Network Troubleshooting

What it does

When your agent uses it

• A command fails with a network-shaped error (curl
• A service is unreachable
• The user asks to debug connectivity

Example prompts

• “/network-troubleshooting”

Requirements

• Docker

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Collect — Capture the exact error text, the failing command, the target host/URL/port, OS/shell, proxy/VPN context, and whether the…
2. 2Classify — Match the symptom against the error classification table below to form a hypothesis.
3. 3Diagnose — Run only read-only checks scoped to the failing target, starting with the smallest relevant check.
4. 4Explain — Interpret each diagnostic result in plain language before suggesting any fix.
5. 5Advise — Present remediation options as choices; wait for explicit user approval before changing any state.
6. 6Verify — After an approved change, re-run the original failing command or an equivalent target-scoped check.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9718410. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • curl
  • openssl
  • npm

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use curl and npm, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Network Troubleshooting loads about 2.2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 100 tokens; SKILL.md has 826 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~100

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~2.2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Mindrally/skills at commit 9718410, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© Mindrally). 826 words, ~2,187 tokens.

name

network-troubleshooting

description

Systematic, safety-first diagnosis of developer network failures such as connection refused, DNS resolution errors, TLS certificate problems, proxy failures, and package registry timeouts. Use when a command fails with a network-shaped error (curl, npm, pip, git, docker), when a service is unreachable, or when the user asks to debug connectivity, DNS, TLS, or proxy issues.

ping -c 4 <target-host>
curl -v telnet://<target-host>:<port> --connect-timeout 5

Test-Connection -ComputerName <target-host> -Count 4
Test-NetConnection -ComputerName <target-host> -Port <port>

nslookup <target-host>
dig <target-host>

Resolve-DnsName <target-host>

curl -vvv -o /dev/null -w "HTTP %{http_code}\nTime: %{time_total}s\nDNS: %{time_namelookup}s\nConnect: %{time_connect}s\nTLS: %{time_appconnect}s\n" https://<target-host>/<path>
curl -I https://<target-host>/<path>

$uri = "https://<target-host>/<path>"
try {
  $resp = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $uri -Method Head -TimeoutSec 10
  "HTTP status: $([int]$resp.StatusCode)"
} catch [Net.WebException] {
  if ($_.Exception.Response) {
    "HTTP status: $([int]$_.Exception.Response.StatusCode)"
  } else {
    "HTTP request failed: $($_.Exception.Message)"
  }
}

openssl s_client -connect <target-host>:<port> -servername <target-host> -showcerts </dev/null
echo | openssl s_client -connect <target-host>:<port> -servername <target-host> 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -noout -subject -issuer -dates

try {
  $req = [Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create("https://<target-host>:<port>/<path>")
  $req.Method = "HEAD"
  $req.Timeout = 5000
  try {
    $resp = $req.GetResponse()
  } catch [Net.WebException] {
    $resp = $_.Exception.Response
    if ($req.ServicePoint.Certificate) {
      $cert = $req.ServicePoint.Certificate
      "Cert subject: $($cert.Subject)"
      "Cert expires: $($cert.GetExpirationDateString())"
    }
    if ($resp) {
      "HTTP status: $([int]$resp.StatusCode) $($resp.StatusDescription)"
      $resp.Close()
    } else {
      "TLS/network error: $($_.Exception.Message)"
    }
    return
  }
  $cert = $req.ServicePoint.Certificate
  if ($cert) {
    "Cert subject: $($cert.Subject)"
    "Cert expires: $($cert.GetExpirationDateString())"
  }
  "HTTP status: $([int]$resp.StatusCode) $($resp.StatusDescription)"
  $resp.Close()
} catch {
  "TLS/network error: $($_.Exception.Message)"
}

© Mindrally, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in network-troubleshooting of Mindrally/skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9718410