Can bmad agent v3 work with existing projects

[TheDarkSkyXD]

I was wondering if i could get a random project off github and use bmad agent v3 to help me work on changing it or fixing issues on the project?

[bmadcode]

Yes definitely with the addition of potentially some new tasks and templates - I have a prototype in the works I hope to publish in the next few days!

[3stepwin]

I need to get this setup would love to use v3 been working on a project for weeks I'm almost at the end but the ai is stuck

[hitesh-goel]

Would love to have this functionality of using BMAD agent to be utilised for existing projects.

[dgokcin]

also interested. I started a project with your v0 that was in a different repo with only mdc files. now stuck as it is super hard to convert the legacy version into the latest version.

[bmadcode]

Yes - next few videos will be - exact setup of ide (short video), a project walkthrough of a small greenfield app, and usage in the brownfield.

I want to make a few enhancements to make brownfield easier, and want to get the fix in first for doc sharding to make everything easier.

But for now - here is what I would suggest (depends on size and complexity of the project)
If you already know what to do and generally how to add it and its a single story - you can provide a lot of detail to have the agent use the story template to create a detailed story with tasks and subtasks...

If its more ambitious there are multiple techniques. If you are not too familiar with the code base at all, or unsure how its organized, you can still work with the PM and Architect. When talking to the PM, explain upfront its an existing project, and in gemini web, you can even paste in or link to the github of the project, have it analyse, build the source tree, and build up an understanding.

I am working on some specific tasks to help guide through this, but its basically going to be a combination of those things. Think though how to do it high level without AI, and build the steps into a task or a flow for a simplified PRD/architecture. Since there is already existing architecture in place and mostly decided, I would most likely just do a technical PRD.

Anyways, this is my goal to add in for more assistance in the next week or two.

[alstone01]

I have a project that is near completion and wish I had used the BMAD system to start with. I am also hoping to use the BMAD agent for existing projects. So I am also "watching this space". :)

[bmadcode]

@alstone01 - I did a small experiment recently verified my assumption from above that did quite well you could try! If you want to use web gemini, use the + button to attach your github repo and talk to the PM and tell him you already have a project and just want to create a very simple PRD with a single epic for a new feature. Tell him to look at the (package.json, requirements.txt or something else depending on your project) to create the tech list, and analyze the project consider it as the started to generate the source tree etc...) Then give a good description of what you still need to add.

Anyways, I did this, and was able to get it to give me just a new epic and a few stories, and a good prompt for the architect, when was able to do a good analysis and understand the project and create the necessary artifacts.

I was surprised how well it actually worked and still was able to conform to the same structures and templates.

Ill make this a more streamlined workflow soon - but honestly, its kinda magical working with the agents how adaptable they are just by talking to them like they were the personas they are meant to be. Ask them to modify some process they normally would do, and they understand and will.

If you can do this, at the end of the day - the only goal is to get the artifacts needed to generate the tasks for the dev agent within the detailed stories.

Good luck if you want to experiment with it ahead of this specific feature addition.

[alstone01]

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it. I plan to do a deep dive on BMAD in around 2 weeks time.

[alstone01]

I used BMAD to integrate a module into my app and it was way easier and way better than I had ever anticipated. You have done something wonderful here. I hope life rewards you fully for this work. Congratulations!

[dgokcin]

just migrated from v0(cursor rules files, .ai directory) to v3 in the last couple of days. I can confirm that connecting github repo and just having a chat with the agent about converting existing stories/epics to the new format does quite an impressive job. gemini's huge 1m context is more than enough for this kind of tasks at least for the project I used. so thank you for this amazing workflow!

@bmadcode also one thing I noticed in the gemini prompts is that how you are enforcing the output to be proper markdown. I tried many propmts to fix the poor rendering of markdown on cursor and wanna share my method that I believe will improve the current output formatting. I discovered that if you force the agent to wrap the outer markdown block inside 5 backtics('''''), you get a perfect md output block.

[PMStander]

@alstone01 how did you integrate your current project?