* fix(skills): strengthen activation guardrails for all workflow skills
Add explicit "Activation is complete" boundary markers that require
confirming activation_steps_prepend and activation_steps_append were
fully executed before beginning the main workflow.
Previously, the guardrail was either missing (bmad-product-brief,
bmad-prd, bmad-investigate) or too weak ("Begin the workflow below").
LLM agents would short-circuit complex activation sequences (INCLUDE →
READ → RUN → CHECK → FILTER → CD) by guessing variables instead of
executing steps in order, causing append steps and on_complete hooks
to be silently skipped.
The new guardrail explicitly names both prepend and append steps,
requiring confirmation before proceeding. This prevents agents from
starting the main workflow in parallel with activation.
23 skills updated: bmad-product-brief, bmad-prd, bmad-prfaq,
bmad-investigate, bmad-create-story, bmad-dev-story,
bmad-quick-dev, bmad-code-review, bmad-correct-course,
bmad-sprint-planning, bmad-sprint-status, bmad-retrospective,
bmad-qa-generate-e2e-tests, bmad-checkpoint-preview,
bmad-check-implementation-readiness, bmad-create-architecture,
bmad-create-epics-and-stories, bmad-generate-project-context,
bmad-create-ux-design, bmad-document-project, bmad-market-research,
bmad-technical-research, bmad-domain-research.
* fix(skills): extend activation gate to agent + new skills, refine placement
- bmad-product-brief / bmad-prd: pull activation_steps_append out of
the numbered list so the sentinel reads as a paragraph break, not
as the next list item.
- bmad-investigate: move the sentinel above Step 7 (routing) — Step 7
is workflow routing, not activation; the gate must fire first.
- bmad-agent-{analyst,tech-writer,pm,ux-designer,architect,dev}: add
the same gate between Step 7 (append) and Step 8 (menu dispatch).
Persona skills had the same short-circuit risk but no sentinel.
- bmad-ux, bmad-spec: new skills introduced on main after this branch
forked; apply the same gate so the pattern stays consistent.
- removals.txt: register bmad-create-ux-design as renamed to bmad-ux.
---------
Co-authored-by: Brian Madison <bmadcode@gmail.com>
* refactor(catalog): rename after/before columns to preceded-by/followed-by
The bare prepositions `after` and `before` had no subject anchor, leaving
the dependency direction ambiguous: "X has Y in its `after` column" reads
plausibly as either "Y comes after X" or "X comes after Y". An LLM
catalog consumer just got the direction wrong because of this.
`preceded-by` / `followed-by` are passive-voice participles whose grammar
locks the subject (the skill in this row) and forces a single reading:
"X is preceded by Y" can only mean Y comes first.
Rename applied to:
- module-help.csv headers (bmm-skills, core-skills)
- bmad-help SKILL.md schema doc + descriptions
- installer.js mergeModuleHelpCatalogs header string
- plugin-resolver.js _buildSynthesizedHelpCsv header string
- bmad-manifest.json keys (bmad-product-brief, bmad-prfaq)
- distillate-format-reference.md example manifest
The separate `required` column continues to carry hard-gate semantics;
the renamed columns are pure soft sequencing hints, as already documented
in bmad-help.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* style(installer): wrap long header strings per prettier
* feat(installer): warn on non-canonical module-help.csv headers
mergeModuleHelpCatalogs now compares each per-module file's header
against the canonical schema and emits a one-shot prompts.log.warn per
module on drift, naming both the expected and actual header. Data
continues to load positionally so external modules built against the
old after/before schema still install cleanly — the warning is the
maintainer signal to rename their columns.
Centralize the canonical header in modules/module-help-schema.js so the
merger and the synthesizer (PluginResolver._buildSynthesizedHelpCsv)
read the same source of truth; future column renames are one edit.
Verified by installing all four bmad-org external modules
(bmb, cis, gds, tea) — every one ships the legacy after/before header
today and now fires an advisory warning while still merging cleanly
into _bmad/_config/bmad-help.csv with the canonical column names.
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
All 16 bare workflow customize.toml files now have the same thorough comment
block as the well-documented ones, with skill-specific on_complete descriptions
that name the exact terminal step and exit condition.
on_complete is now executed at the true end of each workflow's terminal step
rather than lazily referenced in SKILL.md:
- Linear workflows: ## On Complete block appended to the final step file
(create-prd step-12, create-ux-design step-14, create-architecture step-08,
generate-project-context step-03, check-implementation-readiness step-06,
epics-and-stories step-04, all three research step-06 files, prfaq verdict,
document-project both sub-workflow instruction files)
- Multi-path workflows: on_complete inline on each true exit path only
(edit-prd fires on [S] Summary and [X] Exit, not on [V] Validate or [E] Edit;
validate-prd fires on [X] Exit only, not on [R], [E], or [F])
- Inline XML workflows: <action> tag at the close of the final step
(correct-course step-6, create-story step-6, retrospective step-12,
qa-generate-e2e-tests appended to SKILL.md)
* feat(skills): add TOML workflow customization to 17 bmm-skills
Flattens each skill's workflow.md into SKILL.md and adds a customize.toml
surface with a 6-step activation block (resolve_customization, prepend,
persistent_facts, config, greet, append). Core-skills and developer
execution skills (dev-story, code-review, sprint-planning, sprint-status,
quick-dev, checkpoint-preview) are intentionally excluded.
Customized: document-project, prfaq, domain/market/technical-research,
create-prd, create-ux-design, edit-prd, validate-prd,
check-implementation-readiness, create-architecture,
create-epics-and-stories, generate-project-context, correct-course,
create-story, qa-generate-e2e-tests, retrospective.
* fix(skills): address PR review findings on workflow customization
- bmad-create-story: drop stale {project_context} variable reference
from step 2 note; content is already loaded via persistent_facts
- research skills (market/domain/technical): derive research_topic_slug
before writing output filename to prevent path injection and invalid
filesystem characters
- bmad-correct-course: reconcile step 1 verify list and HALT with the
"Missing documents" rule — Architecture and UI/UX are optional, HALT
only fires when PRD or Epics are missing
- fix grammar in Micro-file Design bullets across 5 migrated skills
(self contained → self-contained, adhere too 1 file → adhere to one
file at a time)
- docs/how-to/customize-bmad.md: document workflow activation order
and frame the baseline fields as a stable initial pass with targeted
per-workflow customization points coming later
* refactor: remove bmad-init skill and standardize config loading across all skills
Remove the bmad-init core skill entirely — all agents and workflow skills now
load config directly from their module's config.yaml instead of delegating to
bmad-init as an intermediary. This eliminates the Python script dependency and
simplifies the activation path for every skill.
Changes across all skill types:
- Agents (9 skills): Replace "Load config via bmad-init skill" block with
direct config loading from `{project-root}/_bmad/bmm/config.yaml`, resolving
user_name, communication_language, document_output_language,
planning_artifacts, and project_knowledge
- Workflow skills (12 skills): Standardize INITIALIZATION/Configuration Loading
sections to a consistent Activation format matching the agent pattern
- bmad-prfaq: Align activation to standard config pattern, convert scripted
dialogue to outcome-focused instructions (no direct quotes)
- bmad-product-brief: Remove External Skills section referencing bmad-init
- bmad-party-mode: Standardize initialization to Activation format
- bmad-advanced-elicitation: Inline agent_party path instead of config var
- bmad-distillator: Remove unused argument-hint frontmatter
- Delete legacy create-prd/ directory (superseded by bmad-create-prd)
- Delete bmad-init skill entirely: SKILL.md, bmad_init.py, core-module.yaml,
and test suite
* fix: remove remaining bmad-init references from marketplace.json and distillate examples
Clean up missed references: remove bmad-init from marketplace.json skills
list, replace bmad-init examples in distillate-format-reference.md with
bmad-help/bmad-setup to keep examples valid without referencing a removed skill.
* fix: update broken file references in bmad-edit-prd after create-prd deletion
Point prdPurpose refs from deleted create-prd/data/ to bmad-create-prd/data/
and validationWorkflow ref from create-prd/steps-v/ to bmad-validate-prd/steps-v/.
* feat: add bmad-prfaq skill as alternative to product brief
Add Working Backwards PRFAQ challenge skill for stress-testing product
concepts through Amazon's PRFAQ methodology. Includes press release
drafting, customer FAQ, internal FAQ, and verdict stages with subagent
support for artifact scanning and web research.
- New bmad-prfaq skill with 5-stage interactive gauntlet and headless mode
- Subagents for artifact analysis and web research (graceful degradation)
- Research-grounded output directive for current market/competitive data
- Always produces distillate for downstream PRD consumption
- Fix manifest array syntax in both prfaq and product-brief manifests
- Drop number prefixes from reference files
- Update docs: getting-started, workflow-map, agents, skills reference
- Add analysis-phase explainer doc with comparison table and decision guide
- Update workflow-map-diagram.html with prfaq card
- Add -H and -A args to CSV for both skills
- Add unist-util-visit as devDependency (was imported but undeclared)
* fix: harden bmad-prfaq for compaction resilience and context efficiency
Add coaching persona re-anchors to all stage prompts so the behavioral
directive survives context compaction. Add do-not-read guards at resume
detection, headless mode, and input gathering to prevent parent agent
context bloat. Add Stage 1 coaching notes capture. Adapt template and
press release stage for non-commercial concept types. Cap subagent
response token budgets.
* fix: add config.user.yaml to file-ref validator allowlist
Also update PRFAQ config path to use correct _config/bmm/ prefix.
Jérôme Revillard
Alex Verkhovsky
Brian