Generated banner for Doca Comm Channel Admin
Generated logo for Doca Comm Channel Admin

Doca Comm Channel Admin

NVIDIAOfficialCreated by NVIDIA

  • Skill
  • Tool integration
  • Software development
  • Apache-2.0
  • Medium risk

From the author

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.
— the description by NVIDIA

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides guidance for using the doca_comm_channel_admin binary to perform a read-only, single-shot inventory of DOCA Comm Channel (comch) servers and connections. It is designed for operators and agents needing to verify channel health or debug connectivity issues between a host and a DPU. The tool scans all comch-capable devices and outputs status tables, serving as an observability primitive to complement program-side debugging.

What it does

  • Invokes the doca_comm_channel_admin binary for a single-shot scan.
  • Enumerates comch-capable devices on the current system.
  • Decodes and prints server and connection tables including PIDs and PCIe addresses.
  • Provides a read-only view of channel state for diagnostic purposes.
  • Facilitates cross-checking between program-reported status and actual hardware state.

When to use it

  • When you need to list currently active comch channels on a host or DPU.
  • When debugging a silent stall or connection error in a Comch-using application.
  • When verifying that a channel is healthy before declaring a service ready.
  • When you need to capture a snapshot of channel state as evidence for deeper debugging.

Advantages

  • Provides an external, objective view of channel state independent of the application.
  • Simple, zero-argument execution model for quick inventory.
  • Helps distinguish between application-level logic errors and underlying channel connectivity issues.
  • Standardized approach for observability across different DOCA environments.

Usage examples

“Which comch servers and connections are currently visible?”
The agent executes the doca_comm_channel_admin tool to output the current SERVERS and CONNECTIONS tables.
“My program reports CONNECTED but the admin tool lists zero channels. What is happening?”
The agent uses the tool to verify the hardware-level view, then investigates representor binding or potential mismatches between the program and the admin tool's perspective.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/doca-comm-channel-admin/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip doca-comm-channel-admin.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by NVIDIA

DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool

Examples

  • "Which comch servers and connections are currently visible?" — this is in scope. Stay on the admin CLI; do not open a new comch channel from this skill.

  • "The program reports CONNECTED but the admin tool lists zero channels." — cross-check representor binding before rewriting the comch app.

Instructions

Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for run / debug. Open the capabilities companion for table columns and error layers. Do not open every companion file.

Actual binary contract. doca_comm_channel_admin is one zero-application-argument, read-only scan-and-print operation. It scans every comch-capable doca_dev on the current side via resourcedump (MFT) and prints SERVERS and CONNECTIONS tables. It has no list, inspect, device-scope, drain, restart, or other application operation. This skill does not retain conceptual workflows under invented command names.

Where to start: This is a tool skill for invoking the DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool — the read-only inventory CLI counterpart to the doca-comch/SKILL.md library. The shipped doca_comm_channel_admin binary takes no arguments beyond ARGP defaults (--help, --version, --log-level, --sdk-log-level, --json) and performs one inventory pass per invocation: it walks every doca_dev on this side, filters to comch-capable devices, shells out to resourcedump (MFT) on each, and prints two ASCII tables (SERVERS and CONNECTIONS). There is no list subcommand, no inspect subcommand, no drain flag, and no restart flag — those are not part of the tool's surface. Open the tasks companion and start at ## run for the single-shot invocation, or ## debug when the user reports the tool sees a different channel set than the program. Open the capabilities companion when the question is what the printed tables actually mean and what is not in this tool's scope. If the user has not installed DOCA yet, route to doca-setup/SKILL.md first; if the user needs MFT (resourcedump on PATH with the privilege documented for the installed release), doca-setup + doca-public-knowledge-map cover that. If the user is holding pre-2.5 docs that mention "Comm Channel", route to doca-comch/SKILL.md for the rename rule. If the user wants to change channel state, route to the program-side reconnect lifecycle in doca-comch/SKILL.md or to BlueField mode / driver reload in doca-setup/SKILL.md + doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md — not to this tool.

Example questions this skill answers well

The CLASSES of admin-tool 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.

  • "Which comch servers and connections are currently visible?" — worked example: "print every server and connection row visible on this side". Answered by the scan-and-print surface in the capabilities companion

    • the single invocation in the tasks companion.

  • "What does the tool report for this server or connection?" — locate the matching row in the SERVERS or CONNECTIONS table; there is no second per-channel query. Answered by the capabilities companion

    • the tasks companion.

  • "How do I know the admin tool's view matches what my Comch program sees?" — worked example: "the program reports CONNECTED but the admin tool lists zero channels". Answered by the cross-checking pattern in the tasks companion and the representor-binding layer in the capabilities companion.

  • "Is this admin tool on my installed DOCA version, and does it match the comch library version?" — worked example: "is the tool available on DOCA 2.4". Answered by the overlay in the capabilities companion, which redirects to the canonical doca-version/SKILL.md rules and adds the Comm Channel Admin Tool specifics.

  • "The tool prints nothing — is the install broken or is there genuinely no channel?" — worked example: "list returned an empty result on a host with a known-good Comch client". Answered by the empty-output interpretation rules in the tasks companion + the capabilities companion.

Audience

This skill serves external operators and AI agents who need to inventory a host-DPU comch channel from the outside — after the doca-comch/SKILL.md library has been used to create the channel from a program. Concretely:

  • A platform operator who runs a Comch-using service on BlueField and needs to confirm the channel is healthy before declaring the service ready.

  • A developer of a Comch consumer who sees DOCA_ERROR_AGAIN or a silent stall on the program side and wants to read the channel's state from outside the program rather than guessing.

  • An AI agent capturing the external server/connection rows before recommending a program-side code or lifecycle change.

It is not for users debugging the admin tool itself, not a substitute for the live public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide, and not the right place for users learning the comch API — that audience belongs in doca-comch/SKILL.md.

The tool is shipped as a CLI binary under /opt/mellanox/doca/tools/, 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.

When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is — or the agent needs to — invoke the DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool on a real host or BlueField Arm with DOCA installed (or inside the public NGC DOCA container with the right device passthrough). Concretely:

  • Listing currently active comch channels on a host or DPU.

  • Reading the row for one named server or connection from the complete zero-argument scan.

  • Cross-checking the admin tool's view against the program-side connection callback state when the two appear to disagree.

  • Capturing a side-effect-free channel snapshot as prerequisite evidence for a later debug session that crosses program / channel / driver layers.

Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, the comch programming API, library install, or comch protocol design. For those, route to doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md, doca-comch/SKILL.md, 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 the Comm Channel Admin Tool reports: the two read-only tables, the version-availability overlay that redirects to doca-version/SKILL.md, the layered error taxonomy (tool-not-installed / device-binding / channel-discovery / channel-state-stuck / permission / version / cross-cutting), the tool's role as an observability primitive for doca-comch/SKILL.md debug sessions, and the read-only safety policy.

  • the tasks companion — step-by-step workflows for the in-scope task verbs: configure (route to install), build (route to install), modify (refuse), run (one scan-and-print), test (cross-check the printed rows), debug (the layered diagnosis ladder), plus a Deferred task verbs block and a Command appendix that honors the bundle's doca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md preamble.

The skill assumes a host or BlueField where DOCA is already installed (or the public NGC DOCA container is running with the right device passthrough) and the operator has whatever privileges the public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide requires.

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:

  • Verbatim flag inventories, subcommand names, or output column names. The public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide on docs.nvidia.com and the installed --help on the user's version are the joint source of truth; copying them here pins the skill to one release and silently rots when the tool evolves. The skill routes the agent at those sources instead.

  • Pre-baked example output. Output is install-, version-, and channel-state-specific. A captured example will mislead an operator on a different platform / state.

  • Wrappers, parsers, or scripts in any language that consume the admin tool's output. The output format is documented; users who want to script against it should read the live guide and write the parser against their installed version.

  • A samples/ or reference/ subtree. This is a thin loader for a documented CLI; substantive material lives on the public page and in --help.

Loading order

  1. Read this skill first to confirm the user's question is in scope (the user wants to inventory a comch channel from the outside, not learn the comch API).

  2. For what the tool reports, version availability, the layered error surface, observability, and safety posture, see the capabilities companion.

  3. For the single invocation and cross-check workflow — configure, build, modify, run, test, debug, plus the Command appendix — see the tasks companion.

  • doca-comch/SKILL.md — the library whose channels this tool inventories. Pair them in every triage session: the program-side connection callback and the admin tool's channel state are the two halves of the same picture.

  • doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md — routing to the public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide and the rest of the public DOCA documentation set.

  • doca-version/SKILL.md — canonical DOCA version-handling rules. The ## Version compatibility section in the capabilities companion is a concise overlay that redirects here for the body.

  • doca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md — the bundle's detect → prefer → fall back → report contract for structured helper tools. The Command appendix in the tasks companion honors this contract.

  • doca-setup/SKILL.md — env preparation, install verification, representor visibility checks, and the I have no install yet path with the public NGC DOCA container. This skill assumes its preconditions are satisfied.

  • doca-debug/SKILL.md — the cross-cutting debug ladder. The Comm Channel Admin Tool slots in at the runtime layer as the read-only inventory surface before any code change is recommended.

Files

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.


                                 Apache License
                           Version 2.0, January 2004
                        http://www.apache.org/licenses/

   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

   1. Definitions.

      "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
      and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.

      "Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by
      the copyright owner that is granting the License.

      "Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
      other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
      control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
      exercising permissions granted by this License.

      "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
      including but not limited to software source code, documentation
      source, and configuration files.

      "Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
      transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
      not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
      and conversions to other media types.

      "Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
      Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
      copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
      (an example is provided in the Appendix below).

      "Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
      form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
      editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
      represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes
      of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain
      separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of,
      the Work and Derivative Works thereof.

      "Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
      the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
      to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
      submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
      or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
      the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
      means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
      to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
      communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
      and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
      Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
      excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
      designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."

      "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
      on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and
      subsequently incorporated within the Work.

   2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
      copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,
      publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the
      Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.

   3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
      (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
      use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
      where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
      by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
      Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
      with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
      institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
      cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
      or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
      or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
      granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
      as of the date such litigation is filed.

   4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
      Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
      modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
      meet the following conditions:

      (a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
          Derivative Works a copy of this License; and

      (b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
          stating that You changed the files; and

      (c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
          that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and
          attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
          excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
          the Derivative Works; and

      (d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
          distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
          include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
          within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
          pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
          of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
          as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
          documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
          within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
          wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
          of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
          do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
          notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
          or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
          that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
          as modifying the License.

      You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
      may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
      for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
      for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
      reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
      the conditions stated in this License.

   5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
      any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
      by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
      this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
      Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
      the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
      with Licensor regarding such Contributions.

   6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
      names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
      except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
      origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.

   7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
      agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
      Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
      implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
      of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
      PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
      appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
      risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.

   8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
      whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
      unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
      negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
      liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
      incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
      result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
      Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
      work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
      other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
      has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

   9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing
      the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
      and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity,
      or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this
      License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only
      on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf
      of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify,
      defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability
      incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason
      of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.

   END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

   APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.

      To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
      boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
      replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
      the brackets!)  The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
      comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
      file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
      same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier
      identification within third-party archives.

   Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

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 installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) with the Comm Channel tooling subpackage so the CLI is present under /opt/mellanox/doca/tools/. Runs from either the x86/Arm host or the BlueField Arm side; a live host↔DPU comch channel created via the doca-comch library is needed for non-empty tables. 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-comm-channel-admin · commit fce3cca
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE-APACHE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by NVIDIA.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download doca-comm-channel-admin.zip