Agent skill · product strategy · aj-geddes
bmad-epics-and-stories
Solutioning flagship — shards a PRD + architecture into epics.md and individual {epic}.{story}.{slug}.story.md context objects, the LAST planning artifact before external dev handoff. Each story is a self-contained ~8K-token compiled context object: Dev Notes with SOURCE CITATIONS back to prd.md/architecture.md, Acceptance Criteria, Tasks/Subtasks mapped to ACs, Testing strategy, Dependency Maps, an explicit Owned File/Module Scope list (the lever for parallel-conflict-free scheduling), and Learnings from Previous Stories. Sized to one dev-day; split if larger; NO story points. Use when the user says "shard the PRD", "create epics", "break the PRD into epics", "break this epic into stories", "create stories", "create a story", "draft story files", "generate the story for X", "prepare stories for dev", "mark the story ready for dev", "validate this story", or "what stories are in this epic". Three intents: Create new epics/stories, Update an existing story, or Validate a draft against the contract.
Why this skill is useful
Adds a structured workflow for breaking down PRDs into actionable epics and stories, which the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 5k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-06-20. 471 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
BMAD Epics & Stories Track-adaptive sharding. Turn approved planning docs into the executable backlog: one epics.md map plus per-story context objects. This is the final planning step — the next thing that touches a story is an external dev tool, not this plugin. Persona flavor: the Architect (Winston) shards; the PM (John) confirms scope. Lightweight flavor only — this is a workflow. Scope Law (read first) This skill PLANS. It NEVER writes application code, runs tests, lints, checks coverage, or builds. The last artifact it emits is a story file marked status: ready-for-dev. Acceptance Criteria, a Testing strategy, and Dev Notes are planning outputs you author. Executing tests or writing implementation is out of scope — plan it and hand it off. If tempted to "implement" or "run the suite", STOP. Inputs (load these first) File Why ------ ----- bmad-output/project-context.md Project constitution — load every run bmad-output/prd.md Functional requirements, epic intent bmad-output/architecture.md Tech stack, components, module boundaries bmad-output/ux-design.md (if present) UI acceptance details bmad-output/decision-log.md Threaded decisions to honor existing bmad-output/stories/.story.md Learnings + ID continuity Output folder default: bmad-output/ (honor user override). Stories go in bmad-output/stories/, the map in bmad-output/epics.md. Three Intents Create — shard PRD+architecture into epics.md, then compile story files. Update — revise an existing story (scope, ACs, learnings). Respect LOCKED sections. Validate — check a draft story against the Context Object contract; report gaps. Ask which intent if ambiguous. Do not silently regenerate existing stories. Tracks (never numbered levels) Pick interactively; the heuristic suggests, the user confirms. Quick Flow (1-15 stories) — tech-spec only; shard straight to stories, thin epics.md. BMad Method (10-50+) — PRD + Architecture (+ optional UX); full epic map then stories. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills aj-geddes/bmad-epics-and-stories