What is the difference between Spec Kit and BMAD-METHOD?

Spec Kit is a toolkit that makes the specification the executable artifact — "define what to build before building it — with any AI coding agent" — and it is explicitly agent-agnostic and extensible, shipping a ready-to-use process you can replace with your own. BMAD is a method with skills attached: you run `npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD`, then invoke `bmad-build` with what you want to change inside your existing AI coding tool, and its process expands or contracts with the size of the change. The practical difference is where the work lands: Spec Kit produces a spec your agent implements; BMAD runs a conversation that keeps the decisions explicit and carries them forward as context.

Which one is still being maintained?

Neither repository answers that on its front page, which is precisely why this site scores them. Neither README carries a maintenance notice, a deprecation warning or a successor — the contrast worth knowing is AutoGen, which states outright that it "is now in maintenance mode" and "will not receive new features or enhancements". The figures under this verdict are read from the GitHub API every night: commit recency, release cadence, issue response time and maintainer count, both projects measured on the same night so they can be held against each other.

Do either of them cost anything?

No. Both are MIT-licensed. BMAD states that it is "free and open source, with no paywalled workflows or gated community". Spec Kit publishes no paid tier, hosted plan or commercial suite on its README. Neither uses the arrangement LangChain and CrewAI use, where an MIT framework sits beside a paid control plane.

What do you need installed to run each?

Spec Kit needs uv, and its install is version-pinned by design: "Replace vX.Y.Z with the latest release tag from Releases — keep the leading v (for example, v0.12.11, not 0.12.11)", installed as `uv tool install specify-cli`, or from PyPI. It is the only one of the five frameworks tracked here whose published install instructions pin a version. BMAD's Skills CLI route needs Node.js, npm, and Git, and installs with `npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD`; BMAD setup scripts use uv. After that the two diverge: `specify init my-project --integration copilot` scaffolds a project, where BMAD expects you to open your project in your AI coding tool and invoke its skills there.

Can you use them together?

Nothing in either README forbids it, and BMAD's own framing invites the arrangement: "start anywhere. Use BMAD end to end, or carry its briefs, specifications, and architecture into your existing delivery workflow." Spec Kit is agent-agnostic and describes its process as replaceable — "a ready-to-use spec-driven process (or bring your own)". Neither publishes an integration with the other, so this is a statement about what their own documentation permits rather than a documented path.

Board / Spec frameworks / both read on the same nightly pass, September 13, 2026

Spec Kit vs BMAD-METHOD

Spec Kit is the healthier of the two today, 100/100 against 92/100. Measured on September 13, 2026, not preferred.

The verdict

what to pick, and what the answer rests on

Both answer the same complaint. The agent builds the wrong thing. And they answer it from opposite ends. Spec Kit inverts the artifact: "specifications become executable, directly generating working implementations rather than just guiding them", it is deliberately agent-agnostic, "with any AI coding agent", and it installs as a pinned CLI, `uv tool install specify-cli` from a named release tag. BMAD inverts the process instead: it sizes itself to the change, so "Small changes go straight to build. Complex work gets the depth it needs", it installs with `npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD` and then works by invoking skills inside the coding tool you already use, and it will hand its briefs and architecture into a workflow you already have rather than replacing it. Two differences worth the decision beyond taste: publisher and hook. Spec Kit is published by GitHub itself; BMAD is published by an organisation created for the project, which is a different failure mode. Maintainer attention rather than a strategy change. And BMAD is the only one of the five frameworks tracked here that publishes the absence of a commercial hook rather than leaving you to infer it: "BMad is free and open source, with no paywalled workflows or gated community." Neither README says anything about whether it is still being maintained, which is what the score below is for.

Head to head, measured

both columns read from the GitHub API on the same nightly pass, September 13, 2026

Spec Kit and BMAD-METHOD on the signals the score reads
Signal	Spec Kit	BMAD-METHOD
Verdict	Maintained	Maintained
Freshness	100/100	92/100
Last commit	yesterday	today
Commits, 90 days	100	100
Last release	v1.0.6	v6.12.0
Releases, 12 months	190	40
Issue response	too few issues to sample	too few issues to sample
Committers, 90 days	27	2
Stars	136,100	52,950
Licence	MIT	none declared

Spec Kit, the full record BMAD-METHOD, the full record

Head to head

what each one publishes about itself, read off its own repository on September 18, 2026

Spec Kit vs BMAD-METHOD, on what each project publishes about itself
Axis	GitHub Spec Kit	BMAD-METHOD
What it is, in its own words	An open source toolkit that gives AI coding agents structured processes, reusable templates, and documented outcomesThe README was rewritten after this row was read on 13 September 2026. It now opens "Spec Kit is an open source toolkit that gives AI coding agents structured processes, reusable templates, and documented outcomes." The repository heading reads "Spec Kit. Build with a spec, fix a bug, or assess an idea, with your coding agent." The earlier line "define what to build before building it" is gone from the page.read September 18, 2026	An agile method for AI-driven development"Agile Ai Driven Development. Turn an idea or change request into working software without giving up the thinking. Ai Driven Development (AiDD) covers the whole effort, not only the code: what to build, how it holds together, and how it changes as you learn."read September 18, 2026
What its README says about its own maintenancewhether the project's front page tells a reader that it is still being developed, has stopped, or has a successor. As distinct from what its commit graph implies	Not publishedNo maintenance statement, deprecation notice or successor. The README does carry an "Experimental goals" section describing what its authors are researching, which is a statement about direction rather than about whether the project is being maintained. Read on the repository's own front page on 14 August 2026.read September 18, 2026	Not publishedNo maintenance statement, deprecation notice or successor on the README. It does document prerelease builds and non-interactive setup in a separate installation guide, which speaks to release process rather than to project health. Read on the repository's own front page on 14 August 2026.read September 18, 2026
How you install it	uv tool install specify-cliInstalled from a pinned release tag. "Replace vX.Y.Z with the latest release tag from Releases. Keep the leading v (for example, v0.12.11, not 0.12.11)". Or from PyPI. The only one of the five whose install instructions pin a version.read September 18, 2026	npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHODThe README documents the Skills CLI route for adding BMAD-METHOD to a supported AI coding tool; setup and help then run through the bmad skill.read September 18, 2026
Licence	MITShown in the repository's own file navigation alongside its code of conduct, contributing guide and security policy.read September 18, 2026	MITThe README identifies the project as MIT-licensed and states: "BMad and BMAD-METHOD are trademarks of BMad Code, LLC."read September 18, 2026
Who publishes it	githubPublished from GitHub's own organisation. Of the five this is the one whose survival depends least on a single company's product line and most on a platform team's continued interest.read September 18, 2026	bmad-code-orgAn organisation created for the project rather than a company with a product line around it, which is a different failure mode from the other four: the risk is maintainer attention, not a strategy change.read September 18, 2026
What it sells alongside	Not publishedNo paid tier, hosted plan or commercial suite is published on the README. Read on the repository's own front page on 14 August 2026.read September 18, 2026	Nothing, stated explicitly"BMad is free and open source, with no paywalled workflows or gated community." The only one of the five to publish the absence rather than leave a reader to infer it.read September 18, 2026
Why you would pick itEach project’s own case, in its own words.	The thing going wrong is that the agent builds the wrong thing, not that it builds it badly. And you want a process rather than a runtime. Spec Kit is the only one of the five that is agent-agnostic by design, "an open source toolkit for building high-quality software with any AI coding agent", and the only one whose premise is inverting the artifact: "specifications become executable, directly generating working implementations rather than just guiding them". It also runs beside whatever framework you already have, because it produces specs rather than processes.	You want the planning depth to scale with the change rather than being fixed by the tool, and you want it free of a commercial hook. BMAD is the only one of the five to state that outright. "BMad is free and open source, with no paywalled workflows or gated community". And the only one whose stated design is that "the process sizes itself to the work: Small changes go straight to build. Complex work gets the depth it needs". It is also the only one that will carry its artifacts into a workflow you already have rather than asking you to adopt the whole thing.

The rest of the spec frameworks

scored on the same night, on the same signals, dead first

Other spec frameworks on this board

get-shit-donegsd-build/get-shit-done	Archived	0/100	3mo agoMay 31, 2026	0	0	too few	65k
Task Mastereyaltoledano/claude-task-master	Dead	21/100	5mo agoApril 28, 2026	0	0	too few	28k
Claude-Code-Game-StudiosDonchitos/Claude-Code-Game-Studios	Dead	15/100	4mo agoMay 21, 2026	0	0	46d	25k
AI Dev Taskssnarktank/ai-dev-tasks	Dead	22/100	10mo agoNovember 5, 2025	0	0	too few	7.8k
Infinite Agentic Loopdisler/infinite-agentic-loop	Dead	16/100	6mo agoMarch 9, 2026	0	0	too few	615
AI-Research-SKILLsOrchestra-Research/AI-Research-SKILLs	Slowing	51/100	3mo agoJune 16, 2026	7	4	10d	13k
ccpmautomazeio/ccpm	Slowing	47/100	5mo agoMarch 18, 2026	0	0	4d	8.3k
Superpowersobra/superpowers	Maintained	98/100	1d agoSeptember 12, 2026	100+	6	too few	286k

The whole shelf

Questions

5 asked about this comparison

What is the difference between Spec Kit and BMAD-METHOD?: Spec Kit is a toolkit that makes the specification the executable artifact. "define what to build before building it. With any AI coding agent". And it is explicitly agent-agnostic and extensible, shipping a ready-to-use process you can replace with your own. BMAD is a method with skills attached: you run `npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD`, then invoke `bmad-build` with what you want to change inside your existing AI coding tool, and its process expands or contracts with the size of the change. The practical difference is where the work lands: Spec Kit produces a spec your agent implements; BMAD runs a conversation that keeps the decisions explicit and carries them forward as context.
Which one is still being maintained?: Neither repository answers that on its front page, which is precisely why this site scores them. Neither README carries a maintenance notice, a deprecation warning or a successor. The contrast worth knowing is AutoGen, which states outright that it "is now in maintenance mode" and "will not receive new features or enhancements". The figures under this verdict are read from the GitHub API every night: commit recency, release cadence, issue response time and maintainer count, both projects measured on the same night so they can be held against each other.
Do either of them cost anything?: No. Both are MIT-licensed. BMAD states that it is "free and open source, with no paywalled workflows or gated community". Spec Kit publishes no paid tier, hosted plan or commercial suite on its README. Neither uses the arrangement LangChain and CrewAI use, where an MIT framework sits beside a paid control plane.
What do you need installed to run each?: Spec Kit needs uv, and its install is version-pinned by design: "Replace vX.Y.Z with the latest release tag from Releases. Keep the leading v (for example, v0.12.11, not 0.12.11)", installed as `uv tool install specify-cli`, or from PyPI. It is the only one of the five frameworks tracked here whose published install instructions pin a version. BMAD's Skills CLI route needs Node.js, npm, and Git, and installs with `npx skills add bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD`; BMAD setup scripts use uv. After that the two diverge: `specify init my-project --integration copilot` scaffolds a project, where BMAD expects you to open your project in your AI coding tool and invoke its skills there.
Can you use them together?: Nothing in either README forbids it, and BMAD's own framing invites the arrangement: "start anywhere. Use BMAD end to end, or carry its briefs, specifications, and architecture into your existing delivery workflow." Spec Kit is agent-agnostic and describes its process as replaceable. "a ready-to-use spec-driven process (or bring your own)". Neither publishes an integration with the other, so this is a statement about what their own documentation permits rather than a documented path.

Where every cell was read

derived from the cells themselves, never listed by hand

Source	Read	Why
GitHub Spec Kit	September 18, 2026	What it is, in its own words, What its README says about its own maintenance, How you install it, Licence, Who publishes it, What it sells alongside. github.com/github/spec-kit
BMAD-METHOD	September 18, 2026	What it is, in its own words, What its README says about its own maintenance, How you install it, Licence, Who publishes it, What it sells alongside. github.com/bmad-code-org/BMAD-METHOD

A hand-listed source block drifts from the table the first time a cell’s URL changes, and then the page is citing a page it did not read.