AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
This skill serves as the central authority for DOCA version handling. It provides the canonical four-source detection chain and the four-way match rule required to ensure consistency across host packages, BlueField BFB releases, and NGC container tags. It is designed to help users identify and resolve version skew, such as build-time versus runtime mismatches, and provides a structured approach to verifying capability support across different DOCA releases.
What it does
- Defines the four-source detection chain for verifying DOCA installations.
- Establishes the four-way match rule for validating version consistency.
- Provides diagnostic procedures for build-vs-runtime drift and version skew.
- Outlines rules for reasoning about NGC container tags and version pinning.
- Offers a lookup procedure for checking capability support across versions.
- Provides templates for per-library version-compatibility documentation.
When to use it
- When you need to confirm the exact DOCA version installed on a host.
- When troubleshooting symptoms like DOCA_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED or undefined symbol references.
- When investigating why an application builds successfully but fails to function at runtime.
- When planning an upgrade or downgrade of DOCA components.
- When verifying if a specific DOCA capability or API is supported in your current release.
- When checking if apt-source configurations are consistent to prevent accidental upgrades.
Advantages
- Eliminates ambiguity by providing a single source of truth for version verification.
- Prevents common errors like hallucinating version strings or misinterpreting 'latest' tags.
- Standardizes the diagnosis of complex build-vs-runtime drift issues.
- Ensures consistent version-handling practices across different DOCA library skills.
- Provides clear, actionable steps for validating complex multi-component environments.
Usage examples
- “What DOCA version do I actually have installed?”
- The agent initiates the four-source detection chain (pkg-config, applications/VERSION, doca_caps, and bfver/mlnx-release) to provide an accurate, verified version report.
- “My program built but does nothing on the wire; is my install consistent?”
- The agent applies the four-way match rule to identify potential version skew between build-time dependencies and runtime environment components.
- “Is the symmetric-RSS hash mode supported in Flow 2.6.0?”
- The agent uses the version-matrix lookup procedure to confirm if the requested capability exists in the specified DOCA release.
- “Can I run my host package version 3.5.0 GA against BFB version 3.2.3 LTS?”
- The agent routes the query to the official DOCA Compatibility Policy to determine if the specific host and BFB version combination is supported.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/doca-version/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip doca-version.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by NVIDIA
DOCA version
Examples
"What DOCA version do I actually have installed?" — run the four-source detection chain and require a four-way match.
"The program built but does nothing on the wire." — treat mixed-install drift as a version problem before rewriting application code.
Instructions
Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for detect / validate / diagnose, and the capabilities companion for the four-way match and NGC tag rules. Do not open every companion file.
Where to start: This skill is the bundle's single source of truth for DOCA version handling. Open the tasks companion if the user wants to do something with the version (detect / validate / diagnose mismatch); open the capabilities companion when the question is what does version handling cover (the four-way match, the detection chain, NGC semantics, the per-library overlay pattern). Every other skill in the bundle that touches version routes here — they MUST NOT redefine the rules.
Example questions this skill answers well
The CLASSES of version-handling questions this skill is built to answer, each with one worked example. The agent should treat the class as the load-bearing piece — the worked example is a single instance.
"What DOCA version do I actually have installed?" — worked example: "the docs say 3.3 but I'm not sure what's on this host". Answered by the canonical detection chain in
configure +
Capabilities and modes
source-of-truth table.
"My program built but does nothing on the wire — is my install consistent?" — worked example: "
pkg-config --modversionsays 3.3.0;doca_caps --versionsays 3.2.0". Answered by the four-way match rule inVersion compatibility
the partial-install diagnosis in
debug.
"Is this DOCA capability / API / sample on the version I have?" — worked example: "is the symmetric-RSS hash mode in Flow 2.6.0". Answered by the version-matrix lookup procedure in
test (which uses the
version-matrix.jsonschema defined indoca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md#schemaswith fallback to per-library docs viadoca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md)."Can I run my host package version X against BFB version Y?" — worked example: "host is 3.5.0 GA, BlueField BFB is 3.2.3 LTS". Answered by the routing to the DOCA Compatibility Policy documented in
Version compatibility.
"I'm inside the NGC DOCA container — what does the version match look like?" — worked example: "do I still need to check pkg-config / applications/VERSION / doca_caps separately?". Answered by the NGC container rule in
Version compatibility
the container path in
configure.
"How do I write a per-library version-compatibility section for a new skill?" — worked example: "adding
doca-comchto the bundle, what does its## Version compatibilitylook like?". Answered by the per-library overlay pattern inSafety policy
the worked-example template in
modify.
"My
apt listshows DOCA3.3.0109, but/etc/apt/sources.list.d/doca.listis pinned atlatest/ a different release — is the nextapt install doca-*going to silently upgrade me?" — worked example: "I rolled back BFB to 3.1.0105 but my sources still point at the latest channel." Answered by the apt-source consistency precheck inapt-source consistency,
which enumerates the three legitimate shapes of a configured DOCA apt source (network URL, local file-repo, RHEL/OEL equivalent) and the do-not-install-until-the-source-matches rule that protects pinned installs from accidental drift.
When to load this skill
Load this skill whenever version handling is the load-bearing
concern. The decision must be made before the agent composes
its first sentence — the activation checklist below is the same
one referenced from
AGENTS.md ## Cross-cutting overlay activation triggers (bundle AGENTS.md#cross-cutting-overlay-activation-triggers),
mirrored here so the activation rule is at hand whenever this skill
is consulted.
Agent activation checklist — load this skill at the START of the answer when any cell below is true
| Trigger class | Concrete prompt-side signals (any one fires the overlay) |
|---|---|
| Direct version question | "what DOCA version do I have", "is X consistent", "is feature Y supported on version Z", "can I mix host package version A with BFB version B", "is my LTS still supported", "what does the version string mean" |
| Container tag question | any prompt that mentions a specific NGC container tag, or asks about latest, or asks how to pin a tag in a Dockerfile / pod spec / Compose file. The agent MUST also cite the "never invent a tag string from memory, never quote latest without confirming it" rule from ## Safety policy. |
| Build vs runtime drift | any debug session where the symptom is "the program built fine but DOCA_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED at runtime", "undefined reference to a symbol the docs say exists", "my code does nothing on the wire", "counter didn't increment" — these are the canonical partial-install symptoms |
| Upgrade / downgrade plan | the user is planning to upgrade or downgrade DOCA on a host already running other DOCA workloads, or to refresh the BFB on a BlueField pair already attached to a host |
| Per-artifact cross-link | a per-artifact skill's ## Version compatibility section cross-links here for the rule body, OR the agent is about to author a new per-artifact skill and needs the overlay template |
When any cell above fires, the agent MUST:
Cite the four-source detection chain from ## Capabilities and modes explicitly in the answer —
pkg-config --modversion doca-common→cat /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/VERSION→doca_caps --version→bfverpluscat /etc/mlnx-release(BlueField hosts). Do not paraphrase or summarize the chain; cite the commands by name. Do NOT substitutemlxprivhostorbfb-infofor the BFB leg — those are common hallucinations and the bundle explicitly bans them in ## Capabilities and modes.State the four-way match rule from ## Version compatibility verbatim if the prompt could possibly involve a mismatch (every deploy-shape question and every debug-shape question can; orientation-shape questions usually cannot).
Refuse to invent a version string. If the agent doesn't have the actual
pkg-config --modversionoutput from the user's host, the answer must say so and route to the detection chain — not assert a version from training-data recall.
Universal version-coherence trigger
Whenever ANOTHER overlay (e.g. doca-setup/SKILL.md, doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md, doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md, doca-bare-metal-deployment/SKILL.md) calls a ## test / ## configure / ## modify step that requires "the install is healthy" or "versions are consistent", that step MUST resolve to a citation of this skill's four-source detection chain and four-way match rule. The agent does NOT redefine the rule per-overlay — every step that needs a version verification must route here. This is the only place in the bundle that owns the rule body.
Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, for
install procedures (use doca-setup/SKILL.md),
or for library-specific API questions (use the matching library
skill).
What this skill provides
This is a thin loader. The body keeps only the orientation needed to pick the right next file. The substantive version-handling material lives in two companion files:
the capabilities companion — the version-handling surface: the canonical source-of-truth table for version detection, the four-way match rule, NGC container semantics, the per-library overlay pattern, the routing to the DOCA Compatibility Policy, the error taxonomy for version-related failures (pkg-config missing, partial install, BFB/host mismatch, NGC mixing), the observability surface (which command to read for which version source), and the safety policy ("never invent a version, never quote
latest").the tasks companion — step-by-step workflows for the six in-scope version verbs:
configure(detect on this host),build(build-time match),modify(update a version pin in a build manifest),run(runtime check),test(four-way validation + version-matrix lookup),debug(diagnose mismatch / partial install). Plus aDeferred task verbsblock.
Loading order
Read this skill first to confirm the user's question is in scope.
For the version-detection sources, four-way match rule, NGC semantics, per-library overlay pattern, error taxonomy, observability, and safety policy, see the capabilities companion.
For step-by-step workflows — configure, build, modify, run, test, debug — see the tasks companion.
Related skills
doca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md— the JSON schemas for the helper tools the agent should prefer when present. This skill's## testworkflow uses theversion-matrix.jsonschema defined there; do not redefine the schema here.doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md— the routing table to public DOCA docs, including the Compatibility Policy. This skill cites the Compatibility Policy URL once via that map; it does not duplicate the routing.doca-setup/SKILL.md— env-side install / verify / NGC container path. This skill assumes its preconditions are satisfied (i.e., something is installed somewhere; the version question is what was installed and is it consistent).doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md— program-side guidance (quote the version observed, header-wins, capability-discovery rules). The program-side## Version compatibilitysection there is now a 3-5 line redirect to this skill plus the program-side overlay (quote vs assume; never use agent-memory version).doca-debug/SKILL.md— the cross-cutting debug ladder. Layer 2 (version mismatch) of that ladder is owned by this skill's## debugworkflow.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer894 B
- BENCHMARK.md9.9 KiB
- CAPABILITIES.md28.6 KiB
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.2 KiB
- SKILL.md11.3 KiB
- TASKS.md24.8 KiB
- evals/evals.json3.1 KiB
- skill-card.md4.7 KiB
- skill.oms.sig4.9 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: No DOCA install required to read this skill (it is an overlay loaded against any DOCA artifact skill); the validation steps within DO require a live DOCA install at /opt/mellanox/doca.
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Attribution and licence
- Created by
- NVIDIA
- Publisher
- NVIDIA (Official)
- Source
- NVIDIA/skills · skills/doca-version · 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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The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download doca-version.zip