doca-bare-metal-deployment
doca-bare-metal-deployment is an agent skill published by nvidia, listed under review & testing. It lives in the NVIDIA/skills repository, which has 3,735 GitHub stars and is licensed under Apache-2.0; we last read it on 2026-10-23.
This skill launches, supervises, and debugs DOCA-linked binaries directly on hardware, including host x86 + BlueField NIC or BlueField Arm bare-metal, using BFB install, RShim/TMFIFO, and host PF rebind. It covers launch modes, PCI/NUMA/CPU/IRQ binding, co-tenant isolation, error taxonomy, and BlueField lifecycle management. Requires explicit confirmation for destructive firmware changes.
Install
skills is a generic installer for any repository of Claude agent skills -- it reads NVIDIA/skills’s own structure rather than assuming one, the same way this page reads the skill’s own SKILL.md rather than assuming a format.
npx skills add NVIDIA/skills
Maintenance
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 this skill 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". Refuse service containers under kubelet (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.
doca-bare-metal-deployment compared with similar skills
| Skill | Publisher | What it does | Repo stars | Last update |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| doca-bare-metal-deployment (this page) | nvidia | Running a DOCA-linked binary directly on the hardware, with no container or kubelet: on host x86 with a BlueF… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
| deepstream-sop(same repository) | nvidia | Use this skill when building, deploying, evaluating, debugging, or measuring latency for the DeepStream SOP I… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
| doca-aes-gcm(same repository) | nvidia | Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA AES-GCM work on a BlueField DPU or ConnectX NIC — configu… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
| doca-argp(same repository) | nvidia | Use this skill for hands-on DOCA Arg Parser CLI work on a shipped sample or new DOCA-using app — adding / rem… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
| doca-bench-extension(same repository) | nvidia | Use this skill when the operator is authoring, building, loading, or debugging a custom doca-bench plug-in —… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
| doca-caps(same repository) | nvidia | Use this skill when the user wants to invoke the read-only doca_caps CLI to ask what DOCA sees on this host —… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
| doca-comch(same repository) | nvidia | Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host… | 3,735 | 2026-10-26 |
Skills from the same repository first, then others for this job by repository stars. Figures are from each repository when we last read it.
Common questions about doca-bare-metal-deployment
- What does doca-bare-metal-deployment do?
- This skill launches, supervises, and debugs DOCA-linked binaries directly on hardware, including host x86 + BlueField NIC or BlueField Arm bare-metal, using BFB install, RShim/TMFIFO, and host PF rebind. It covers launch modes, PCI/NUMA/CPU/IRQ binding, co-tenant isolation, error taxonomy, and BlueField lifecycle management. Requires explicit confirmation for destructive firmware changes.
- How do I install doca-bare-metal-deployment?
- Run npx skills add NVIDIA/skills. The skills installer reads the repository’s own structure, so it works for any repository of agent skills.
- Who publishes doca-bare-metal-deployment?
- nvidia.
- Is doca-bare-metal-deployment maintained, and what licence does it use?
- Its repository has 3,735 GitHub stars and its state in our directory is listed. Its last commit we recorded was on 2026-10-26. The repository declares the Apache-2.0 licence.
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