Installer skips CIS/TEA agents due to SKILL.md validator scanning unrendered template in bmb/assets

[stmarkov]

Summary

On fresh install (reproduced on macOS, Windows, and Linux), the installer prints:

Error: SKILL.md name "{setup-skill-name}" does not match directory name "setup-skill-template" — skipping

The consequence is that the rest of the agent set (CIS pack: brainstorming-coach, creative-problem-solver, design-thinking-coach, innovation-strategist, presentation-master, storyteller; plus bmad-tea) never gets registered in _bmad/_config/agent-manifest.csv, leaving them inactive / un-configured even though their skill files land correctly under .claude/skills/.

Root Cause

The validator is reading skills/bmad-module-builder/assets/setup-skill-template/SKILL.md (from the bmad-builder / bmb module), which is a template scaffold containing unrendered placeholders:

---
name: "{setup-skill-name}"
description: Sets up {module-name} module in a project. ...
---

Because the template hasn't been rendered with real values yet, the name field does not match the parent directory name (setup-skill-template). The validator treats this as a fatal mismatch and skips the rest of the tree — including entries that should be added to the manifest.

Expected

Validation should either:

1. Exclude assets/** directories (template scaffolds are not runnable skills), or
2. Treat the mismatch as a non-fatal warning so downstream agents still register, or
3. Rename the template directory/file so the placeholder scan never runs against it.

Reproduction

1. Fresh install of BMad Method (reproduced on macOS, Windows 11, Ubuntu).
2. Observe the error during setup.
3. Inspect _bmad/_config/agent-manifest.csv — only the bmm agents are present; cis/* and tea are missing.
4. Confirm the skill files do exist under .claude/skills/bmad-cis-* and .claude/skills/bmad-tea/, so the skills themselves installed fine — only the manifest registration is broken.

Workaround

Manually copy a known-good agent-manifest.csv from another project into _bmad/_config/.

Environment

• BMad core: v6.3.0
• bmad-builder (bmb) module: v1.6.0
• OS: macOS, Windows, Linux (all reproduce)

Note

Filing here rather than on bmad-code-org/bmad-builder since the failure blocks cross-module manifest registration during core install. Happy to move if you prefer.

[coderabbitai]

🔗 Related PRs

#1729 - feat: migrate Codex installer from .codex/prompts to .agents/skills format [merged]
#1851 - feat(skills): add type:skill manifest for verbatim directory copying [merged]
#1868 - refactor(skills): add SKILL.md entrypoint to skill directories [merged]
#2115 - fix: agent-manifest.csv empty after install [merged]
#2255 - fix(installer): stop skill scanner from recursing into discovered skills [merged]

---

📝 Issue Planner

_{Check the box below or use the @coderabbitai plan command to generate an implementation plan and prompts that you can use with your favorite coding assistant.}

• Create Plan

---

🧪 Issue enrichment is currently in open beta.

You can configure auto-planning by selecting labels in the issue_enrichment configuration.

To disable automatic issue enrichment, add the following to your .coderabbit.yaml:

issue_enrichment:
  auto_enrich:
    enabled: false

💬 Have feedback or questions? Drop into our discord!

[bmadcode]

checking - I think this is resolved with a change today...

[stmarkov]

Still Broken as of today - tested on MacOS and Windows

[bmadcode]

@stmarkov thanks for the detailed write-up. Validated against current main (bmm v6.5.0, bmb v1.7.0) and closing as outdated — the symptom you described (CIS/TEA missing from agent-manifest.csv) no longer applies, though the cosmetic error string is still real.

What's still real:

• bmad-bmb/skills/bmad-module-builder/assets/setup-skill-template/SKILL.md still has name: "{setup-skill-name}", and ManifestGenerator.collectSkills() will still walk into assets/ and print that Error: SKILL.md name "..." does not match directory name "..." line on install when bmb is selected. Noisy, but cosmetic.

What's no longer accurate on current main:

1. The error is not fatal. parseSkillMd returns null, the walker skips claiming that dir, and continues into siblings and other modules. Each module is walked from its own root, so a placeholder under bmb cannot affect the cis or tea walks.
2. agent-manifest.csv is no longer emitted at all. PR refactor(skills): remove bmad-skill-manifest yaml; introduce central config.toml #2285 (merged 2026-04-19) replaced the per-skill manifest pipeline with a central _bmad/config.toml. Agent rosters now live there. The agent-manifest.csv you inspected in your reproduction is a stale artifact from a pre-refactor install.
3. Agent registration was never gated on the skill walk. collectAgentsFromModuleYaml() reads each module's module.yaml agents: block independently, so a SKILL.md mismatch in bmb/assets/ could not block CIS/TEA agent registration even before the refactor.

If you reinstall on a clean _bmad/ against current main and still see CIS/TEA agents missing from _bmad/config.toml, please open a fresh issue with the new symptom — happy to dig in. Will track the cosmetic noise (excluding assets/** from the walk, or downgrading the log severity) as a small follow-up.