github bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD v6.8.0
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4 hours ago

✨ Headline

New planning shapes lead this release. bmad-ux replaces the old single-spine UX skill with a two-spine contract: DESIGN.md (visual identity, Google Labs spec) and EXPERIENCE.md (behavior, flow, IA). bmad-spec distills any messy intent (brain dump, PRD, transcript, brief) into a tight five-field SPEC.md kernel that any downstream skill can consume. Both extend the streamlined Create/Update/Validate + Fast/Coaching template that bmad-prd and bmad-product-brief set in v6.7.0. The handoff from design into engineering is now a sealed file contract, not a translation layer.

Also shipping: Web Bundles for Gemini Gems and ChatGPT Custom GPTs (bmadcode.com/web-bundles) bring six planning bundles to non-IDE users with full IDE schema parity. bmad-automator (story automation) lands on the next channel. bmad-method-ui ships a community-alpha VS Code dashboard + standalone Next.js web UI. 19 new elicitation techniques arrive. Plus a long tail of installer and activation fixes.

💥 Breaking Changes

  • bmad-create-ux-design replaced by bmad-ux. Single design.md spine is gone. New skill emits DESIGN.md (visual tokens per the Google Labs spec) and EXPERIENCE.md (behavior, flow, IA, states, a11y), with EXPERIENCE.md referencing DESIGN.md tokens via {path.to.token} syntax. Adds named-protagonist journeys, surface-closure validation, opt-in reviewer gate, and an extensible producer-handoff registry (default: Stitch). Installer auto-removes the legacy skill. PRD and brief templates aligned (form-factor probe, named-protagonist UJs, no standalone Primary Persona) (#2413)
  • bmad-distillator retired, superseded by bmad-spec. Promoted to core because the kernel pattern is domain-agnostic. Installer cleans up automatically. No internal pipelines called it, but custom workflows must switch to bmad-spec.

🎁 Features

  • Web Bundles v6 shelf: Six bundles purpose-built for Gemini Gems and ChatGPT Custom GPTs. Brainstorming (60 techniques, 10 categories), Product Brief (Create/Update/Validate, Fast/Coaching paths), PRFAQ (Working Backwards, 4 stages, weasel-word challenge), PRD (Vision- or Journey-led, 7-dimension validation), UX (two-spine, Don Norman framing, Stitch handoff), Market & Industry Research (Deep Research + Porter + Christensen). Full schema parity with IDE skills so Gem ↔ IDE handoffs do not break. bmadcode.com/web-bundles is the single supported install path (#2421, #2423, #2425)
  • Web Bundle release packager: tools/bundle-web-bundles.js zips each bundle into dist/web-bundles/{slug}.zip for GitHub Release attachment. web-bundles/bundles.json carries persona, copy, accent color, knowledge files, and platform feature flags (web-browsing, deep-research, Stitch). Zero deps; execFileSync + strict slug regex (^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$) eliminates shell-injection surface (#2424)
  • bmad-spec, new core skill: Distills any intent (brain dump, PRD, transcript, brief) into SPEC.md with a five-field kernel (Problem, Capabilities, Constraints, Non-goals, Success signal). Catalogs, tables, diagrams, and editorial-voice content go to named companions; absorbed inputs land in a sources: list downstream skips. Eight-rule Spec Law with lean-prose discipline. Outputs to {output_folder}/specs/spec-{slug}/, works without bmm installed. Headless callers get JSON; interactive runs close conversationally (#2417)
  • bmad-ux, spine-based UX skill: Rewrite around DESIGN.md (visual identity, Google Labs spec) + EXPERIENCE.md (behavior, flow, IA). Six-step activation matches bmad-prd and bmad-product-brief. Fast/Coaching modes. Opt-in reviewer gate (no auto-spend on parallel reviewers for hobby work). Per-category verdicts, no misleading headline grade. Ships three DESIGN.md examples (editorial/Linen & Logic, native mobile/Quill, web SaaS/Drift), two paired EXPERIENCE.md examples, one unpaired DESIGN.md modeling the pure Stitch handoff (#2413)
  • 19 new advanced-elicitation techniques: New framing category plus additions across 7 categories (all 50 existing methods preserved). Highlights: Chain-of-Thought Scaffolding, Six Thinking Hats, Delphi Method, Inversion Analysis, Steelmanning, Morphological Analysis, Abstraction Laddering, Cascading Failure Simulation, Boundary & Edge Case Sweep (#2062)
  • Docs sidebar-order validator: tools/validate-sidebar-order.js flags duplicates, gaps, missing fields, and translation drift across English and translated docs. Wired into docs:validate-sidebar. Locale-pattern detection prevents nested English subfolders from being silently excluded (#2409)

🐛 Fixes

  • Skill activation guardrails strengthened across 23+ skills: LLM agents were short-circuiting activation sequences (INCLUDE → READ → RUN → CHECK → FILTER → CD) by guessing variables instead of executing in order, silently skipping append steps and on_complete hooks. New guardrail names prepend/append steps explicitly and requires confirmation. Applied to all BMM planning + execution skills, all persona agents (analyst, tech-writer, pm, ux-designer, architect, dev), and new skills (bmad-spec, bmad-ux) (#2398)
  • Installer reads config.toml on re-run: loadExistingConfig only read legacy _bmad/<module>/config.yaml, so user-scoped answers (user_name, communication_language) written to _bmad/config.user.toml were ignored and users got re-prompted. Adds parseCentralToml; central toml read first, legacy yaml as fallback (#2411)
  • Stale custom-source caches refreshed on quick-update: Quick-update now calls cloneRepo for every cached custom module, persists the real next ref, and atomically dedupes the refresh. When git fetch fails (network, deleted repo, revoked auth), the previous clone is preserved with a warning instead of being wiped (#2399)
  • Shallow-clone default branch resolution: --depth 1 clones leave origin/HEAD stale, so git reset --hard origin/HEAD never pulled new commits. Now resolves the default branch via git symbolic-ref and resets against origin/<branch> explicitly, falling back to main (#2332)
  • SSH Git URLs with nested group paths: Custom module installer parses GitLab subgroup and Gitea nested-team SSH URLs correctly (#2379)
  • project_context defined in dev-story, sprint-planning, sprint-status: Skills referenced the variable without resolving it, producing unresolved expansions at activation in some configurations (#2422)
  • Dev story baseline commits captured: Baselining records the commit set the story was scoped against, so reviews compare against a stable reference (#2403)
  • Customization JSON written as UTF-8: Non-ASCII team names, product names, and editorial overrides survive a round trip through _bmad/custom/ (#2414)
  • Brainstorming idea-flow stays collaborative: Agent was prematurely converging on its own preferred ideas instead of mirroring and expanding the user's. Collaborative posture restored (#2402)

📚 Docs

  • bmad-investigate added to agent trigger tables: agents.md and named-agents.md now show the IN trigger and forensic-investigation capability on Amelia's row, closing a v6.7.0 gap (#2410)
  • Web Bundles install framing and update/customize guidance: Drops misleading "one-click install" and "two files" claims; adds explicit Gem/GPT setup pattern and an "Updating and customizing" section: custom changes belong in the pasted instructions block, not the knowledge files, so updates do not clobber team customizations (#2423)
  • Web-bundles install traffic centralized at bmadcode.com/web-bundles: README, web-bundles README, explanation, and how-to pages all point at the site as the single supported install path (#2425)
  • Reference docs for bmad-spec: Full entry in docs/reference/core-tools.md (en); table-row stubs in cs/fr/vi-vn/zh-cn pending full translation
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