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| title | description | sidebar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quick Flow | Fast-track for small changes - skip the full methodology |
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Skip the ceremony. Quick Flow takes you from intent to working code in a single workflow — no Product Brief, no PRD, no Architecture doc.
When to Use It
- Bug fixes and patches
- Refactoring existing code
- Small, well-understood features
- Prototyping and spikes
- Single-agent work where one developer can hold the full scope
When NOT to Use It
- New products or platforms that need stakeholder alignment
- Major features spanning multiple components or teams
- Work that requires architectural decisions (database schema, API contracts, service boundaries)
- Anything where requirements are unclear or contested
:::caution[Scope Creep]
If you start a Quick Flow and realize the scope is bigger than expected, bmad-quick-dev will detect this and offer to escalate. You can switch to a full PRD workflow at any point without losing your work.
:::
How It Works
Run bmad-quick-dev and the workflow handles everything — clarifying intent, planning, implementing, reviewing, and presenting results.
1. Clarify intent
You describe what you want. The workflow compresses your request into one coherent goal — small enough, clear enough, and contradiction-free enough to execute safely. Intent can come from many sources: a few phrases, a bug tracker link, plan mode output, chat session text, or even a story number from your epics.
2. Route to the smallest safe path
Once the goal is clear, the workflow decides whether this is a true one-shot change or needs the fuller path. Small, zero-blast-radius changes go straight to implementation. Everything else goes through planning so the model has a stronger boundary before running autonomously.
3. Plan and implement
On the planning path, the workflow produces a complete tech-spec with ordered implementation tasks, acceptance criteria in Given/When/Then format, and testing strategy. After you approve the spec, it becomes the boundary the model executes against with less supervision.
4. Review and present
After implementation, the workflow runs a self-check audit and adversarial code review of the diff. Review acts as triage — findings tied to the current change are addressed, while incidental findings are deferred to keep the run focused. Results are presented for your sign-off.
Human-in-the-loop checkpoints
The workflow relocates human control to a small number of high-value moments:
- Intent clarification — turning a messy request into one coherent goal
- Spec approval — confirming the frozen understanding is the right thing to build
- Final review — deciding whether the result is acceptable
Between these checkpoints, the model runs longer with less supervision. This is deliberate — it trades continuous supervision for focused human attention at moments with the highest leverage.
What Quick Flow Skips
The full BMad Method produces a Product Brief, PRD, Architecture doc, and Epic/Story breakdown before any code is written. Quick Flow replaces all of that with a single tech-spec. This works because Quick Flow targets changes where:
- The product direction is already established
- Architecture decisions are already made
- A single developer can reason about the full scope
- Requirements fit in one conversation
Escalating to Full BMad Method
Quick Flow includes built-in guardrails for scope detection. When you run bmad-quick-dev, it evaluates signals like multi-component mentions, system-level language, and uncertainty about approach. If it detects the work is bigger than a quick flow:
- Light escalation — Recommends creating a plan before implementation
- Heavy escalation — Recommends switching to the full BMad Method PRD process
You can also escalate manually at any time. Your tech-spec work carries forward — it becomes input for the broader planning process rather than being discarded.