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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 idea to working code in two skills - 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
Quick Flow has two skills, each backed by a structured workflow. You can run them together or independently.
quick-spec: Plan
Run bmad-quick-spec and Barry (the Quick Flow agent) walks you through a conversational discovery process:
- Understand - You describe what you want to build. Barry scans the codebase to ask informed questions, then captures a problem statement, solution approach, and scope boundaries.
- Investigate - Barry reads relevant files, maps code patterns, identifies files to modify, and documents the technical context.
- Generate - Produces a complete tech-spec with ordered implementation tasks (specific file paths and actions), acceptance criteria in Given/When/Then format, testing strategy, and dependencies.
- Review - Presents the full spec for your sign-off. You can edit, ask questions, run adversarial review, or refine with advanced elicitation before finalizing.
The output is a tech-spec-{slug}.md file saved to your project's implementation artifacts folder. It contains everything a fresh agent needs to implement the feature - no conversation history required.
quick-dev: Build
Run bmad-quick-dev and Barry implements the work. It operates in two modes:
- Tech-spec mode - Point it at a spec file (
quick-dev tech-spec-auth.md) and it executes every task in order, writes tests, and verifies acceptance criteria. - Direct mode - Give it instructions directly (
quick-dev "refactor the auth middleware") and it gathers context, builds a mental plan, and executes.
After implementation, bmad-quick-dev runs a self-check audit against all tasks and acceptance criteria, then triggers an adversarial code review of the diff. Findings are presented for you to resolve before wrapping up.
:::tip[Fresh Context]
For best results, run bmad-quick-dev in a new conversation after finishing bmad-quick-spec. This gives the implementation agent clean context focused solely on building.
:::
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 with a direct request, 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 running
bmad-quick-specfirst to create a plan - 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.