bmad-autonomous-development/skills/bad/assets/module-setup.md

BAD Module Setup

Standalone module self-registration for BMad Autonomous Development. This file is loaded when:

• The user passes setup, configure, or install as an argument
• The module is not yet registered in {project-root}/_bmad/bad/config.yaml

Overview

Registers BAD into a project. Writes to:

• {project-root}/_bmad/config.yaml — shared project config (universal settings + harness-specific settings)
• {project-root}/_bmad/config.user.yaml — personal settings (gitignored): user_name, communication_language, and any user_setting: true variable
• {project-root}/_bmad/module-help.csv — registers BAD capabilities for the help system

Both config scripts use an anti-zombie pattern — existing bad entries are removed before writing fresh ones, so stale values never persist.

{project-root} is a literal token in config values — never substitute it with an actual path.

Step 1: Check Existing Config

1. Read ./assets/module.yaml for module metadata.
2. Check if {project-root}/_bmad/config.yaml has a bad section — if so, inform the user this is a reconfiguration and show existing values as defaults.
3. Check for inline args (e.g. accept all defaults, --headless, or MAX_PARALLEL_STORIES=5) — map any provided values to config keys, use defaults for the rest, skip prompting for those keys.

Step 2: Detect Installed Harnesses

Check for the presence of harness directories at the project root:

Directory	Harness
.claude/	claude-code
.cursor/	cursor
.github/skills/	github-copilot (use /skills/ subfolder to avoid false positive on bare .github/)
.codex/	openai-codex
.gemini/	gemini
.windsurf/	windsurf
.cline/	cline

Store all detected harnesses. Determine the current harness from this skill's own file path — whichever harness directory contains this running skill is the current harness. Use the current harness to drive the question branch in Step 3.

Step 3: Collect Configuration

Show defaults in brackets. Present all values together so the user can respond once with only what they want to change. Never say "press enter" or "leave blank".

Default priority (highest wins): existing config values > ./assets/module.yaml defaults.

Core Config (only if not yet set)

Only collect if no core keys exist in config.yaml or config.user.yaml:

• user_name (default: BMad) — written exclusively to config.user.yaml
• communication_language and document_output_language (default: English — ask as a single language question, both keys get the same answer) — communication_language written exclusively to config.user.yaml
• output_folder (default: {project-root}/_bmad-output) — written to root of config.yaml, shared across all modules

Universal BAD Config

Read from ./assets/module.yaml and present as a grouped block:

• max_parallel_stories — Max stories to run in a single batch [3]
• worktree_base_path — Root directory for git worktrees, relative to repo root [.worktrees]
• auto_pr_merge — Auto-merge batch PRs sequentially after each batch? [No]
• run_ci_locally — Skip GitHub Actions and run CI locally by default? [No]
• wait_timer_seconds — Seconds to wait between batches before re-checking PR status [3600]
• retro_timer_seconds — Seconds before auto-running retrospective after epic completion [600]
• context_compaction_threshold — Context window % at which to compact/summarise context [80]

Harness-Specific Config

Run once for the current harness. If multiple harnesses are detected, also offer to configure each additional harness in sequence after the current one — label each section clearly.

When configuring multiple harnesses, model and threshold variables are stored with a harness prefix (e.g. claude_model_standard, cursor_model_standard) so they coexist. Universal variables are shared and asked only once.

Claude Code (claude-code)

Present as "Claude Code settings":

• model_standard — Model for story creation, dev, and PR steps
  • Choose: sonnet (default), haiku
• model_quality — Model for code review step
  • Choose: opus (default), sonnet
• api_five_hour_threshold — 5-hour API usage % at which to pause [80]
• api_seven_day_threshold — 7-day API usage % at which to pause [95]

Automatically write timer_support: true — no prompt needed.

All Other Harnesses

Present as "{HarnessName} settings":

• model_standard — Model for story creation, dev, and PR steps (e.g. fast, gpt-4o-mini, flash)
• model_quality — Model for code review step (e.g. best, o1, pro)
• api_usage_threshold — API usage % at which to pause for rate limits [80]

Automatically write timer_support: false — no prompt needed. BAD will use prompt-based continuation instead of native timers on this harness.

Step 4: Write Files

Write a temp JSON file with collected answers structured as:

{
  "core": { "user_name": "...", "document_output_language": "...", "output_folder": "..." },
  "bad": {
    "max_parallel_stories": "3",
    "worktree_base_path": ".worktrees",
    "auto_pr_merge": false,
    "run_ci_locally": false,
    "wait_timer_seconds": "3600",
    "retro_timer_seconds": "600",
    "context_compaction_threshold": "80",
    "timer_support": true,
    "model_standard": "sonnet",
    "model_quality": "opus",
    "api_five_hour_threshold": "80",
    "api_seven_day_threshold": "95"
  }
}

Omit core key if core config already exists. Run both scripts in parallel:

python3 ./scripts/merge-config.py \
  --config-path "{project-root}/_bmad/config.yaml" \
  --user-config-path "{project-root}/_bmad/config.user.yaml" \
  --module-yaml ./assets/module.yaml \
  --answers {temp-file}

python3 ./scripts/merge-help-csv.py \
  --target "{project-root}/_bmad/module-help.csv" \
  --source ./assets/module-help.csv \
  --module-code bad

If either exits non-zero, surface the error and stop.

Run ./scripts/merge-config.py --help or ./scripts/merge-help-csv.py --help for full usage.

Step 5: Create Directories

After writing config, create the worktree base directory at the resolved path of {project-root}/{worktree_base_path} if it does not exist. Use the actual resolved path for filesystem operations only — config values must continue to use the literal {project-root} token.

Also create output_folder and any other {project-root}/-prefixed values from the config that don't exist on disk.

Step 6: Confirm and Greet

Display what was written: config values set, user settings written, help entries registered, fresh install vs reconfiguration.

Then display the module greeting:

BAD is ready. Run /bad to start. Pass KEY=VALUE args to override config at runtime (e.g. /bad MAX_PARALLEL_STORIES=2).

Return to Skill

Setup is complete. Resume normal BAD activation — load config from the freshly written files and proceed with whatever the user originally intended.