Doca Argus

DOCA Argus Service

Currently-promoted successor. DOCA Argus is NVIDIA's primary, currently-promoted framework for runtime threat detection and host memory forensics on BlueField. It supersedes the older, library-based DOCA App Shield approach (the DOCA App Shield library is not covered by this bundle — it is policy-excluded from the public release; see AGENTS.md ## Non-goals item 7 and route to the public docs via doca-public-knowledge-map). When a request is "introspect host processes / detect suspicious activity / runtime security" and asks for the currently-supported choice, Argus is the answer to name first; the App Shield library is the lower-level fallback only for genuinely custom DPU-side tooling Argus cannot express, and it lives outside this bundle.

Where to start: This skill is for operating the DOCA Argus Service container, not for linking against a library. Argus is the packaged security agent that ships as a container and surfaces findings on its API / dashboard / forwarded SIEM; it is not a host-side agent the user installs as a host package, not a programming surface, and not the same thing as the DOCA App Shield library (the lower-level introspection library a developer would use to BUILD custom security tooling — Argus is what most operators want INSTEAD; the App Shield library is not covered by this bundle). If the user wants to deploy the Argus container, open TASKS.md and start at ## configure. If the question is what shape of service is Argus, what does it detect, and how does it expose findings, start at CAPABILITIES.md. If DOCA is not installed on the BlueField yet, route to doca-setup first. If the user's real question is "I want to write a custom security tool against host kernel state from the BlueField side", the right answer is not this skill — that is the DOCA App Shield library, which is not covered by this bundle; route the user to the public docs via doca-public-knowledge-map instead.

Example questions this skill answers well

The CLASSES of Argus 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.

• "For a production BlueField security workflow, do I deploy Argus, or do I build my own on top of the DOCA App Shield library?" — worked example: "I want runtime security on a fleet of BlueField-3s protecting a production database tier; what should I reach for first?". Answered by the Argus-vs-App-Shield path-selection rule in CAPABILITIES.md ## Safety policy
  • the path-selection step in TASKS.md ## configure.
• "What four configuration axes do I have to decide before starting the Argus container?" — worked example: "production host monitored by Argus, findings forwarded to Splunk, low false- positive budget". Answered by the four-axis configuration table in CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes
  • the four-axis step in TASKS.md ## configure.
• "Argus's container is running but I see no findings — what did I miss?" — worked example: "container green, no findings have arrived in 24h". Answered by the detection-policy and sampling rows in CAPABILITIES.md ## Error taxonomy
  • the layered ladder in TASKS.md ## debug.
• "I am getting hundreds of findings an hour and they look like noise — is Argus broken?" — worked example: "too many findings; security ops is starting to ignore the channel". Answered by the calibration-period and detection-policy rules in CAPABILITIES.md ## Safety policy
  • the layered ladder in TASKS.md ## debug.
• "How do I pair Argus with my existing SIEM (Splunk / ELK / …)?" — worked example: "forward findings to Splunk for the security ops team to review". Answered by the forwarding-axis row in CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes
  • the forwarding step in TASKS.md ## configure.
• "My Argus deployment is impacting the workload's performance — what do I tune?" — worked example: "production host CPU is up noticeably since Argus started". Answered by the sampling-axis row in CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes
  • the sampling-tuning row in TASKS.md ## debug.

Audience

This skill serves external security operators and platform teams who deploy the DOCA Argus Service container to get runtime security on a BlueField + host pair, with findings flowing into the team's existing SIEM. Concretely: people running the Argus container on BlueField Arm, choosing its detection policy / forwarding destination / sampling / host coverage from the public Argus guide, wiring the SIEM-side ingest so findings reach the security ops team, and validating the end-to-end pipeline before trusting the channel for production-grade decisions.

It is not for NVIDIA developers contributing to Argus itself, and it is not a programming guide for building security tools on top of DOCA libraries (that is doca-programming-guide plus the matching libs/<library> skill — and for the App Shield library that custom security tooling builds on, the public docs, since App Shield is not covered by this bundle). Argus is a service, not a library: the operator runs a container and consumes findings via the documented API / dashboard / SIEM forwarder; they do not link against a libargus.so to write their own program.

Path selection up front (load-bearing). Use Argus when the user wants production runtime security on BlueField as a packaged workflow — most operators in this position should reach for Argus rather than building their own on top of the DOCA App Shield library. Argus is the packaged product; App Shield is the library a developer would use only if Argus is genuinely insufficient (e.g. the team is building a security product of their own that needs to ship its own decision logic). Do not reach for Argus when (a) there is no security-posture concern (Argus is heavyweight overhead for nothing); (b) the user actually wants observability / metrics rather than security (route to the DOCA Telemetry Service via doca-public-knowledge-map ## DOCA services); (c) the user is building their own DPU-side custom security tooling (that is the DOCA App Shield library — the library equivalent, same shape of BlueField-side observation, different shape of operator effort — which is not covered by this bundle; route to the public docs via doca-public-knowledge-map).

When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is doing hands-on Argus deployment work on a BlueField where DOCA is already installed. Concretely:

• Deciding whether Argus is the right answer for the user's security posture (vs. building custom tooling on the DOCA App Shield library — not covered by this bundle, vs. deploying observability instead of security, vs. not deploying anything at all if there is no posture concern).
• Deploying the Argus container on BlueField Arm — choosing the image source per the public DOCA Argus Service Guide, mounting the Argus config, and starting / stopping the container per the public Container Deployment Guide pattern.
• Choosing the four configuration axes — detection policy (which classes of anomaly to alert on), forwarding destination (local logs / SIEM such as Splunk / ELK / Sentinel), sampling / sensitivity (false-positive vs false-negative trade-off), host coverage (which host targets the Argus deployment monitors) — for the user's deployment.
• Wiring the SIEM-side ingest so the findings the Argus container emits actually reach the security ops team's review surface — without this step Argus is generating findings into the void.
• Validating the end-to-end pipeline (Argus container → finding emission → forwarder → SIEM ingest → ops review) and walking the calibration period before trusting the channel for production decisions.
• Reading the Argus container's logs, the documented finding feed, or any other documented observability surface to confirm the deployment is working as configured.
• Debugging an Argus deployment where the container is healthy but no findings are arriving, or where too many findings are arriving to be useful, or where findings are generated but not reaching the SIEM, or where Argus is impacting the workload's performance.

Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, install of DOCA itself, library-API questions, or non-security topics. For those, route via doca-public-knowledge-map, doca-setup, or the matching libs/<library> skill (and to the public docs for the DOCA App Shield library when the user is building their own DPU-side security tooling, since App Shield is not covered by this bundle).