Automation & Ops ✓ NVIDIA · Official doca-capsdocabluefieldconnectxpcierepresentorscapability-snapshot

DOCA Capabilities Inspector

Inspect what DOCA can see on a host through a read-only device and capability CLI.

FollowSkills review · FSRS-2.0
Not recommended
56/ 100 5-point scale 2.8 / 5
Trust18 / 25 · 3.6/5

The documents clearly constrain doca_caps to read-only operation with no persistent side effects, prohibit modifying the binary, and prohibit inventing flags; the data flow is primarily local hardware and installation inspection, with no credentials requested. Points are deducted because the required permissions are not precisely scoped, there is no explicit user-confirmation policy, no handling guidance for potentially sensitive PCIe/network identifiers, and no rollback procedure. The SKILLCARD, repository license, and supplied NOASSERTION license metadata also conflict on attribution/licensing details.

Reliability8 / 20 · 2.0/5

SKILL.md, CAPABILITIES.md, and TASKS.md provide fairly detailed diagnosis for missing installs, PATH issues, versions, permissions, drivers, empty output, and exit codes, and correctly defer flag authority to the installed --help. Points are deducted because no committed test suite or reproducible key-path coverage is supplied, and several commands and behaviors depend on an unavailable DOCA installation, public documentation, and companion skills. Under static calibration, the score is capped at 10.

Adaptability11 / 15 · 3.7/5

Trigger conditions, audience, five capability-query patterns, non-fit ranges, and routing relationships are clearly described, with stated support for Ubuntu, RHEL, SLES, x86/Arm hosts, and BlueField contexts. Points are deducted because the core function depends entirely on Linux, the DOCA SDK, specific hardware, and a local binary; Chinese-language interaction is not addressed, and mainland-China network reachability is not evidenced, while public NGC/documentation dependencies may limit deployment.

Convention8 / 15 · 2.7/5

The documentation is well layered across SKILL.md, CAPABILITIES.md, and TASKS.md, and includes example questions, task verbs, error taxonomy, related skills, maintenance contacts, and version boundaries. Points are deducted because SKILL.md says Apache-2.0 while the SKILLCARD says Apache-2.0 AND CC-BY-4.0; version, signature, scan ID, and signing fields remain placeholders; BENCHMARK.md records schema findings; and direct ownership and changelog/update responsibility for this skill are not fully clear.

Effectiveness7 / 15 · 2.3/5

The skill gives directly usable commands and routing rules for inspecting DOCA devices, representors, libraries, capabilities, and saving snapshots, while avoiding misleading fixed output examples. Points are deducted because it provides no executable wrapper, structured output, or representative result, so completion depends on the user's environment and external documentation. BENCHMARK.md reports strong effectiveness but omits the evaluation dataset, so static evidence is limited and the score remains at the calibration ceiling of 7.

Verifiability4 / 10 · 2.0/5

The source includes commands, error taxonomy, version constraints, evaluation files, and a benchmark report, providing some auditability. Points are deducted because the public guide, CI, test suite, and evaluation dataset are not included in the supplied material; the benchmark cannot be independently reproduced; and SKILLCARD signature, scan-run, and version fields are placeholders. This supports only limited static verifiability.

Evidence confidence:Low Reviewed Jul 20, 2026 Reviewed revision 55f18499943e
Before you use it
  • Before execution, confirm the target host, DOCA version, and required permissions; although the skill claims read-only behavior, unredacted snapshots may contain PCIe and network identifiers.
  • Do not automatically interpret empty output as unsupported hardware; correlate exit status, drivers, container device mappings, version, and PCIe scope, using the installed --help and actual tool output as authority.
  • Verify the release license, source repository, version signature, and maintenance contact; SKILL.md, SKILLCARD, repository license, and supplied metadata are not fully consistent.
  • The core commands depend on Linux, the DOCA SDK, BlueField/ConnectX hardware, and a local installation; Chinese support and mainland-China network reachability are not evidenced.
See the full review method →

What does this skill do, and when should you use it?

DOCA Capabilities Inspector is an Agent Skill for invoking NVIDIA’s doca_caps command-line tool. It enumerates DOCA devices, PCIe addresses, and representors, lists DOCA libraries available on the operating system, and checks capabilities for a specific device and library. It can also capture a side-effect-free capability snapshot for installation smoke tests or debugging. It does not handle DOCA installation, internal library capability matrices, telemetry, or binary modification.

On a Linux host with DOCA installed, or inside the public NGC DOCA container, it invokes /opt/mellanox/doca/tools/doca_caps and reads pkg-config doca-common to confirm the installation. It supports device, representor, library, library-capability, and logger queries, PCIe-address scoping, and capability-snapshot capture.

  1. A developer wants to verify that a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC is visible to DOCA after installation.
  2. A platform operator needs a read-only inventory of available DOCA libraries and per-device capabilities.
  3. A developer needs to check whether a particular PCIe device supports a library capability such as Flow hairpin.
  4. An operator needs to enumerate VF representors for pf0.
  5. A debug or installation smoke-test workflow needs a saved device, library, and capability snapshot.

What are this skill's strengths and limitations?

Pros
  • Read-only and side-effect-free, making it suitable for installation checks and debugging evidence.
  • Covers five documented surfaces: devices, representors, libraries, library capabilities, and loggers.
  • Supports PCIe-address-scoped queries and capability snapshots.
  • Clearly routes installation and internal library questions to other skills.
Limitations
  • Requires DOCA SDK 2.6.0 or newer at the fixed path /opt/mellanox/doca.
  • Targets Linux Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES with a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC.
  • The supplied material omits the complete TASKS.md, CAPABILITIES.md, and real output examples, so those references or the live guide are needed for operational detail.
  • It ships no wrappers, parsers, scripts, samples, or reference subtree.

How do you install this skill?

Install it from the NVIDIA/skills collection with the skills CLI: npx skills add nvidia/skills --skill doca-caps --yes. The README does not document copying the skill folder manually to a specific location; after installation, the relevant Agent loads it when it encounters a matching task.

How do you use this skill?

On a host meeting the DOCA requirements, ask an Agent to perform an intent such as: "check what DOCA sees on this host", "enumerate VF representors for pf0", or "check Flow capability for this PCIe address". Follow the TASKS.md referenced by the skill for exact doca_caps invocations and snapshot procedures; the supplied source does not include the complete command arguments.

FAQ

Does this skill install DOCA?
No. If DOCA is not installed, the skill routes the user to doca-setup; it assumes an existing installation or a running public NGC DOCA container.
Does doca_caps change device or system state?
According to the supplied SKILL.md, it is a side-effect-free read-only CLI, and the snapshot workflow is also described as side-effect-free.
What should I do if a capability query returns no output?
Use the debugging rules in TASKS.md and the error taxonomy in CAPABILITIES.md; the supplied material does not include their detailed mappings.
Can it answer every Flow pipe-creation or RDMA-verbs question?
No. It reports only the capabilities exposed by doca_caps; internal library capability matrices belong to the corresponding library skills.

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