validate requires bmad-review-verification-gap, which no BMAD-METHOD release ships; error misdiagnoses cause

[jmsundar]

Summary

bmad-loop validate hard-fails unless the skill ID bmad-review-verification-gap is present in the project's skill tree, but no BMAD-METHOD release currently ships that skill, and the failure message points users at the wrong remedy.

Environment

• bmad-loop 0.9.0
• BMAD-METHOD v6.10.0 (latest release)

What happens

On a stock latest-release BMAD-METHOD install (bmm present), validate reports:

FAIL: .claude/skills/bmad-review-verification-gap not found — install the BMad Method (bmm) module (the orchestrator drives this upstream skill directly)

But bmm is installed. The real cause: bmad-review-verification-gap is not in v6.10.0. It was added post-6.10.0 (BMAD-METHOD PR #2550), then consolidated into a merged bmad-review skill (as the verification-gap lens) on main. On current main, bmad-review-verification-gap exists only as a thin v6-shim forwarder to bmad-review. None of this is in a tagged release yet, so a normal install cannot satisfy the check.

Impact

• The error misdiagnoses the problem (says bmm is missing when it isn't), so users cannot act on it.
• There is no supported path to obtain the required skill from a release. The only workaround is hand-copying the unreleased merged bmad-review + forwarders from BMAD-METHOD main into the skill tree — which also desyncs BMAD's _bmad/_config/files-manifest.csv / skill-manifest.csv (stale checksums + manifest-untracked skills).

Suggested fix

• Make the message actionable: name the exact missing skill ID and the minimum BMAD-METHOD version/layout that provides it.
• Accept either a standalone bmad-review-verification-gap or the merged bmad-review + verification-gap forwarder, so both pre- and post-consolidation installs validate.
• Document/pin the minimum BMAD-METHOD (bmm) version bmad-loop 0.9.0 supports, and coordinate with BMAD-METHOD to cut a release including the consolidation.
• Optionally, have bmad-loop init vendor/verify the required upstream review skills at a known-good ref to avoid manual copying + manifest drift.

[coderabbitai]

⚠️ Possible Duplicate Issue(s)

• [BUG] Can't start the loop, because "bmad-review-verification-gap not found" #132

🔗 Related PRs

#56 - chore(release): 0.8.0 [merged]
#73 - fix(setup): never delete live core BMAD config/manifest (#64) [merged]
#86 - feat(resolve): intent-gap patch-restore re-drive + inline-review-layer preflight (re-cut) [merged]
#180 - Copy bmad-review into isolated worktrees for merged-reviewer installs [merged]
#247 - chore(release): 0.9.0 [merged]

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[pbean]

Fix opened as #283 (ready for review).

Root cause confirmed against upstream bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD: v6.10.0 ships bmad-dev-auto (+ customize.toml), bmad-review-adversarial-general, and bmad-review-edge-case-hunter — and its step-04-review.md invokes only those two hunters by name. bmad-review-verification-gap is in no tagged release; on main it exists only as a thin forwarder to the merged bmad-review skill (which provides every lens, with step-04 now layer-driven). So the requirement was unsatisfiable in every real topology, and its absence fails no run.

#283 does what you suggested, minus the vendoring:

• drops the bmad-review-verification-gap preflight requirement entirely (it is still copied into a worktree when present, just never validated);
• accepts the merged bmad-review skill as satisfying the whole review layer, checked per skill tree — so both pre- and post-consolidation installs validate;
• rewrites the skills.base-missing messages to name the real remedy (install or update bmm, BMAD-METHOD >= 6.10.0) instead of claiming bmm is missing;
• documents minimum BMAD-METHOD v6.10.0 in docs/setup-guide.md (and corrects the README/FEATURES claims about the required skills).

Init-time vendoring of upstream skills was considered and deliberately left out. On a stock v6.10.0 install missing_base_skills now returns zero problems.