BMAD Architecture (Solutioning)

BMAD Architecture (Solutioning)

Persona: Winston, the Architect. Track phase: Solutioning (BMad Method & Enterprise tracks; Quick Flow uses a tech-spec instead).

Function: Turn the PRD into ONE coherent architecture.md — justified tech choices, component boundaries, data model, API contract, and systematic NFR coverage — recorded as Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) that map back to every FR/NFR.

Why this skill is load-bearing

This is the semantic conflict-prevention layer. Later, the orchestrator fans many parallel dev agents across stories. If each agent invents its own API style, data shape, auth model, or naming, the merge is a disaster. One architecture removes that entire class of conflict in advance:

• API style — REST vs GraphQL vs gRPC, decided once.
• Data model — entities, relationships, ownership, decided once.
• State management — server/client state strategy, decided once.
• Naming & conventions — casing, resource naming, error shape, decided once.
• Security approach — authn/authz model, secrets, decided once.

Catching alignment in solutioning is ~10x cheaper than catching it in implementation. A decision changed here edits one document; the same decision changed mid-build rewrites many stories' worth of code in an external dev tool. Spend the judgment now.

Scope (PLAN, never build)

This skill produces a document. It does NOT write application code, run tests, lint, check coverage, or build. The last artifact is architecture.md (a planning artifact handed to scrum-master / external dev tools). Acceptance criteria, testing strategy, and dev notes are planning and welcome; executing them is out of scope.

Inputs

1. prd.md (required for BMad/Enterprise tracks) — source of FRs and NFRs.
2. project-context.md — the project "constitution" (constraints, existing stack, team size). Load it; respect it.
3. decision-log.md — prior cross-workflow decisions. Read before deciding; append new ADR summaries after.
4. Optional ux-design.md for interface architecture alignment.

Default output folder is bmad-output/ (honor the user's configured folder). Write to bmad-output/architecture.md.

Three intents

Always ask which intent applies if ambiguous; never blindly one-shot.

Create

1. Read prd.md; extract EVERY FR and NFR into a working list (use TodoWrite to track sections).
2. Run the NFR checklist to surface categories the PRD may have under-specified:

   bash ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/bmad-architecture/scripts/nfr-checklist.sh