- headless-schemas.md: Update schema gains `external_handoffs` to match
SKILL.md which routes Update through Finalize (handoffs execute there).
- bmad-product-brief/SKILL.md: "Use the bmad-help skill" → "Invoke
bmad-help" to align with REF-03 and the bmad-prd phrasing.
- bmad-product-brief/SKILL.md: hyphenate "high-quality draft".
Reconciles a contradiction across SKILL.md, validation-render.md,
headless.md, and headless-schemas.md about when validation-report.{html,md}
gets written. Rule: a report file is only written when the user has
specifically asked for analysis — Validate intent, or a mid-session
"produce a report" request. The Finalize discipline pass during
Create/Update keeps findings in-conversation: autofix obvious issues,
ask on ambiguous ones, never write a file.
- SKILL.md: Finalize step 3 no longer renders a report; Validate intent
wording softened from "HTML report" to "validation report".
- references/validation-render.md: drops the severity-based conditional
for markdown emission. Script now always writes both HTML and MD
side-by-side when invoked; trigger gating happens upstream.
- assets/headless-schemas.md: drops the "may be omitted in interactive
mode" caveat; validation_report is required for Validate intent.
- scripts/render-validation-html.py: adds render_markdown_report()
emitting a severity-grouped markdown companion at output_path.with_suffix('.md').
Returns markdown path in the stdout JSON summary alongside HTML path.
- Add Finalize "Open-items review" step (new step 4): counts OQs / [ASSUMPTION] / [NOTE FOR PM], walks them with user, flags high density as red flag against agreed stakes
- Validate now treats open-items density as a first-class finding category
- Resume / continuity surfaces open items deterministically as the first orientation step
- Drop the PRD's own distillate output and the bmad-distillator finalize step. Downstream workflows (UX, architecture, story creation) source-extract from prd.md directly via the canonical source-extractor pattern. Headless schemas, customize.toml comments, and template updated accordingly.
- Drop "status: draft" from PRD frontmatter and template; version/state transitions logged to decision-log.md instead. Finalize step 7 records the version transition entry.
- Add PRD Discipline bullet: personas must be research-grounded or marked [ILLUSTRATIVE]; must drive decisions; 2-4 personas max. Discipline pass enforces.
- Expand File roles bullet: competitive-analysis detail beyond a one-line landscape and operational/cost mechanics (rate-limiting, compression) belong in addendum
Brian Madison