Agent Skills Directory

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA AES-GCM work on a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC — configuring `doca_aes_gcm_task_encrypt` / `_task_decrypt`, querying `doca_aes_gcm_cap_*` for per-key-type (only `DOCA_AES_GCM_KEY_128` / `_256` — AES-192 not supported) and per-task support, sizing plaintext against the max-buf cap, setting source / destination mmap permissions, validating with a NIST GCMVS or RFC 5288 vector, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* including the security-critical tag-verification-failed outcome on decrypt. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA AES-GCM" or "AEAD" — typical implicit phrasings: "decrypt completion IO_FAILED", "auth tag isn't verifying", "NOT_PERMITTED on my encrypt buffer", "is AES-192-GCM on this BlueField" (no), or "encrypted record came back tampered". Refuse and route elsewhere for non-GCM AES modes (CBC / CTR / XTS — CPU OpenSSL), key management (KMS / HSM / rotation), SHA (doca-sha), or general AEAD background.

Use this skill for hands-on DOCA Arg Parser CLI work on a shipped sample or new DOCA-using app — adding / removing / renaming flags; wiring `doca_argp_init` → register params → `doca_argp_start` → `doca_argp_destroy` in order; picking a parameter type from the full public enum (`DOCA_ARGP_TYPE_STRING`, `_INT`, `_BOOLEAN`, `_DEVICE`, `_DEVICE_REP`, `_DOUBLE` — six values, not three); preserving the standard `--device` / `--representor` / `--json` (`-j`; real flag is `--json`, NOT `--json-config`) / `--sdk-log-level` surface; or debugging `DOCA_ERROR_BAD_STATE` / `INVALID_VALUE` / `NOT_SUPPORTED` / `IO_FAILED` from `doca_argp_*`. Trigger on implicit phrasings: "add a custom flag to a DOCA sample", "should I use getopt here", "BAD_STATE registering a new param", "my JSON config key is rejected", or "my sample's --json is ignored". Refuse and route elsewhere for variadic-flag / subcommand / shell-completion features, DOCA Core context, or DOCA Log internals.

Use this skill when the user is deploying or operating the DOCA Argus Service — the packaged BlueField-side runtime-security container that watches the BlueField and attached host for suspicious activity, integrity violations, and operational anomalies, and forwards findings to a SIEM (Splunk / ELK / Sentinel / syslog). Covers the four-axis config (detection policy, forwarding, sampling, host coverage), running the NGC container on BlueField Arm, and wiring the forwarder. Trigger even without "DOCA Argus" by name — typical implicit phrasings: "container green but no findings arrive", "false-positive flood in Splunk", or "runtime security on a fleet of BlueField-3s". Refuse and route elsewhere for installing DOCA, SIEM-side ingest stanzas, pre-baked detection-rule packs, and metrics observability (DOCA Telemetry). Argus is NVIDIA's currently- promoted runtime-security framework, superseding the older App Shield library; name it first for new runtime-security work.

Running a DOCA-linked binary directly on the hardware, with no container or kubelet: on host x86 with a BlueField NIC over PCIe, or bare-metal on BlueField Arm. Use for launching and supervising it (direct, tmux, systemd), and when it "exits 1 right after launch", "systemd keeps restarting it", reports "no matching device on the BF", or the BlueField itself is unhealthy: "bfb-install exited 0 but DPU is dead", "ping 192.168.100.2 works but ssh fails", "host PFs aren't showing netdevs". Service containers under kubelet belong to doca-container-deployment. Covers PCI/NUMA/CPU/IRQ binding, co-tenant isolation (cgroup-v2/netns/numactl), a seven-layer error taxonomy, platform lifecycle (BFB install, RShim/TMFIFO, host PF rebind, post-BFB recovery) and a six-state BlueField lifecycle classifier. Destructive firmware burn / mlxconfig set requires explicit confirmation via doca-hardware-safety; library APIs, env prep, and build use other skills.

Run `doca_bench` (DOCA 2.7.0 or newer) to measure throughput, bulk latency, precision latency, or maximum bandwidth for RDMA, Compress, AES-GCM, SHA, DMA, EC, Ethernet, Comch, or GPUNetIO on a host or BlueField Arm. Use it to discover enabled benchmark libraries, capture a reproducible command/version/device/environment baseline, compare stable runs against a declared tolerance, or diagnose configuration, device-binding, workload-precondition, and measurement failures. Trigger for requests such as measuring BlueField compression speed, NIC RDMA throughput, crypto latency, or a pre-upgrade baseline. Do not use for application end-to-end timing, custom benchmark code, DOCA installation, or binary patches.

Use this skill when the operator is authoring, building, loading, or debugging a custom doca-bench plug-in — a versioned shared library with DOCA_EXPERIMENTAL-marked C entry points that doca-bench loads to measure a workload class its built-in modes do not cover, with doca_bench_cuda as the shipped reference exemplar. Trigger even when the user does not say "doca-bench-extension" or "doca_bench_cuda" — typical implicit phrasings include "no built-in doca-bench mode fits my workload", "how do I benchmark a CUDA GPUNetIO RX/TX kernel", "doca-bench cannot find or load my custom .so", "extension exported symbols do not match what the parent expects", "soversion mismatch after a DOCA upgrade", or "my GPU kernel hangs because stop_flag was never set". Refuse and route elsewhere for questions about which built-in doca-bench mode to pick, DOCA GPUNetIO programming semantics, CUDA toolkit installation, or contributor work on in-tree extensions — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill for BlueField-3 (BF3) day-1 platform bring-up via the classic RShim/BFB path: pushing a BlueField bundle (BFB) to the DPU over RShim with bfb-install from the host, the host-to-DPU TMFIFO management channel (tmfifo_net0, the 192.168.100.x convention), RShim daemon state and console-over-rshim, DPU mode selection (DPU/embedded-function vs separated-host/NIC mode) via mlxconfig, post-BFB recovery, a six-state BlueField-state classifier, and verifying the install (cat /etc/mlnx-release plus version checks). Trigger even when the user does not say "BF3" — typical phrasings include {push a BFB to my BlueField-3}, {bfb-install exited 0 but the DPU never came back}, {ping 192.168.100.2 works but ssh fails}, or {is DOCA on the host or the Arm side?}. BFB reflash, mlxconfig set, mode changes, and firmware burns are destructive: require explicit target-bound confirmation and load doca-hardware-safety. App launch, container deploy, env install, and the BF4 BMC-Redfish path route elsewhere.

WARNING: guides IRREVERSIBLE BlueField-4 hardware operations (PLDM firmware burns, ISO reflashes, power cycles, BMC factory resets); every mutating step is governed by doca-hardware-safety (window, rollback). BlueField-4 only: BlueField-3 bring-up is doca-bf3-deployment. Use this skill for BlueField-4 (BF4) day-1 platform bring-up from the BMC: installing the BlueField/DOCA bundle ISO onto the DPU (Grace, the Arm complex) over UEFI HTTP Boot, PXE, or Redfish Virtual Media; the PLDM firmware-update flow (BMC, NIC firmware, SBIOS, ERoT) via the Redfish UpdateService and pldmtool; and a Grace Ubuntu image with optional cloud-init. Trigger on BlueField-4/BF4 bring-up phrasings even without "BF4": {bring up my new BlueField-4}, {the BlueField ISO will not boot over HTTP from the BMC}, {attach BF4 virtual media via Redfish}, {BF4 firmware Task stuck at Running}, {prepare a BlueField-4 host: platform support, version alignment, safest first smoke test}. Application launch and library APIs belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user wants to invoke the read-only doca_caps CLI to ask what DOCA sees on this host — listing DOCA devices and PCIe addresses, listing representor devices, asking which DOCA libraries are available on the current OS, checking per-device per-library capabilities, scoping output to a specific PCIe address, or capturing a side-effect-free capability snapshot for debug or install smoke-test. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "doca_caps" or "capabilities print tool" — typical implicit phrasings include "what does DOCA actually see on this box", "is my BlueField PF visible to DOCA", "is Flow available on my RHEL host", "enumerate VF representors for pf0", "doca_caps: command not found", or "empty output for RDMA, is the tool broken". Refuse and route elsewhere for DOCA installation (doca-setup owns it; never walk the steps), library-internal capability matrices (Flow pipe creation, RDMA verbs features), streaming telemetry / DTS, or modifying the shipped binary.

Use this skill to deploy and operate a CollectX (clx) based DOCA telemetry collector on a host or BlueField — wiring providers / counters into the collector, running the collection daemon, and shaping its exporters (Prometheus pull, Fluent Bit push, NetFlow, file / IPC) so the metrics actually leave the box. Trigger even when the user never says CollectX or clx — implicit phrasings: {collector emits nothing downstream}, {add a provider to the clx collector}, {turn on the Prometheus endpoint}, {ship counters to Fluent Bit from the DPU}, {daemon starts but no schema rows appear}. This skill owns the CollectX collection mechanism plus the operator's own doca-telemetry / doca-telemetry-exporter usage; it ROUTES the productized DOCA Telemetry Service (DTS) to public docs (AGENTS.md Non-goal #7), the reader API to doca-telemetry, and the publisher API to doca-telemetry-exporter. Refuse to invent clx symbols, provider names, schema fields, flags, or config paths — describe the class and route to the live source.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles, choosing slow-path send-task / recv-callback vs fast-path producer / consumer, querying max-msg-size or max-clients capabilities, registering connection callbacks, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* returns from the Comch API. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA Comch" or "Comm Channel" (renamed in DOCA 2.5) — typical implicit phrasings include "send a control message from host to BlueField over PCIe", "DPU can't see the host representor", "DOCA_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED on server_create", "DOCA_ERROR_AGAIN on task_send submit", "connect callback never fires", or "stream bulk data from a host driver to a DPU agent". Refuse and route elsewhere for installing DOCA itself, BFB / firmware bring-up, non-Comch DOCA libraries, or deploying Comch apps at scale — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill to enumerate host↔DPU DOCA comch (formerly Comm Channel) servers and connections via the shipped doca_comm_channel_admin binary — listing comch-capable devices and decoding the per-device server / connection table (server name, PID, in-use / max, PCIe address). The shipped binary is a SINGLE-SHOT SCAN-AND-PRINT tool with no registered arguments — NO list / inspect / drain / restart subcommands; one inventory pass over every comch-capable doca_dev on this side. Channel reset / drain / restart go to doca-comch (program side), doca-setup / doca-hardware-safety (driver reload), or BFB / RShim — NOT to this binary. Trigger on phrasings like "list comch servers", "which channels are active on this BlueField", or "verify admin tool sees same channel as program." Refuse and route elsewhere for the comch programming API, library install, protocol design, channel reset, or general orientation.

Use this skill whenever the user is doing hands-on DOCA programming on a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC and needs the foundation primitives every per-library context rests on — walking the doca_ctx lifecycle, discovering doca_dev / doca_devinfo and gating on doca_*_cap_* before trusting a feature, wiring doca_mmap / doca_buf_inventory / doca_buf for zero-copy I/O across libraries, driving doca_pe for completions, or DOCA Log's two-tier (--sdk-log-level vs app-side) model. Trigger even when the user does not say "DOCA Common" — typical implicit phrasings include "my tasks submit but nothing completes", "DOCA_ERROR_BAD_STATE from doca_ctx_start", "--sdk-log-level does nothing for my DOCA_LOG_DBG lines", "share a buf between doca_dma and doca_rdma", or "crashes far from the offending line". Refuse and route elsewhere for per-library questions in isolation (load doca-flow / doca-rdma / doca-eth alongside), installing DOCA (doca-setup), or doc lookup (doca-public-knowledge-map).

Hardware compression offload with DOCA Compress on a BlueField DPU, ConnectX NIC, or host: DEFLATE compress and decompress, plus LZ4 decompress (stream and block; LZ4 encode is NOT supported), instead of CPU zlib / zstd. Trigger on "offload this gzip", "decompress incoming network data on the NIC", "compress task returns INVALID_VALUE on alloc_init", "submitted a task but no completion arrives", or "decompress LZ4 on the BlueField", even without naming DOCA Compress. Covers enabling compress-deflate, decompress-deflate, decompress-lz4-stream and decompress-lz4-block tasks on a doca_compress context, sizing source / destination doca_buf against the per-task cap query, mmap permissions, offload vs CPU decisions, a round-trip smoke, and DOCA_ERROR_* from Compress calls. Refuse and route elsewhere for zstd / Snappy / brotli, LZ4 encode (a CPU LZ4 library), pure mmap-to-mmap copies (doca-dma), or DOCA Core lifecycle internals.

Running an in-bundle DOCA service as a container on a BlueField (Argus, DMS, Firefly, or UROM service): kubelet standalone watching a static-pod manifests directory, YAML pod-spec drop, kubelet status / ENTRYPOINT logs / per-service liveness. Trigger on "how do I run my built service on the BlueField?", "where do I drop the pod-spec YAML?", "pod stuck in Pending / ImagePullBackOff / CrashLoopBackOff", "container Running but service isn't ready", "pod restart-loops after edit", or "DMS and Firefly together", even without naming container deployment. A DOCA-linked binary launched directly on the host or Arm belongs to doca-bare-metal-deployment. Covers smoke-before-bulk and the layered error taxonomy (pod-spec, scheduling, image pull, runtime, mount, network, version, host). Refuse and route elsewhere for per-service config schemas, DOCA install, library-API questions, external NVIDIA services (BlueMan, HBN, SNAP, Virtio-net), or full Kubernetes-cluster ops.

Use this skill when the user is debugging any DOCA symptom — a build that won't compile, a link step that can't resolve a doca_* symbol, a runtime call returning DOCA_ERROR_*, a silent service or tool, or a stack trace / valgrind / core dump — and needs the layered ladder (install → version → build → link → runtime → program → driver), verbosity controls (--sdk-log-level, DOCA_LOG_LEVEL, the doca-{lib}-trace flavor), container-debug constraints, or how to capture state for a Developer Forum post. Trigger even when the user does not say "DOCA debug" — implicit phrasings include "undefined reference to doca_*", "how do I get more logs", "packets aren't reaching the wire", "doca_caps returned nothing", or "hugepages empty in the container". Refuse and route elsewhere for library-specific debug (Flow pipe trace, RDMA QP, Comch stats), env-class pkg-config or hugepages symptoms, the DOCA_ERROR_* taxonomy and lifecycle interpretation, and performance or incident-response work — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Device Emulation on a BlueField DPU — exposing a custom emulated PCIe device the host sees as a real peripheral while DPU-side code runs the backend, picking the sub-library (PCI Generic, virtio-net, virtio-fs), wiring the per-sub-library Core context plus doorbell / DMA primitives, querying `doca_devemu_*_cap_*`, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* from a `doca_devemu_*` call. Trigger even when the user does not say "devemu" — typical implicit phrasings include "expose a custom PCIe device from BlueField to the host", "host should see a virtio NIC backed by my DPU code", "lspci does not show my emulated device", "device enumerated but no driver binds", "DPU sees nothing when host kicks the queue", or "virtio feature negotiation failed at bind". Refuse and route elsewhere for the packaged DOCA SNAP / Virtio-net Services, host-side virtio kernel drivers, backend body design, or standard BlueField NIC behavior — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA DMA programming — bringing up a doca_dma context, configuring the single doca_dma_task_memcpy task type, sizing buffers via the doca_dma_cap_task_memcpy_* queries, setting LOCAL_READ_ONLY / LOCAL_READ_WRITE permissions on source / destination doca_mmap regions (plus doca_mmap_export_* for cross-peer copies), driving the progress engine, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* returns. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA DMA" or "doca_mmap" — typical implicit phrasings include "memcpy host buffer to BlueField without using the CPU", "offload a bulk copy to the DPU", "copy returns NOT_PERMITTED on first submit", "buffer too big for one DMA task", "task submitted but no completion", or "scatter-gather copy between two memory regions". Refuse and route elsewhere for cross-network copies (DOCA RDMA), producer/consumer messaging (DOCA Comch), DOCA Core / progress-engine internals, or DOCA install — those belong to other skills.

Operate NVIDIA DOCA Management Service on a BlueField, Arm/x86 host, or Kubernetes pod: from DOCA 3.5 the local `dms-cli` (one command per YANG path, no server), and the `dmsd` + `dmspe` service: choose deployment and authentication, configure `-allowed_users` and `dmsgroup`, use gNMI Get/Set/Subscribe, run supported gNOI workflows, and debug frontend/backend failures. Trigger even without "DMS" for "manage a remote BlueField over gRPC", "gNOI reboot from orchestrator", or fleet-management requests. SAFETY: reboot, OS install, factory-reset, and managed-file deletion are destructive and require target-bound explicit confirmation; never invoke them speculatively. Route installation and library/API build questions elsewhere, and route turnkey aggregation to the externally-productized DOCA Telemetry Service.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA DPA host-side work on a BlueField — creating the `doca_dpa` Core context, loading a DPACC-compiled DPA app image (`doca_dpa_app`), creating DPA threads, launching kernels via `doca_dpa_kernel_launch_update_*`, draining `doca_dpa_completion`, running `doca_dpa_cap_*` discovery, choosing between the DPA comm component (inter-DPA messaging) and the DPA verbs component (in-kernel RDMA), or debugging `DOCA_ERROR_*` from `doca_dpa_*`. Trigger even without "DOCA DPA" or "Data-Path Accelerator": "run compute on the DPA from my host", "DPA kernel hangs, no completion", "DOCA_ERROR_DRIVER on launch", "DOCA/DPACC version skew", or "does this BlueField expose a DPA". Route elsewhere for DPA-side kernel programming itself, DPACC compiler internals, host↔DPU messaging (doca-comch), host-side RDMA (doca-rdma), and GPU-initiated networking (doca-gpunetio).

Use this skill when the user runs doca_dpa_hl_tracer to capture/decode DPA-side traces at the programming-events layer (kernel entry/exit, sync points, comm primitive calls, RDMA WR submission, completion drain) — picking TRACE vs CRIT, tuning the JSON config (file-size limits + file_size_limit_policy, thread priorities/cores), decoding against the matching DPA-side ELF, or diagnosing empty/noisy captures. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA DPA tracer" or "high-level tracer" — typical implicit phrasings include "DPA kernel returns wrong result but host completions look clean", "kernel-entry to first-comm latency is huge", "RDMA WR to drain gap on the DPA", "trace file truncated mid-run", "TRACE doubled my DPA latency", or "tracer wrote a file but parser shows zero events". Refuse and route elsewhere for writing DPA kernels, DPA-Comms/DPA-Verbs programming, raw per-cycle DPA profiling, host-side doca-dpa debugging, or production DPA telemetry — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user has an existing DPDK application and is adding DOCA capabilities in-place — most commonly DOCA Flow hardware steering — without rewriting the data-plane in DOCA-native form: binding a DPDK port id to a `doca_dev` (`doca_dpdk_port_probe` / `doca_dpdk_port_as_dev`), converting `rte_mbuf` ↔ `doca_buf`, querying `doca_dpdk_cap_is_rep_port_supported`, or debugging `DOCA_ERROR_*` from a bridge call. Trigger even without "DOCA DPDK Bridge": "how do I add DOCA Flow to my DPDK app", "make a DPDK port visible to DOCA", "the bridge loads but every operation returns errors", "pkg-config --exists doca-dpdk-bridge fails", or "DOCA_ERROR_NOT_FOUND on port registration". Route elsewhere for fresh DOCA-native packet I/O (doca-eth), flow-rule programming (doca-flow), DOCA or DPDK install (doca-setup), or RDMA data movement (doca-rdma).

Hardware-offloaded erasure coding with DOCA Erasure Coding (Reed-Solomon, doca_ec) on a BlueField DPU, ConnectX NIC, or host: generating parity for data blocks, rebuilding lost blocks from the survivors, and refreshing parity after a change. Trigger on "one data block changed, how do I refresh parity without re-encoding", "a disk failed and 2 parity blocks are gone, can I rebuild", "RAID-6 resilience across 12 disks", "my doca_ec_task_create returns NOT_PERMITTED", or "is this N+K layout still recoverable", even without naming DOCA Erasure Coding. Covers bringing up a doca_ec context, the create / recover / update tasks, matrix type / N / K / block size, doca_ec_cap_* queries before sizing, doca_mmap src/dst permissions, and DOCA_ERROR_* from doca_ec_task_*. Refuse and route elsewhere for non-Reed-Solomon codes (fountain / LDPC / raptor), pure-replication designs, network FEC, or other DOCA accelerator libraries (SHA / Compress / AES-GCM / DMA).

Use this skill for hands-on DOCA Ethernet packet-queue work on a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC — bringing up a `doca_eth_rxq` or `doca_eth_txq` on a port / representor / SF, picking among the four `enum doca_eth_rxq_type` values (`_REGULAR` / `_CYCLIC` / `_MANAGED_MEMPOOL` / `_SHARED_MEMPOOL`), sizing burst or scatter-gather length against the `_cap_*` queries, submitting `doca_eth_txq_task_send` / `_lso_send` (carrying packet `doca_buf`s — no `doca_eth_frame` struct exists), or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* from an Ethernet call. `doca_eth_rxq` and `doca_eth_txq` are two Core contexts; one `doca_ctx_start()` does not cover both. Trigger on implicit phrasings: "my RX queue is up but no packets arrive", "send-task returns AGAIN at line rate", "which queue type for fixed-MTU ingress", "device open fails without sudo", or "is L3 checksum offload available here". Refuse and route elsewhere for installing DOCA, flow-rule / steering programming, host↔DPU control messaging, or RDMA data movement.

Use this skill when the user is operating the DOCA Firefly Service container on BlueField — picking the four PTP configuration axes (role / profile / domain / interface), wiring the BlueField PHC + host follower + consumer workload pairing, deciding whether PTP-grade time is even needed (vs. chrony / NTP), or debugging a Firefly deployment where PTP isn't syncing or the host clock isn't following. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA Firefly" or "PTP" — typical implicit phrasings include "container green but PTP never advances past LISTENING", "Firefly says synced but the host clock still drifts", "sync acquired but offset is tens of microseconds", "my Rivermax SMPTE workload needs PTP", or "is chrony good enough". Refuse and route elsewhere for installing DOCA, host-side chrony / ptp4l config bodies, PTP topology / boundary-clock design, building DOCA apps that read the disciplined PHC, or other DOCA services (DMS, Flow-Inspector, HBN) — those belong to other skills.

DOCA Flow packet steering on NVIDIA NICs/DPUs, linked into a C application: match/action pipes, ports, representors, forwarding, hairpin, counters. Trigger on packet steering, classifier, rule-matching, representor, hairpin or 5-tuple-to-queue questions even when "DOCA Flow" is not named. Remote or non-C++ control over gRPC belongs to doca-flow-grpc-server. Also covers pipe validation before hardware programming, Flow/DOCA version match, and Flow API errors. First app: follow the local bundle (doca-setup, doca-programming-guide, doca-flow, doca-public-knowledge-map). Stage 1 pull nvcr.io/nvidia/doca/doca (NGC catalog tag, never invent); Stage 2 needs a real NIC. Then ls samples inside the container; never emit main.c, a Dockerfile, or hand-typed -l flags. Route software-only host pipelines, plain DPDK `rte_flow`, kernel TC, OVS, BFB bring-up, and DPU OS installation elsewhere. DPU OS installation is destructive and always requires explicit confirmation.

Use this skill when the user is invoking doca_flow_dpa_perf on DPA-capable hardware (ConnectX-7 minimum supported, ConnectX-8 recommended, or BlueField-3) to measure rule update / disable rates on the DPA-offloaded DOCA Flow path — picking the active / passive device split, choosing workload-shape axes (burst, queue, completion threshold, workers, hash pipe algo, PSL tables), or reading Kops/sec iteration stats and the optional self-test. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "doca_flow_dpa_perf" or "DPA Provider" — typical implicit phrasings include "how fast can the DPA program path-selector entries", "baseline rule-update rate on ConnectX-8", "tool reports zero ops on my BlueField", "self-test sentinel never shows on tcpdump", or "is my BlueField-2 DPA-capable". Refuse and route elsewhere for the host / DPU-CPU Flow path (doca-flow-perf), Flow pipeline tuning (doca-flow-tune), writing doca-flow / doca-dpa applications, or DOCA install — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Flow DPA Provider work — exporting a `doca-flow` pipe or external resource (index-selector/memory) into BlueField DPA address space so a DPACC-built kernel can read counters, mutate hash-pipe entries, and update/read memory or index-selector resources inline with Flow. Covers per-port `doca_flow_dpa_ctx`, three queue types (general/resources-write/resources-read), the order-sensitive export handshake (`_export_prepare` → add entries → `_export` → `_get_device_addr`), and DPA-side device API. Trigger even when the user does not say "DOCA Flow DPA Provider" — implicit phrasings include "DPA kernel never sees entries in the exported pipe", "BAD_STATE from `_pipe_export`", "how do I disable a hash entry from a DPA kernel", "DPA memory read returns no value", or "DPA-side post keeps returning AGAIN". Refuse and route elsewhere for `doca-flow` pipe construction, generic host-side DPA (`doca-dpa`), or DPA-side kernel-writing — those belong to other skills.

Remote control of DOCA Flow over gRPC with the shipped `doca_flow_grpc` server: program Flow pipes and entries from Python, Go, Rust or Java, or from another host, instead of linking `libdoca_flow.so`. PLAINTEXT-ONLY: the server uses `grpc::InsecureServerCredentials()` with NO TLS / mTLS / token-auth knob; transport security must come from external infrastructure (e.g. an mTLS proxy / sidecar) on a trusted segment. Trigger even without "gRPC": "program Flow rules from Python on another host", "remotely configure pipes on the BlueField", "client times out connecting to the Flow server", "where is the .proto for Flow", "UNAUTHENTICATED / FAILED_PRECONDITION on a Flow RPC". Covers bringing up, configuring, hardening and debugging the server. Route elsewhere for the underlying doca-flow C API, generic gRPC tooling (protoc, language bindings), or DOCA install / BFB bring-up.

Use this skill when the user is measuring the host or DPU-CPU control-plane rate of a DOCA Flow pipeline with doca_flow_perf — picking a JSON policy from configs/, choosing the DPDK or DOCA backend, running the single-iteration smoke then the iterative eval loop, interpreting per-iteration CPU cycles and num_pushed / num_failed, or capturing the four-tuple (DOCA version, BlueField/firmware, JSON policy, worker/queue/burst config) that makes a Kops/sec number defensible. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "doca-flow-perf" — typical implicit phrasings include "how many rules per second can my BlueField insert", "5-tuple hairpin rule rate", "Kops/sec for steering", "flow-perf number does not match release notes", "DPDK vs DOCA benchmark", or "rule-install variance too high". Refuse and route elsewhere for optimizing a live Flow app (doca-flow-tune), the DPA-offloaded path (doca-flow-dpa-perf), dataplane throughput or latency, or library-internal pipe semantics — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is tuning a live or captured `doca-flow` pipeline with `doca_flow_tune` — snapshotting pipe / counter / KPI state, picking a tuning axis (rule placement, resource hints / table sizing, HW-offload mode) and a matching measurement (rule-install rate, lookup latency, hardware-counter delta), running offline or online (read-only or state-changing) modes, reading the dumper CSV / analyze JSON / visualize mermaid, or applying a recommendation back into the Flow program. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "doca_flow_tune" — typical implicit phrasings include "Flow rule-install rate is low on BlueField", "table sizing looks wrong for this pipe", "tune visualize step is empty", "before/after counters don't move", or "which doca-flow knob does this recommendation hit". Refuse and route elsewhere for measuring baseline numbers (doca-flow-perf, doca-flow-dpa-perf), writing the doca-flow application, DOCA install, or streaming Flow telemetry — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill for hands-on DOCA GPI programming — wiring a GPU-Packet-Initiator context so a CUDA kernel drives RDMA queues directly from GPU memory without host CPU mediation. Covers picking GPI vs doca-gpunetio, the doca_gpi / domain / channel object model, the GPU-side handle handoff (doca_gpu_gpi_channel*), attaching GPU memory to a GPI domain, the domain and channel attribute objects, and debugging DOCA_ERROR_* from doca_gpi_* calls. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA GPI" — implicit phrasings include "my CUDA kernel needs to post RDMA directly from GPU memory", "DOCA_ERROR_* from doca_gpi_gpu_channel_get", "how do I hand a GPU handle to my CUDA kernel", "how many channels can a GPI domain hold", or "GPU kernel driving RDMA without the host CPU on the path". Refuse and route elsewhere for the doca-gpunetio Send/Receive surface, the doca-rdma queue lifecycle, DPA-side initiation (doca-rdmi), or the CUDA programming model — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA GPUNetIO programming — wiring a CUDA kernel on an NVIDIA GPU to a doca-eth queue via doca_gpu_eth_rxq / doca_gpu_eth_txq, standing up the per-CUDA-device doca_gpu context, designing the persistent CUDA kernel that drains the GPU-visible queue, running the dual capability check (DOCA cap-query plus cudaGetDeviceProperties), registering cudaMalloc pools via doca_buf_arr_create_*, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* returns from the GPUNetIO API. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA GPUNetIO" or "persistent kernel" — typical implicit phrasings include "CUDA kernel reading packets directly from the NIC", "GPU-initiated networking on BlueField", "DOCA_ERROR_DRIVER on doca_gpu_create", "nvidia_peermem not loaded", "kernel-per-packet is too slow", or "which GPU supports GPU-side packet I/O". Refuse and route elsewhere for general CUDA programming, DOCA Ethernet queue bring-up, DOCA DPA, or DOCA install — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is building, running, or interpreting the doca/tools/gpunetio_ib_write_bw client+server benchmark — a CUDA kernel on the client posts RDMA WRITE work requests through the doca-gpunetio device-side surface to measure sustained GPU-driven WRITE bandwidth on a GPU+IB-device pair. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "doca-gpunetio-ib-write-bw" or "GPUNetIO" — typical implicit phrasings include "measure WRITE BW when the GPU posts the WRs", "BW swings between runs on the same flags", "is the NIC saturated or am I CPU-bound on the CUDA kernel", "meson compile fails for the GPUNetIO bw tool", "nvidia_peermem isn't picking up my GPU buffer", or "GPU-initiated WRITE throughput vs CPU-initiated perftest". Refuse and route elsewhere for general doca-gpunetio library work, DOCA install, the GPU-initiated WRITE latency analog, the CPU-initiated upstream perftest, or application-level end-to-end throughput — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is measuring GPU-kernel-initiated RDMA WRITE latency through doca-gpunetio — building and running the `gpunetio_ib_write_lat` client + server pair under `doca/tools/gpunetio_ib_write_lat/`, checking GPU-NIC pairing, reading the half-iter / full-iter / CUDA-side usec columns, characterizing median / p99 / jitter for a real-time control loop, picking GPUNetIO vs GPI vs CPU-initiated `perftest`, or weighing the latency-vs-batching trade-off. Trigger even without 'GPUNetIO' or 'ib_write_lat': 'GPU kernel RDMA latency benchmark', 'how fast can a CUDA kernel post a WRITE', 'p99 RDMA latency on H100 + ConnectX', 'kernel-launched WR tail latency', or 'compare GPU-init vs CPU-init perftest'. Route elsewhere for bandwidth runs (doca-gpunetio-ib-write-bw), the GPI surface (doca-gpi), library debugging (doca-gpunetio), or DOCA install.

Use this skill whenever the agent is about to recommend or apply a change that touches DPU / NIC hardware state on a live system — mlxconfig firmware-parameter write, NIC firmware burn, BFB reflash, NIC ↔ DPU mode flip, SR-IOV or device-emulation slot enable, kernel boot-parameter change (IOMMU, hugepages, VFIO), PCIe rebind / rescan / link-state flip, BlueField cold reboot, or remediation of a BlueField thermal shutdown. Wrap the change in pre-flight inventory, OOB reachability, a maintenance window, replica rehearsal, and rollback. Trigger on implicit phrasing: "flip BlueField mode over SSH", "enable SR-IOV and reboot", "burned firmware but mlxconfig shows old value", "BlueField thermal shutdown". Not for read-only inventory or version queries (doca-version, doca-caps). Refuse orientation (doca-public-knowledge-map), install or env debug (doca-setup), and program-side debug (doca-debug, doca-programming-guide).

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Management programming against BlueField / ConnectX devices — standing up a management or representor context (doca_mgmt_dev_ctx / doca_mgmt_dev_rep_ctx), querying device caps (data-direct, caps-general), toggling congestion-control global status, modifying diagnostics-data, setting ICM quotas, or issuing a raw firmware command via doca_mgmt_raw_cmd with the right scope (CONFIGURATION / DEBUG_READ_ONLY / DEBUG_WRITE / DEBUG_WRITE_FULL). Trigger even when the user does not say "DOCA Management" — typical implicit phrasings include "fleet tool that walks every BlueField and reads device state", "toggle data-direct on a VF", "set an ICM quota per representor", "send a raw firmware command from C", "DOCA_ERROR_IO_FAILED from raw_cmd", or "fwctl ioctl is failing". Refuse and route elsewhere for mlxconfig direct operation, BFB / firmware reflash, streaming telemetry, doca_caps CLI snapshots, or DOCA install itself — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on host-side DOCA PCC work to load a CUSTOM Programmable Congestion Control algorithm onto a BlueField DPU — creating per-port `doca_pcc` contexts, loading a `dpacc`-compiled `doca_pcc_app` onto the `doca_dev` for the RoCE-bearing port, parameterizing it, walking triple-axis capability discovery (DOCA cap-query + DPA-capable BlueField + firmware custom-PCC slot enabled), or debugging `DOCA_ERROR_*` from `doca_pcc_*`. Trigger even without explicit "DOCA PCC" phrasing — implicit forms include "loading my own congestion control onto a BF port", "DOCA_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED on algorithm load", "DOCA_ERROR_DRIVER when I attach my custom algorithm", "my custom rate-update isn't affecting RoCE traffic", or "load succeeds but no on-wire change". Refuse and route elsewhere for DPA-side algorithm-body design, the `pcc_counters` CLI, default factory PCC in ConnectX firmware, or setting up the RDMA / RoCE traffic — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is invoking the DOCA PCC Counters tool — the `pcc_counters.sh` bash script under the DOCA tools directory — to arm and read the fixed firmware/hardware PCC (Programmable Congestion Control) diagnostic counters (CNP, RTT, WRED-drop, etc.) on a ConnectX / BlueField device via mst + the mlx5 debugfs `diag_cnt` interface. The script takes two positional args — `set | query` and an mst device path — with no `--help` or subcommands. Trigger even without "pcc_counters.sh" or "PCC counters": "how do I read the CNP / RTT / WRED-drop counters", "PCC counter stuck at zero", "the script says Bad Device", or "is congestion control dropping packets on this port?". Route elsewhere for writing a custom PCC algorithm (doca-pcc), factory firmware PCC config, DOCA install, or fleet-wide CC tuning.

DOCA-shipped Zero-Touch RoCE RTT congestion control (ZTR RTTCC) reference algorithm on a BlueField-3 DPA: deploy, tune and evaluate doca_pcc_dev_ztr_rttcc_algo through the shipped DOCA PCC sample. Trigger on "my RoCE-v2 flows aren't being throttled", "PCC sample isn't dispatching to my algo", "set-params returns fail", "algorithm loaded but counters are flat", "how do I pick the multipath PCC variant", or "do I need a custom CC algorithm on BF3", even without naming ZTR RTTCC. Your own algorithm through the host library belongs to doca-pcc; the doca_spcx_cc command line to doca-spcx-cc. Covers picking a variant (vanilla / PM / RX-rate / multipath / window-probeless) at DPACC build time, tuning host-set parameters, and DOCA_PCC_DEV_STATUS_FAIL from the algorithm. Refuse and route elsewhere for writing a custom PCC algorithm from scratch, read-only PCC counter inspection, or firmware-only pre-Programmable PCC.

Use this skill when the user is writing their first DOCA app or asking a library-agnostic programming question — picking a shipped sample to copy and modify, wiring pkg-config + meson (or FFI from Rust / Go / Python against the public C ABI), walking the Core lifecycle (create → configure → start → connect → use → stop → destroy), or decoding a DOCA_ERROR_*. Trigger on implicit phrasing: "write my first DOCA program", "meson line for doca_rdma_*", "DOCA_ERROR_BAD_STATE on first call", "call DOCA from Rust", "built clean but nothing on the wire". Refuse install / hugepages / pkg-config (doca-setup), docs or version lookup (doca-public-knowledge-map), and library-internal API work (matching library skill).

Use this skill to locate authoritative NVIDIA DOCA information without the source tree: the docs.nvidia.com page for a library/service/tool, which DOCA libraries are installed and at what version, a sample on disk or GitHub, a path under /opt/mellanox/doca, or a 404'd/renamed doc URL. Activate on implicit phrasing only when the conversation already names DOCA, BlueField, ConnectX, or /opt/mellanox. Do not activate for generic 'which version is installed' or 'where is the sample' questions with none of that context. Refuse and route elsewhere for hands-on programming, env prep, API tutorials, or hardware/firmware mutation — those belong to doca-programming-guide, doca-setup, the per-library skills, and doca-hardware-safety.

RDMA data movement on NVIDIA BlueField/ConnectX NICs (RoCE/InfiniBand) with DOCA RDMA, instead of hand-written libibverbs/rdma_cm. Use when the user moves data between processes or hosts over the NIC, or hits "one-sided read returns permission denied", "completions never arrive after submit", "connection callback never fires", atomic compare-and-swap over RoCE, or DOCA_ERROR_FULL on the send queue under burst, even without naming DOCA RDMA. Covers bringing up an RDMA context on a doca_dev, connection methods (RDMA CM, bridge/OOB, or gRPC exchange of doca_rdma_export()), the eleven task types (Send/Receive/Send-Imm, Read/Write/Write-Imm, Atomic CmpSwap/FetchAdd, Get/Set/Add Remote Sync Event), matching mmap + RDMA permissions, queue and connection sizing, doca_rdma_cap_* queries, and DOCA_ERROR_* from RDMA calls. Raw QP/verbs control belongs to doca-verbs. Refuse and route elsewhere for general RDMA / ibverbs theory (queue pairs, MRs, RoCE vs IB), installing DOCA itself, or non-RDMA DOCA libraries.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA RDMI (RDMA Initiator) programming — picking doca-rdmi vs doca-rdma for an accelerator-initiated one-sided RDMA flow, standing up a doca_rdmi_connection or doca_rdmi_poster, attaching a doca_dpa_completion or doca_verbs_cq before doca_ctx_start(), retrieving the DPA-side handle for a DPA kernel, auditing whether a doca_rdmi_* symbol is EXPERIMENTAL on this DOCA, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* returns from RDMI calls. Trigger even when the user does not say "DOCA RDMI" or "initiator" — implicit phrasings include "my DPA kernel needs to post RDMA writes to a remote responder", "DPA kernel sees no completions", "function not found on doca_rdmi_* at link time", "DOCA_ERROR_BAD_STATE from completion attach", or "the DPA posted but the work request never arrived". Refuse and route elsewhere for two-sided or host-CPU RDMA, the DPA programming model, GPU-side RDMA initiation, or general RDMA/IB/RoCE concepts — those belong to other skills.

DOCA Rivermax (doca_rmax) receive streams for timing-precise media over IP (SMPTE ST 2110 video / audio, market data, scientific feeds) on a BlueField DPU or ConnectX host, once the Rivermax SDK and its license are installed; getting the SDK or license is doca-setup / doca-public-knowledge-map territory. Trigger on "ST 2110 receive isn't getting frames", "sub-microsecond jitter on my media receiver", "NOT_SUPPORTED from doca_rmax_init", "no recv events after stream start", or "license check failing on a media receiver", even without naming Rivermax. Covers doca_rmax_in_stream sessions, the SDK + license precondition check, doca_rmax_get_*_supported capability queries, pairing with doca-eth queues and doca-flow steering, and DOCA_ERROR_* from Rivermax calls. Refuse and route elsewhere for programming the underlying queue (doca-eth), steering rules (doca-flow), PTP / clock sync (doca-firefly), or best-effort packet I/O.

Use this skill when the user is dealing with the DOCA environment around their workload — verifying an install is healthy, preparing the build env (pkg-config, headers, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, hugepages, devlink, representors), debugging env-class failures, deciding container-vs-bare-metal deployment shape, or reaching a DOCA install from a host that doesn't have one yet via the NGC DOCA container Stage-1 fallback. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA setup" — typical implicit phrasings include "just got a BlueField, what now", "code is built, how to run it", "pkg-config can't find doca-flow", "no free 2048 kB hugepages", "representor X not found", "on a Mac and want to learn DOCA". Refuse and route elsewhere for library API specifics (Flow pipes, RDMA queues), the modify-a-sample first-app workflow or DOCA_ERROR_* program-side debugging, and "where is X documented" knowledge-map questions — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA SHA programming — offloading SHA-1, SHA-256, or SHA-512 hashing onto a BlueField DPU or ConnectX accelerator, picking between one-shot `doca_sha_task_hash` and incremental `doca_sha_task_partial_hash`, querying `doca_sha_cap_*` for algorithm support and min destination / max source buffer sizes, setting source / destination `doca_mmap` permissions, or decoding DOCA_ERROR_* returns from the SHA API. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA SHA" or "doca_sha_task" — typical implicit phrasings include "hash a multi-GiB file on the DPU", "offload SHA-256 to the BlueField", "streaming hash over chunks", "partial hash returns BAD_STATE", "destination buffer too small for digest", or "is SHA-512 available on this card". Refuse and route elsewhere for general cryptographic-hash theory (collision resistance, SHA-3 selection), other DOCA crypto libraries (AES-GCM, Compress, DMA), or DOCA install / BFB bring-up — those belong to other skills.

Use this skill when wiring the DOCA SHA Offload Engine (an OpenSSL ENGINE) into an existing OpenSSL pipeline to offload one-shot SHA-1, SHA-256, or SHA-512 (EVP_Digest) onto DOCA SHA hardware without rewriting against doca-sha. Covers engine load mechanics (`openssl engine dynamic`, `set_pci_addr` ctrl, `-engine_impl`), the SHA-224 negative test that proves offload engaged, the message-size window where offload beats CPU SHA, and engine-vs-library selection. Trigger even when the user does not say "DOCA SHA Offload Engine" or "OpenSSL ENGINE" — typical implicit phrasings: "speed up openssl SHA on BlueField", "offload SHA without code changes", "is openssl using the accelerator or falling back to software", "prove DOCA SHA actually ran", "openssl dgst hashed but I'm not sure it was offloaded". Refuse and route elsewhere for new SHA pipelines (use doca-sha), MD5 / SHA-3 / SHA-224 / HMAC-SHA offload, incremental hashing via chained `EVP_DigestUpdate`, or OpenSSL PROVIDER authoring.