| name | skf-create-stack-skill |
| description | Consolidated project stack skill with integration patterns — code-mode (analyzes manifests) or compose-mode (synthesizes from existing skills + architecture doc). Use when the user requests to "create a stack skill", "forge a stack", or "stack this project". |
Create Stack Skill
Overview
Produces a consolidated stack skill documenting how libraries connect. Code-mode analyzes dependency manifests and co-import patterns from actual source code. Compose-mode synthesizes from pre-generated individual skills and architecture documents when no codebase exists yet. Every finding must trace to actual code with file:line citations; in compose-mode, inferred integrations are permitted but must be labeled [inferred from shared domain].
Conventions
- Bare paths (e.g.
references/<name>.md) resolve from the skill root.
- The
knowledge/ and shared/ prefixes are the exception: they resolve from the SKF module root ({project-root}/_bmad/skf/ when installed, src/ during development), not the skill root — they point at module-shared reference docs (knowledge/tool-resolution.md, knowledge/version-paths.md) and scripts/schemas (shared/references/…) that live once at the module root, mirroring the resolution note references/health-check.md carries for shared/health-check.md.
references/ holds prompt content carved out of SKILL.md (workflow stages chained via frontmatter nextStepFile, plus static reference docs); scripts/ and assets/ hold deterministic helpers and templates.{skill-root} resolves to this skill's installed directory (where customize.toml lives, if present).{project-root}-prefixed paths resolve from the project working directory.{skill-name} resolves to the skill directory's basename.
Role
You are a dependency analyst and integration architect. You bring expertise in dependency analysis, cross-library integration patterns, and compositional architecture, while the user brings their project knowledge and scope preferences.
Workflow Rules
These rules apply to every step in this workflow:
- Zero hallucination — all extracted content must trace to actual source code (compose-mode inferences must be labeled)
- Only load one step file at a time — never preload future steps
- If any instruction references a subprocess or tool you lack, achieve the outcome in your main context thread
- Always communicate in
{communication_language}
- If
{headless_mode} is true, auto-proceed through confirmation gates with their default action and log each auto-decision
- Warnings use a single accumulator — see
## Workflow state contract below for shape and surfacing.
Workflow state contract
Every step that emits a warning appends a structured entry to a single in-memory list named workflow_warnings[] (the one accumulator for the whole workflow). Each entry has the shape {step: "step-NN", severity: "info|warn|error", code: "<short-slug>", message: "<human text>", context: {<optional fields>}}. Step 7 surfaces these in evidence-report.md; step 8 may add validation findings; step 9 §5 reads the accumulated list and renders the user-facing "Warnings" section.
Single-pass — no mid-run checkpoint. State lives in memory until step 7 commits provenance-map.json/evidence-report.md; the workflow keeps no resumable checkpoint and On Activation does not probe for a prior run — the analysis is deterministic and cheap to redo, and the two gates are trivially re-confirmed. If interrupted before that commit, restart from step 1.
Stages
| # | Step | File | Auto-proceed |
|---|
| 1 | Initialize & Mode Detection | references/init.md | No (confirm) |
| 2 | Detect Manifests | references/detect-manifests.md | Yes |
| 3 | Rank & Confirm Libraries | references/rank-and-confirm.md | No (confirm) |
| 4 | Parallel Extract | references/parallel-extract.md | Yes |
| 5 | Detect Integrations | references/detect-integrations.md | Yes |
| 6 | Compile Stack | references/compile-stack.md | No (review) |
| 7 | Generate Output | references/generate-output.md | Yes |
| 8 | Validate | references/validate.md | Yes |
| 9 | Report | references/report.md | Yes |
| 10 | Workflow Health Check | references/health-check.md | Yes |
Invocation Contract
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|
| Inputs | project_path [required], mode (code/compose) [auto-detected] |
| Gates | step 3: Confirm Gate [C] |
| Outputs | SKILL.md (stack), context-snippet.md, metadata.json |
| Headless | All gates auto-resolve with default action when {headless_mode} is true |
| Exit codes | See "Exit Codes" below |
Exit Codes
Every HARD HALT in this workflow exits with a stable code so headless automators can branch on the failure class without grepping message text:
| Code | Meaning | Raised by (halt_reason) |
|---|
| 0 | success | step 10 (terminal handoff to shared health-check) |
| 2 | input / precondition invalid | step 1 §0 config.yaml missing/malformed (config-missing); step 2 §2 headless with no manifests (no-manifests, S2); step 4 §3 all extractions failed (all-extractions-failed, B7); step 5 §2 feasibility-report schemaVersion mismatch (schema-version-mismatch) |
| 3 | resolution-failure | step 1 §1 forge-tier.yaml missing (forge-tier-missing); step 2 §0 compose-mode skill-resolution corruption (manifest + symlink both fail); step 2 §0 compose-mode zero qualifying skills (S1/B4); step 4 §0 compose-cycle — all resolution-failure |
| 4 | write-failure | step 7 §1 stage-dir / commit-dir failure; step 7 §1 group-dir collision when an existing non-stack skill occupies the target path — both write-failure |
| 6 | user-cancelled | any interactive menu in step 3 / step 6 when the user selects [X] Cancel and exit (user-cancelled) |
Result Contract (Headless)
When {headless_mode} is true, step 9 emits a single-line JSON envelope on stdout before chaining to step 10, and every HARD HALT emits the same envelope shape on stderr with status: "error":
SKF_STACK_RESULT_JSON: {"status":"success|error","skill_package":"…|null","skill_name":"…","stack_libraries":["…"],"mode":"code|compose","exit_code":0,"halt_reason":null}
status is "success" on the terminal happy path, "error" on any HALT. skill_package is the absolute path to the committed stack-skill directory (or null on error before commit). skill_name is the stack skill's published name (e.g. {project_name}-stack). stack_libraries is the array of library names included in the stack (constituent skill names in compose-mode, dependency names in code-mode). mode is "code" or "compose" per the run's resolved mode (null if the run halts before mode resolution). halt_reason is one of: null (success), "config-missing", "forge-tier-missing", "no-manifests", "all-extractions-failed", "schema-version-mismatch", "resolution-failure", "write-failure", "user-cancelled". exit_code matches the table above. Fields unknown at the halt point are null (skill_name) or [] (stack_libraries) — e.g. a config-missing halt precedes project_name resolution.
On Activation
-
Load config from {project-root}/_bmad/skf/config.yaml and resolve:
project_name, output_folder, user_name, communication_language, document_output_language, skills_output_folder, forge_data_folder, sidecar_path
-
Resolve {headless_mode} with explicit precedence (B2):
- Explicit disable wins. If
--headless=false or --no-headless was passed, {headless_mode} is false regardless of any preference.
- Explicit enable next. If
--headless or -H was passed (without =false), {headless_mode} is true.
- Preferences fallback. Otherwise, read
headless_mode from {sidecar_path}/preferences.yaml (true or false).
- Default:
false.
-
Resolve workflow customization. Run:
python3 {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py \
--skill {skill-root} --key workflow
The script merges the three customization layers per bmad-customize's structural merge rules (scalars override, arrays append):
{skill-root}/customize.toml — bundled defaults_bmad/custom/<skill-name>.toml under {project-root} — team overrides (committed)_bmad/custom/<skill-name>.user.toml under {project-root} — personal overrides (gitignored)
If the script fails or is missing, fall back to reading {skill-root}/customize.toml directly — the bundled defaults are an empty string for each path scalar.
Apply the path-scalar fallback now so stage files don't have to repeat the conditional logic. For each of the five scalars, if the merged value is empty or absent, use the bundled default:
{stackSkillTemplatePath} ← workflow.stack_skill_template_path if non-empty, else assets/stack-skill-template.md{integrationPatternsPath} ← workflow.integration_patterns_path if non-empty, else references/integration-patterns.md{manifestPatternsPath} ← workflow.manifest_patterns_path if non-empty, else references/manifest-patterns.md{composeModeRulesPath} ← workflow.compose_mode_rules_path if non-empty, else references/compose-mode-rules.md{provenanceMapSchemaPath} ← workflow.provenance_map_schema_path if non-empty, else assets/provenance-map-schema.md
Also resolve {onCompleteCommand} ← workflow.on_complete if non-empty, else empty string (no-op — references/report.md §6c skips the hook invocation entirely).
Stash all five paths plus {onCompleteCommand} as workflow-context variables. Stage files reference {stackSkillTemplatePath} / {integrationPatternsPath} / {manifestPatternsPath} / {composeModeRulesPath} / {provenanceMapSchemaPath} directly; empty-string overrides fall through to the bundled default.
Also apply the array surfaces: run workflow.activation_steps_prepend now, keep workflow.persistent_facts as standing context (file: entries load their contents), then run workflow.activation_steps_append after.
-
Load, read the full file, and then execute references/init.md to begin the workflow.
