🐛 Bug Report: bmad build Command Fails to Compile Custom Agents in Cursor IDE

[roberwild]

🐛 Bug: bmad build Command Fails with Cursor IDE (Hardcoded .claude/ Path)
Environment
BMAD Version: 6.0.0-alpha.16
IDE: Cursor
OS: Windows 10 (Build 19045)
Installation Directory: .bmad/ (Cursor IDE structure)
Command Used: npx bmad-method@alpha build bmm-architect

📝 Issue Description
The bmad build command fails to compile customized agents when using Cursor IDE with the .bmad/ directory structure.

Root Cause: The CLI is hardcoded to search for .claude/ directory instead of detecting the actual IDE-specific directory (.bmad/ for Cursor).

🔄 Steps to Reproduce

1. Install BMAD in a Cursor workspace: Run npx bmad-method@alpha install
2. Verify installation creates .bmad/ directory: Run npx bmad-method@alpha status. Output confirms: Location: D:\path\to\project.bmad and Configured IDEs: ✓ cursor
3. Create custom agent configuration in .bmad/_cfg/agents/bmm-architect.customize.yaml: with content like agent: metadata: name: "CustomName" and persona: role: "Custom Role"
4. Attempt to build the customized agent: Run npx bmad-method@alpha build bmm-architect

✅ Expected Behavior
The build command should:
(1) Detect the IDE-specific directory (.bmad/ for Cursor),
(2) Read customization files from .bmad/_cfg/agents/*.customize.yaml,
(3) Merge customizations with base agent definitions,
(4) Regenerate .bmad/bmm/agents/architect.md with customizations applied,
(5) Update .cursor/rules/bmad/bmm/agents/architect.mdc accordingly.

❌ Actual Behavior
Error Output: ⚠️ No .claude directory found. Run this command from your project directory or use --directory flag to specify location. Analysis: The CLI is hardcoded to search for .claude/ directory. It doesn't respect manifest.yaml which specifies ides: [cursor]. Using --directory flag doesn't help, same error occurs. The build --all command runs but builds 0 agents: ✓ Built 0 agent(s)

🔍 Additional Observations

1. Symlink Workaround Failed: Attempted creating symbolic link .claude → .bmad with PowerShell command New-Item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path ".claude" -Target ".bmad". Result: Different error Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, scandir 'D:\path\to\project.claude\commands.bmad'. This suggests the CLI expects a different internal structure.
2. Status vs Build Command Mismatch: The npx bmad-method@alpha status command correctly reports Location: .bmad/ and Configured IDEs: cursor, but the build command ignores this and searches for .claude/
3. Manifest Configuration: The file .bmad/_cfg/manifest.yaml contains installation: version: 6.0.0-alpha.16, modules: [core, bmm], and ides: [cursor], but the build command ignores the ides configuration.

🛠️ Workaround Used
Manual modification of agent files (not ideal):
(1) Edit .bmad/bmm/agents/architect.md directly,
(2) Edit .cursor/rules/bmad/bmm/agents/architect.mdc directly,
(3) Embed customizations instead of using the .customize.yaml system. Problem: This defeats the purpose of the customization system and customizations won't survive updates.

💡 Suggested Fix
The build command should:
(1) Read manifest.yaml to detect configured IDE,
(2) Map IDE to correct directory structure: cursor → .bmad/ + .cursor/rules/, claude → .claude/, windsurf → .windsurf/,
(3) Search for customization files in the detected directory,
(4) Remove hardcoded .claude/ path checks.

📊 Impact
Severity: 🔴 High - Core feature (agent customization) is broken. Affected IDEs: Cursor (possibly Windsurf and others).
Workaround: Manual editing (error-prone, not update-safe). User Experience: Confusing - status works but build fails.

📁 Related Files Structure
The project structure is: .bmad/_cfg/manifest.yaml (shows ides: cursor), .bmad/_cfg/agents/bmm-architect.customize.yaml (customization file not being read), .bmad/bmm/agents/architect.md (base agent that should be updated), and .cursor/rules/bmad/bmm/agents/architect.mdc (Cursor rule that references architect.md).

🙏 Request
Please fix the build command to properly detect and use the IDE-specific directory structure instead of hardcoding .claude/ path. The installation process already correctly detects Cursor IDE and creates the proper structure, but the build command doesn't respect this configuration.

📚 Documentation Reference
According to the Agent Customization Guide at https://github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD/blob/main/docs/agent-customization-guide.md it states: "After editing, IT IS CRITICAL to rebuild the agent to apply changes: npx bmad-method@alpha build ". This command should work but currently fails on Cursor IDE.

Thank you for looking into this! The BMAD framework is amazing, and fixing this would make agent customization work seamlessly across all supported IDEs. 🙏