Standards

The contract a built skill meets; canon.md covers the prose.

Frontmatter

name and description only. name equals the folder name, kebab-case. bmad- belongs to modules shipped by the bmad-code-org (^bmad-[a-z0-9]+(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*$); anyone else's module skills carry its own code as prefix; a lone skill is a plain name, and one with the user's prefix is better. description: a single-quoted YAML string in the canon's two parts, with 1024 characters as the ceiling, per the canon's trigger section. disable-model-invocation: true is the one further key, for a skill only ever called by name, where the host honours it.

Layout

SKILL.md at the root. references/ for prompt content a branch loads, one level deep. scripts/ for deterministic code, tests in scripts/tests/. assets/ for templates and examples of emitted output. Folders stay flat; group files with a filename prefix (scan-*.md), not a subfolder. Only a rendered skill keeps workflow.md and step files at root. An agent whose internal routes would not fit a flat folder may group them in subfolders by axis, as bmad-toolsmith does; each route file then names the conventions it depends on, because the entry may have left context by the time it loads.

Paths

{project-root} is the nearest folder holding _bmad/, {skill-root} the skill's folder. A skill's own script runs as uv run {skill-root}/scripts/<name>.py, a runtime script as uv run {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/<name>.py; never a bare scripts/ call, which resolves from the working directory, and never python, python3 or pip, since uv run reads the script's PEP 723 header for its dependencies. Every backticked path resolves to a real file. Never a path into another skill: to use one, write "invoke the <name> skill". Never module.yaml, module-help.csv or _bmad/config.yaml, the old format. Config: resolve_config.py --key core.<key> or --key modules.<code>.<key>; customization: resolve_customization.py --key workflow or --key agent. Config values already hold {project-root}; never prefix them.

Output

A document lands at <type>-<slug>/<type>-<slug>.md under {output_folder}/{active_initiative}/.

customize.toml

One table, read in activation. [workflow] for a skill: activation_steps_prepend, activation_steps_append, persistent_facts, on_complete, <purpose>_output_path, run_folder_pattern, and its own scalars, each commented with when to override it. [agent] for an agent: name, title, icon, role, identity, communication_style, principles, the two step arrays, persistent_facts, and [[agent.menu]] items with code, description and exactly one of skill or prompt. The body reads values as {workflow.<key>} or {agent.<key>}; a value declared but hardcoded in the body makes every override a silent no-op. Scalars override, arrays append, arrays of tables merge by code or id. No boolean toggles; a switch means the author never decided. Reading is the resolver's job; writing is the bmad-customize skill's, which authors the override files under _bmad/custom/ for any skill with a customize.toml. A skill never writes there, never merges its own TOML, and never carries a second code path for when _bmad/ is absent: it offers setup. When users will change a value, the body says so in one line: invoke the bmad-customize skill naming the key, and if it is not installed offer npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD --skill bmad-customize.

bmod.toml

A skill in a module: [skill] with bmod (the record folder), source (the record's update_source), required_skills (it invokes them), recommended_skills (they help beside it) and scripts it ships. A dependency is a plain name for the same source, { skill, source, version? } for another. A single-skill module carries [bmod] (code, version, update_source, skills, required_skills) and an empty [skill] in one file; a multi-skill module keeps [bmod] in a bmod-<code> record folder with help/ and, with agents, roster.toml. A skill outside BMad needs none.

Scripts

A script does work that has one right answer per input: parsing, counting, resolving paths, validating structure, rendering a template, diffing. Prose does work that turns on meaning. Tests assert what a script produced, never what a model wrote or what a prompt file says. Python with a PEP 723 header, requires-python = ">=3.11", dependencies listed. argparse with --help. JSON on stdout when a model reads the result. Non-zero exit with a reason, never an error deferred to the model. Stdlib first, a graceful fallback when an optional import is absent. A test at scripts/tests/test_<name>.py using unittest. No model ids or time estimates anywhere in a skill.

Memory agents

The sanctum lives at {project-root}/_bmad/memory/{name}/, {name} being the skill name; the agent needs the skill bundle only for first wake and init. Waking loads the identity files (PERSONA, CREED, BOND, HOW-I-REMEMBER as the layout guide, CAPABILITIES) and a generated map; memory is small files under memory/<kind>/ and a write-once raw/ layer, read as a conversation reaches them. The owner's name and language come from the First Breath conversation into BOND.md, never from config.