitHub packages.
Co-authored-by: Kayvan Sylvan <kayvan@meanwhile.bm>
- Add automatic release notes generation from commit history
- Categorize commits into Features, Bug Fixes, and Maintenance
- Include installation instructions and changelog links
- Add preview-release-notes script for testing
- Update GitHub release creation to use generated notes
- Remove automatic versioning and dual publishing strategy
- Delete release.yaml and promote-to-stable.yaml workflows
- Add manual-release.yaml for controlled releases
- Remove semantic-release dependencies and config
- Update all documentation to use npx bmad-method install
- Configure NPM to publish to @stable tag by default
- Users can now use simple npx bmad-method install command
Brian Madison
Murat K Ozcan
Alex Verkhovsky
Javier Gomez
Kayvan Sylvan
manjaroblack
github-actions[bot]
semantic-release-bot