# BMAD-METHOD installs as skills, and bmad setup writes the project

> BMAD-METHOD is a method delivered as a set of agent skills rather than a package: it is pulled into a coding tool with npx skills add or a plugin marketplace, and a hub skill named bmad runs the setup that writes your project. It is MIT licensed and worked on daily, with releases v6.10.0, v6.11.0 and v6.12.0 landing in July, August and September 2026, but two of its names do not match the product name, its refresh step removes renamed skills, and the module layout keeps the real version outside every manifest a reader would check.

**bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD** — BMAD-METHOD is a free, open-source agile AI development framework whose agents act as expert collaborators, adapting planning depth from bug fixes to enterprise systems.

- Repository: https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD
- Stars: 53,639 · Forks: 6,041
- Language: JavaScript
- License: not declared
- Published: 2026-08-08 · Updated: 2026-08-18 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/bmad-code-org-bmad-method

## Two install routes pull from two different repositories

BMAD-METHOD is not something you download and run. It arrives as skills, and the page splits that into two routes with different prerequisites and different sources. The Skills CLI route needs an AI coding tool that supports skills, plus uv for setup and the Python scripts, and it installs from this repository:

```bash
npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD
```

The other route is a plugin marketplace, and it pulls from a different repository entirely, bmad-code-org/bmad-plugins, once per coding tool:

```text
/plugin marketplace add bmad-code-org/bmad-plugins
```

```bash
codex plugin marketplace add bmad-code-org/bmad-plugins
```

The first block is the Claude Code form, the second the Codex form. After either one you install two plugins, bmad-method for the delivery workflows and bmad-core-tools for the standalone skills including the bmad hub. The difference matters if you intend to audit or pin what you take: the CLI route takes this tree as it stands, the marketplace route takes a curated set from another repository, and those two can drift apart. Either way you inherit uv, which is a heavier requirement than a Node-only install would suggest.

## The module records are named bmod while the product is bmad

Watch the identifiers, because they do not follow the product name. The Skills CLI route asks you to include bmad for setup and help, and to include the module record for each module you pick skills from, which it names bmod-method and bmod-core-tools. Installing by name spells all four out:

```bash
npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD --skill bmad --skill bmod-core-tools --skill bmod-method --skill bmad-build
```

So the two module records use bmod, the hub skill and the build skill use bmad, and the marketplace route uses a third spelling again, bmad-method and bmad-core-tools. The page does not explain the divergence, and the same split shows up in the file layout, where the release version lives in each skills/bmod-*/bmod.toml. For anyone scripting an installation the consequence is plain: copy the identifiers exactly. A guess that reads bmad-method is the marketplace spelling, and it is not what the CLI route asks for, so a script built on the wrong one selects nothing.

## bmad setup writes the project before bmad-build touches your code

The first run has a fixed order, and it does not begin with a change request. Open the coding tool in the project, ask the bmad skill to run bmad setup, then invoke bmad-build with what you want to change. You are also told to ask bmad whenever you want guidance on what comes next or what is optional, which makes the hub a routing layer rather than a command you fire directly. Underneath that, bmad setup is the step that applies the tooling and the Python scripts to your project, and bmad-build is where work happens afterwards. Keep the two apart when you read logs: problems reported during setup concern the project files BMad is creating, and problems reported during bmad-build concern the change itself. Asking bmad for guidance rather than invoking workflows by hand is the documented path, so a reader who memorises workflow names is working against the design.

## Updates run npx skills update on one route and nowhere on the other

Upgrading is where the routes diverge most, and the difference decides what you have to remember. Ask for bmad status to check versions and see what to run next, which is the only version check offered and is a request to the hub skill rather than a shell command. On the Skills CLI route, bmad setup performs the update: it runs npx skills update, then refreshes the project and cleans up renamed and removed skills. On a plugin marketplace you update in the marketplace first and then ask for bmad setup, so the fetch step differs while the refresh step stays. That cleanup has a consequence worth stating. A skill renamed upstream is removed from your project on the next setup, so anything your team built against the old name stops resolving, and the only warning you get is whatever bmad status reports. The README describes no diff, no backup and no merge step for the files setup refreshes, which means the safe reading is replacement.

## The release version lives in each bmod.toml and pyproject.toml publishes nothing

The repository has a pyproject.toml, and it is not a distribution. Its header says so: this is not a distributable package, the repository tree itself is what the Skills CLI and the plugin marketplaces install, and the release version lives in [bmod] of each skills/bmod-*/bmod.toml rather than in that file.

```toml
[project]
name = "bmad-method"
version = "0"
description = "Repository tooling for BMAD-METHOD (not published)"
requires-python = ">=3.11"
dependencies = []
```

A version field reading 0 and an empty dependency list are both deliberate, and the uv section sets package = false. There is nothing to install from a package index and no version to pin there, so git tags are the only handle from outside, and those move: v6.12.0 on 2026-09-04, after v6.11.0 on 2026-08-10 and v6.10.0 on 2026-07-03. The last push to the default branch is dated 2026-09-29. Anyone tracking upgrades is therefore comparing what bmad status reports against the tag list, not reading a manifest.

## Shipped scripts declare their own dependencies and set the floor at Python 3.11

Every script under skills/*/scripts declares its dependencies inline using PEP 723, which is what lets uv run one without an installed project environment, and the pyproject header says exactly that. The floor is written twice, as requires-python above for the tooling and as target-version = "py311" for the linter, with a test that enforces the inline floor matches the manifest. The project's own suite reaches the shipped scripts rather than a library:

```toml
[tool.pytest.ini_options]
addopts = "-q -ra --tb=short -n auto -p no:cacheprovider"
testpaths = ["tools/tests", "skills"]
```

The -n auto flag is pytest-xdist spreading tests across cores, and testpaths reaching into skills means the suite exercises the scripts that ship to users. For an adopter the requirement is hard rather than soft: dependencies of each script are resolved by uv at run time, so an interpreter older than 3.11 is not supported and you need uv on the machine before any workflow starts.

## Five more repositories install separately, and one of them runs an epic unattended

BMAD-METHOD is the core module, and the ecosystem table points at five further repositories that install separately: BMad Builder for skills, workflows and agents, the Creative Intelligence Suite for design thinking and storytelling, BMad Test Architect as an enterprise testing add-on, BMad Game Dev Studio for Unity, Unreal, Godot and Phaser, and BMad Loop. Loop is the row to read twice, because its one-line description is that it builds, verifies and retros a whole epic unattended. Unattended at epic scale is a long run of tool-driven edits with nobody reading between them, and the README documents no checkpoint, budget or rollback for it. If your evaluation includes Loop, put a review gate around that step first. The specialised perspectives claimed for the method itself, product, architecture, UX, development and testing, are agents inside BMad Method rather than separate installs.

## MIT licence, a trademarked name, and a contribution gate

Licensing is stated plainly, MIT License with the details in the LICENSE file at the root. The name is less open. BMad and BMAD-METHOD are trademarks of BMad Code, LLC, with the terms in TRADEMARK.md, so a fork can carry the code under MIT while the branding stays with the company. Funding is separate from licensing and voluntary: the project says it is free for everyone and always will be, and lists a star request, a buy me a coffee link and a corporate sponsorship email. Contributors get a documented gate, read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request, with the tooling behind it in the tree, a pre-commit config, ruff set to line-length 120 and a lint selection of E, F, I, UP and B, plus rumdl for markdown and yamlfix. The tree also carries Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese READMEs and a separate docs site, so the documentation is maintained as a project of its own.

## Conclusion

Adopt BMAD-METHOD when a team wants planning depth written into the project instead of repeated in chat, and when you are willing to have a hub skill rewrite project files on setup, since that is how the method applies itself. Do not adopt it expecting a pinned dependency: nothing is published to a package index, the release version lives in each skills/bmod-*/bmod.toml, and pyproject.toml deliberately carries version 0. Check three things before the first run. Copy the module identifiers exactly, because the CLI uses bmod-method and bmod-core-tools while the marketplaces use bmad-method and bmad-core-tools. Confirm a Python 3.11 interpreter and uv are present, because the shipped scripts declare their own dependencies inline and run through uv. And take a copy of the files bmad setup writes before you let it run, since the refresh step cleans up renamed and removed skills and the README documents no diff, backup or merge path for that.

## FAQ

### How do I install BMAD-METHOD?

There are two routes. With Node.js, npm, Git and a coding tool that supports skills, run npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD in your project and pick the skills, or add the marketplace bmad-code-org/bmad-plugins inside Claude Code or from the terminal with Codex, then install bmad-method and bmad-core-tools. After either route, ask the bmad skill to run bmad setup.

### What are the steps involved in the BMAD method?

Open your coding tool in the project, ask the bmad skill to run bmad setup, then invoke bmad-build with what you want to change, and ask bmad for guidance on what comes next or what is optional. Ask for bmad status to check versions and see what to run next.

### What does BMAD mean in Claude Code?

In Claude Code you add the marketplace from inside the tool with the command /plugin marketplace add bmad-code-org/bmad-plugins, then install bmad-method for the delivery workflows and bmad-core-tools for the standalone skills. You then open the tool in your project and ask the bmad skill to run bmad setup.

### How do I use BMAD-METHOD with Codex?

From your terminal run codex plugin marketplace add bmad-code-org/bmad-plugins, then install bmad-method and bmad-core-tools from that marketplace. Updates follow the marketplace on this route, after which you ask for bmad setup to refresh the project.

### Can BMAD be used for spec-driven development?

The method is described as covering the whole effort, including what to build and how it holds together, and you can start anywhere by using it end to end or by carrying its briefs, specifications and architecture into your existing delivery workflow. Context is meant to persist across the work rather than be restated in every chat.

### Is BMAD-METHOD free?

The project states that BMad is free and open source for everyone, with no paywalled workflows or gated community, and that it is free for everyone and always will be. It is MIT licensed, and support is voluntary through a coffee link or a corporate sponsorship email.

## Sources

- [Official README](https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD#readme)
- [Project repository](https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD)
- [Release notes](https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD/releases)

---

Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/bmad-code-org-bmad-method