A pack is an installable group of agents and skills. Compare the ten BMAD+ packs in one table, learn how to choose, install, add and remove them, and how overlapping packs coexist.
A pack is a group of agents, skills and files that you install together for one kind of work. An agent is a named persona with written instructions that your AI coding tool loads; a skill is a reusable protocol an agent opens when needed. BMAD+ 0.23.0 has ten packs. Core is the only required one and carries the four general-purpose agents; the other nine are specialists you add when your project needs them. Installing a pack writes files into your project and nothing runs in the background; the one exception is Memory, which writes the global brain into ~/.bmad-plus/brain/ in your home folder when it links or creates it.
BMAD+ ships as ten packs. Core is required: Atlas for strategy, Forge for architecture and development, Sentinel for quality, Nexus for coordination. OSINT brings Shadow, for governed public-source research. Maker designs, validates and packages new agents. Shield covers compliance with 27 specialist agents and 11 workflows, from GDPR to ISO 27001. SEO adds three agents, Scout, Chief and Judge, and a six-phase audit. Memory brings Zecher, who keeps notes, decisions and session handoffs. Dev Studio has six roles and 38 workflows, from analysis to review. Backup makes timestamped backups, Animated builds scroll-driven websites from video, and Design brings Atelier. In all, that makes 48 agents.
| Pack | Purpose | Agents | Install id | Required? | Extra runtime needs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core | Plan, architect, build, review and orchestrate | Atlas, Forge, Sentinel, Nexus | core | required, always installed | Node.js 20 |
| OSINT | Governed public-source research | Shadow | osint | optional | Python 3.10+, at least one API key (Apify token for scraping) |
| Maker | Design and package new agents | Maker | maker | optional | nothing extra |
| Shield | Compliance: 27 framework specialists, 11 GDPR and AI Act workflows, evidence tools | Shield + 27 specialists | shield | optional | nothing extra |
| SEO / GEO | Audit visibility in search and in AI-generated answers | SEO Scout, SEO Chief, SEO Judge | seo | optional | Python 3.11+ for the optional toolkit (--provision-python), GOOGLE_API_KEY optional |
| Memory | Persistent project and global memory, session handoffs | Zecher | memory | optional | nothing extra |
| Dev Studio | Full software lifecycle: 6 personas, 38 workflows | Dev Studio orchestrator + Miriam, Huldah, Yosef, Rachel, Bezalel, Oholiab | dev-studio | optional | nothing extra |
| Backup | Timestamped ZIP backups, restore, rotation | Backup Manager | backup | optional | PowerShell (Windows) or the zip program (Linux, macOS) |
| Animated | Turn an MP4 into a scroll-driven website | Animated Website Creator | animated | optional | FFmpeg and FFprobe with the libwebp encoder, an MP4 file; Python 3 only for the preview server |
| Design | Build, audit and redesign interfaces, intake first | Atelier | design | optional | nothing extra (the design-skill package 0.2.1 comes with BMAD+) |
Count the agents: 4 in Core, 1 each in OSINT, Maker, Memory, Backup, Animated and Design, 3 in SEO / GEO, one Shield orchestrator with its 27 specialists, and one Dev Studio orchestrator with its 6 personas. That is 15 entry points, 27 Shield specialists and 6 Dev Studio personas: 48 agents. The roster page lists all of them.
If you would rather let the tool suggest, bmad-plus autoconfig analyses the project and recommends packs. It always recommends Core and Memory, adds Dev Studio when there is no docs/ folder or more than five top-level folders, adds Shield when it finds CI/CD or Docker, and adds SEO when it detects Next.js, Nuxt, Angular, React, Vue.js or Svelte.
Use it after any install or update. bmad-help is a message to the assistant, not a shell command.
bmad-helpWhat you should get The assistant lists the installed agents and workflows from the project’s AGENTS.md, which the installer generates from the packs you chose. An agent from a pack you did not install is simply absent from that list.
The assistant answers from the installed instructions and can tell you which pack, if any, is missing.
I need to check my web shop for GDPR problems and then make it show up better in search and in AI answers. Which BMAD+ packs and agents do I need, and are they installed in this project?What you should get A correct answer points to Shield (agent Shield, specialist gdpr-agent) for the GDPR check and to SEO / GEO (SEO Scout, SEO Judge, SEO Chief) for search and AI-answer visibility, and says which of them the project’s AGENTS.md shows as installed. An agent from a pack you did not install is absent from that file, so the assistant can tell you it is missing but not how to add it: run npx bmad-plus install --packs shield,seo --yes yourself.
npx bmad-plus install
npx bmad-plus install --packs core,shield,seo --tools claude-code --yes
npx bmad-plus install --packs all --yes
--packs, list the ids from the table, separated by commas; all selects every pack and none selects only Core. An unknown id stops the install and prints the valid ones.bmad-plus update first.bmad-plus uninstall removes every file BMAD+ owns (files identical to what it shipped, plus its manifest) and keeps memory, _bmad/config.yaml, _bmad-output/, your edited files and anything it does not recognise. To drop one pack, uninstall and install again with the packs you keep.| Item | Location |
|---|---|
| Single-agent packs (Core agents, OSINT, Maker) | .agents/skills/<agent folder>/, for example agent-shadow |
| Packaged packs (Shield, SEO / GEO, Memory, Dev Studio, Backup, Animated, Design) | .agents/skills/pack-<name>/ |
| Skills | .agents/skills/<skill>/ |
| Role-switching triggers | .agents/data/role-triggers.yaml |
| Module description and help index | _bmad/module.yaml and _bmad/module-help.csv |
Run it from the project folder. It reads your project’s structure and stack, shows a health percentage and the reasons behind each recommendation, then offers to install.
npx bmad-plus autoconfigWhat you should get A report of the detected stack and structure, then the recommended packs with reasons such as "No docs/ found — Huldah (Tech Writer) will help document" or "CI/CD and/or Docker detected — GRC compliance agents recommended". Add --yes to accept without prompts.
Re-running install at the same version adds only what is missing. Packs already installed stay.
npx bmad-plus install --packs design --yesWhat you should get The Design pack and its three skills are added, the project’s AGENTS.md and tool adapters are regenerated to include Atelier, and your existing files and settings are kept. bmad-plus doctor then confirms the new files.
| Pack | Rule |
|---|---|
| Memory | Detects and links an existing brain (_brain/, ~/.bmad-plus/brain/, ~/.claude/memory/) and creates a global brain in ~/.bmad-plus/brain/ when it finds none; never overwrites your memory files. |
| Dev Studio | Its personas overlap with Atlas, Forge, Sentinel and Nexus; both can coexist, so pick the role you need. |
| Design | Overlaps Sentinel’s UX review and Rachel from Dev Studio; when installed, its rules govern visual design and accessibility and the others hand those over. |
BMAD+ has no telemetry. The flows that can send data off your machine are few, each under its own consent: Core and the CLI (update-check, which you can switch off, the optional nexus launch and verification commands, the commands you declare in an assurance case and run with bmad-plus assurance run, and the acceptance page of uat), OSINT (calls to search and scraping providers with your keys) and SEO / GEO (the crawl of the site you audit, Google APIs with your key, the screenshot browser, and the optional Python provisioning). Memory, Maker, Shield, Dev Studio, Backup, Animated and Design add no flow of their own (the assurance command belongs to the CLI, not to Shield). What your AI tool sends to its model is governed by that tool.
See also