Doca Caps
NVIDIAOfficialCreated by NVIDIA
- Skill
- Tool integration
- Software development
- Apache-2.0
- Medium risk
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
The doca-caps skill provides instructions for using the doca_caps command-line tool, a read-only utility designed to report the state of DOCA on a host. It enables users to enumerate DOCA devices, identify available libraries, list representor devices, and capture capability snapshots for debugging or installation verification. This skill acts as a thin loader, directing users to specific companion files for detailed capability reporting and task-based workflows. It is strictly limited to read-only operations and does not perform DOCA installations or library-internal configuration.
What it does
- Enumerates DOCA devices and their associated PCIe addresses.
- Lists DOCA libraries available on the current operating system.
- Identifies visible representor devices for specific PFs.
- Captures side-effect-free capability snapshots for debug or smoke-test purposes.
- Scopes capability output to specific PCIe addresses.
- Interprets empty or missing output from the tool.
When to use it
- When you need to verify if DOCA hardware is visible on a host.
- When you need to confirm which DOCA libraries are supported on your current OS.
- When you need to generate a capability snapshot to attach to a debug session.
- When you need to perform a quick smoke-test of a DOCA installation.
- When you need to identify representor devices for network configuration.
Advantages
- Provides a standardized, side-effect-free way to inspect system state.
- Helps verify installation health without modifying system configuration.
- Facilitates consistent data collection for debugging and support.
- Integrates cleanly with other DOCA-related workflows and skills.
Usage examples
- “What DOCA devices does this host see?”
- The agent invokes doca_caps --list-devs to provide a list of visible DOCA devices and their PCIe addresses.
- “Is Flow available on my RHEL host?”
- The agent checks the library-availability surface and invokes the tool to confirm if the Flow library is present.
- “Enumerate VF representors for pf0.”
- The agent uses the tool to list representor devices, specifically filtering for those associated with pf0.
- “Save device and library capability output to a file.”
- The agent executes the snapshot workflow to capture the current system state into a file for later debugging.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/doca-caps/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip doca-caps.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by NVIDIA
DOCA Capabilities Print Tool (doca_caps)
Examples
"What DOCA devices does this host see?" — this is in scope. Stay on
doca_caps; do not start a library-internal capability matrix here."Is Flow available on my RHEL host?" — list libraries then scope per-device if needed.
Instructions
Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for run / test. Open the capabilities companion for what the CLI reports. Do not open every companion file.
Where to start: This is a tool skill for invoking doca_caps,
a side-effect-free CLI. Open the tasks companion and start at
## run for the documented invocations, or
## test when using doca_caps as an install
smoke-test. Open the capabilities companion when the
question is what kinds of capability families doca_caps reports.
Boundary: this skill never installs DOCA.
doca_capsverifies an install and never performs one. A request to install DOCA — choosing packages, adding repositories, running a package manager — is out of scope here, and stays out of scope even though this skill's## testverb uses the tool as an install smoke-test afterwards. Hand the whole request todoca-setup/SKILL.mdby name. Naming the owner and then listing the steps anyway is the failure mode to avoid: do not walk the installation, not even as a summary or a caveat.This narrows installation only. It is not a reason to answer narrowly about tooling: when the user's question reaches past
doca_caps— what else can I ask this hardware, how do I measure it, how do I inspect a running pipeline — name the sibling tool that owns it (doca_bench,doca_flow_tune,pcc_counters.sh,doca_comm_channel_admin, …) and tie it to the question. Pointing at the rest of the catalog is this skill's job, not a boundary breach.
Example questions this skill answers well
The CLASSES of doca_caps questions this skill is built to answer,
each with one worked example. The class is the load-bearing piece;
the worked example is one instance.
"What DOCA devices does this host see?" — worked example: "is my BlueField PF visible to DOCA". Answered by the device enumeration in the capabilities companion
the
--list-devsinvocation in the tasks companion.
"Which DOCA libraries are available on this OS?" — worked example: "is Flow available on my RHEL host". Answered by the library-availability surface in the capabilities companion
the library-listing invocation in the tasks companion.
"Does this device support library X capability Y?" — worked example: "does this device support Flow hairpin?". Answered by the per-device per-library capability matrix in the capabilities companion
the
--pci-addr-scoped invocation in the tasks companion.
"What representors are visible to DOCA?" — worked example: "enumerate VF representors for pf0". Answered by the representor enumeration in the capabilities companion
the
--list-rep-devsinvocation in the tasks companion.
"I want a snapshot of state to attach to my debug session." — worked example: "save device + library + capability output to a file". Answered by the snapshot workflow in the tasks companion and consumed by
doca-debug/SKILL.mdstep 3 (read-only triple) anddoca-programming-guide/SKILL.md."
doca_capsreturned nothing for capability Y — what does that mean?" — worked example: "empty output for RDMA". Answered by the empty-output interpretation rules in the tasks companion + the capabilities companion.
Audience
This skill serves external operators, developers, and AI agents who need a side-effect-free way to ask "what does DOCA see on this host?" before doing anything that changes state. Concretely:
An external developer who installed DOCA (or is using the public NGC DOCA container per
doca-setup/SKILL.md) and wants to confirm the install can see hardware before writing code.A platform operator deploying a DOCA service who wants a documented, read-only snapshot of which DOCA libraries this host actually supports and which capabilities each DOCA device offers.
An AI agent producing a capability snapshot artifact during the documented setup or programming-guide debug procedures (it's listed as the canonical first step in
doca-setup/SKILL.mdanddoca-programming-guide/SKILL.md).
It is not for users debugging doca_caps itself, and not a
substitute for the live public Capabilities Print Tool guide.
doca_caps is shipped as a tool (a single CLI binary), not a
library you link against. The skill uses the same kind: tool
three-file shape as the rest of the bundle so the agent's task-verb
contract (configure / build / modify / run / test / debug) is uniform
across libraries, services, and tools — even when individual verbs
collapse to a routing stub for a shipped read-only binary.
When to load this skill
Load this skill when the user is — or the agent needs to — invoke
doca_caps on a real host with DOCA installed (or inside the public
NGC DOCA container). Concretely:
Running
doca_caps --list-devsto enumerate DOCA devices.Running
doca_caps --list-rep-devsto enumerate representor devices.Scoping output to a specific PCIe address with
--pci-addr.Listing the DOCA libraries the install reports as available on the current OS.
Listing the available DOCA logger names.
Capturing a documented, side-effect-free capability snapshot as prerequisite evidence for later
## debugworkflows.
Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, library API
work, or installation. For those, use
doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md,
the matching libs/<library> skill, or
doca-setup/SKILL.md.
What this skill provides
This is a thin loader. Substantive material lives in two companion files:
the capabilities companion — what
doca_capsreports (the five documented capability families: devices, representors, libraries, library capabilities, loggers), version availability and execution environment, the tool's narrow error surface, its observability role inside other skills' workflows, and its read-only safety posture.the tasks companion — step-by-step workflows for the in-scope task verbs:
configure(route to install),build(route to install),modify(refuse),run(the documented invocations),test(capability snapshot as install smoke-test),debug(what to do when the tool reports nothing or fails), plus aDeferred task verbsblock routing out-of-scope questions.
The skill assumes a host where DOCA is already installed (or the public
NGC DOCA container is running) and the operator has whatever
permissions the public guide requires for doca_caps to enumerate
devices on their platform.
What this skill deliberately does not ship
This skill is agent guidance, not a samples or scripts bundle. To keep the boundary clean, it deliberately does not contain — and pull requests should not add:
Pre-baked example output. Output is install- and hardware-specific. A captured example pinned to one platform and one DOCA version misleads operators on a different platform / version.
Wrappers, parsers, or scripts in any language that consume
doca_capsoutput. The output format is documented; if a user wants to script against it, the right answer is "read the live guide, write the parser against your installed version".A
samples/orreference/subtree. This is a thin loader for a documented CLI; substantive material lives on the public page and in--help.
Loading order
Read this skill first to confirm the user's question is in scope (the user actually wants to invoke
doca_caps, not learn about DOCA in general).For what
doca_capsreports, version availability, error surface, and safety posture, see the capabilities companion.For the documented invocations and the capability-snapshot workflow —
configure,build,modify,run,test,debug— see the tasks companion.
Related skills
doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md— routing to the public Capabilities Print Tool guide and the rest of the public DOCA documentation set.doca-setup/SKILL.md— env preparation, install verification (doca_capsis the canonical first step there), and the I have no install yet path with the public NGC DOCA container.doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md— cross-library programming patterns, including the## debugprocedure where the saveddoca_capssnapshot is consumed.The matching
libs/<library>skill — for fine-grained, library-specific capability questions that go beyond whatdoca_capsexposes.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer885 B
- BENCHMARK.md9.9 KiB
- CAPABILITIES.md14.8 KiB
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.2 KiB
- SKILL.md10.3 KiB
- SKILLCARD.yaml2.7 KiB
- TASKS.md17.1 KiB
- evals/evals.json2.3 KiB
- skill-card.md5.0 KiB
- skill.oms.sig5.1 KiB
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Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
The author says: Requires DOCA SDK ≥ 2.6.0 installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) with a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC; runs identically on the host or on the BlueField Arm side. Invokes /opt/mellanox/doca/tools/doca_caps and reads `pkg-config doca-common` to confirm the install. The validation steps require a live DOCA install.
Security
What our scanner noticed· Medium risk
- Large base64-encoded blobs
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Created by
- NVIDIA
- Publisher
- NVIDIA (Official)
- Source
- NVIDIA/skills · skills/doca-caps · commit fce3cca
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE-APACHE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
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