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BMAD Method — Paperclip Agent Template

The BMAD Method (Brainstorm, Map, Architect, Deliver) is a structured product development methodology designed for AI agent teams running on Paperclip. It organizes work into four phases, each staffed by specialized agents with distinct personas, expertise, and collaboration patterns.

This template provides a ready-to-use Paperclip organization with 9 BMAD agents that cover the full product lifecycle — from initial research through production deployment, observability, and platform operations.

Why BMAD?

Traditional software teams struggle with AI agent coordination because agents lack shared methodology. BMAD solves this by giving each agent:

  • A clear phase in the workflow (Analysis, Planning, Solutioning, Implementation)
  • A defined persona with communication style and core principles
  • Specific capabilities tied to BMAD skills
  • Explicit collaboration rules — who hands off to whom, and what they hand off
  • A ticket-driven handoff model — agents create and assign tickets to move work between phases, making every transition traceable in Paperclip

The result: agents produce consistent, high-quality artifacts that flow naturally from research to shipped code.

The Four Phases

graph LR
    A["Phase 1<br/>Analysis"] --> B["Phase 2<br/>Planning"]
    B --> C["Phase 3<br/>Solutioning"]
    C --> D["Phase 4<br/>Implementation"]

    A1["Brainstormer<br/>(Mary)"] -.-> A
    B1["Product Manager<br/>(John)"] -.-> B
    C1["Architect<br/>(Winston)"] -.-> C
    C2["Story Writer"] -.-> C
    D1["Code Reviewer<br/>(Amelia)"] -.-> D
    D2["Testing Architect"] -.-> D
    D3["DevOps Engineer"] -.-> D

    CH["Challenger"] -.-> A
    CH -.-> B
    CH -.-> C
    CH -.-> D

    O["O11y Engineer"] -.-> C
    O -.-> D
Phase Focus Primary Agent
1. Analysis Research, briefs, domain analysis Brainstormer (Mary)
2. Planning PRDs, epics, requirements Product Manager (John)
3. Solutioning Architecture, stories, design Architect (Winston), Story Writer
4. Implementation Code, tests, reviews, deployment Code Reviewer (Amelia), Testing Architect, DevOps Engineer

The Challenger, O11y Engineer, and DevOps Engineer operate as cross-cutting agents across multiple phases.

How Work Flows Between Agents

BMAD uses a ticket-driven handoff model. When an agent completes their phase, they don't just produce artifacts — they create new Paperclip tickets and assign them to the next agent in the chain. This makes every transition explicit and traceable.

The two critical handoff points are:

  1. Product Manager → Architect + Story Writer + O11y Engineer — After the PRD is complete, John fans out work to solutioning agents
  2. Architect → Code Reviewer + DevOps Engineer + Testing Architect + O11y Engineer — After architecture is finalized, Winston fans out work to implementation agents

See the Workflow Phases page for the full ticket flow with diagrams.

Quick Start

See the Getting Started guide for installation and configuration.

Agents

Explore each agent's persona, capabilities, and collaboration patterns in the Agents section.