Official agent skill

Doca Comch

by NVIDIA in NVIDIA/skills

A skill your agent uses when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles…

OfficialApache-2.0Auto-check: notesDevelopment

Install Doca Comch

skills CLI
$ npx skills add NVIDIA/skills --skill doca-comch -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install NVIDIA/skills doca-comch --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NVIDIA/skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/doca-comch .claude/skills/doca-comch && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
doca-comch
GitHub stars
3.5k
Token cost
~3.1k tokens
SKILL.md length
1,333 words
Files
8
Skills in repo
380
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles…

  • Works in 3 steps: Read this SKILL.md first to confirm the… → **For the Comch capability matrix, role… → **For step-by-step workflows —…
  • The user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging
  • SKILL.md covers Example questions this skill…, Audience, When to load this skill and What this skill provides, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Doca Comch is an agent skill from NVIDIA/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles, choosing slow-path send-task / recv-callback vs fast-path producer / consumer, querying max-msg-size or max-clients capabilities, registering connection callbacks, or debugging DOCAERROR returns from the Comch API. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA Comch" or "Comm Channel" (renamed in DOCA 2.5) —…

Its SKILL.md is about 3.1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 8 other files (for example `BENCHMARK.md`, `CAPABILITIES.md` and `SKILLCARD.yaml`). Compatibility notes: Requires DOCA SDK installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) on a host + BlueField pair (the Comch channel runs over the…

It sits in Development. The repository describes itself as: Agent Skills for NVIDIA products — install into Claude Code, Codex, and other coding agents to run Physical AI, robotics, simulation, CUDA, and RAG workflows end to end. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • The user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging
  • Picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles
  • Choosing slow-path send-task / recv-callback vs fast-path producer / consumer
  • Querying max-msg-size

Example prompts

  • “DOCA Comch”
  • “Comm Channel”
  • “send a control message from host to BlueField over PCIe”
  • “/doca-comch”

Requirements

  • Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires DOCA SDK installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) on a host + BlueField pair (the Comch channel runs over the RoCE/IB protocol, not the TCP/IP stack). Reads the user's local install via `pkg-config doca-comch` (legacy `doca-comm-channel` on installs <2.5) and inspects /opt/mellanox/doca/{lib,include,samples,applications}.

Workflow steps

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

  1. Read this SKILL.md first to confirm the user's question is
  2. **For the Comch capability matrix, role split, slow-path /
  3. **For step-by-step workflows — configure, build, modify, run,

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0e0d506. 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

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    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.

  • Compatibility

    Requires DOCA SDK installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) on a host + BlueField pair (the Comch channel runs over the RoCE/IB protocol, not the TCP/IP stack). Reads the user's local install via `pkg-config doca-comch` (legacy `doca-comm-channel` on installs <2.5) and inspects /opt/mellanox/doca/{lib,include,samples,applications}.

    From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Doca Comch loads about 3.1k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 251 tokens; SKILL.md has 1,333 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~251
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~3.1k

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

Auto-check: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:177
    install profile expects (in particular, sudo on the

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 NVIDIA/skills at commit 0e0d506, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© NVIDIA). 1,333 words, ~3,141 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/doca-comch/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 7 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
doca-comch
description
Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles, choosing slow-path send-task / recv-callback vs fast-path producer / consumer, querying max-msg-size or max-clients capabilities, registering connection callbacks, or debugging DOCA_ERROR_* returns from the Comch API. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly mention "DOCA Comch" or "Comm Channel" (renamed in DOCA 2.5) — typical implicit phrasings include "send a control message from host to BlueField over PCIe", "DPU can't see the host representor", "DOCA_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED on server_create", "DOCA_ERROR_AGAIN on task_send submit", "connect callback never fires", or "stream bulk data from a host driver to a DPU agent". Refuse and route elsewhere for installing DOCA itself, BFB / firmware bring-up, non-Comch DOCA libraries, or deploying Comch apps at scale — those belong to other skills.
compatibility
Requires DOCA SDK installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) on a host + BlueField pair (the Comch channel runs over the RoCE/IB protocol, not the TCP/IP stack). Reads the user's local install via `pkg-config doca-comch` (legacy `doca-comm-channel` on installs <2.5) and inspects /opt/mellanox/doca/{lib,include,samples,applications}.
license
Apache-2.0
metadata.kind
library

DOCA Comch

Where to start: This skill assumes DOCA is already installed and the user is doing hands-on Comch work on a BlueField + host pair with DOCA. Open TASKS.md if the user wants to do something (configure / build / modify / run / test / debug); open CAPABILITIES.md when the question is what can Comch express on this version. If the user has not installed DOCA yet, route to doca-setup first. If the user is asking "is Comch even on this DOCA" because the docs they read mention doca-comm-channel, route to CAPABILITIES.md ## Version compatibility for the 2.5 rename.

Example questions this skill answers well

The CLASSES of Comch 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.

  • "How do I bring up a Comch channel between host and DPU?" — worked example: "server side on the DPU, client side on the host, exchange a first control message". Answered by the role-selection + lifecycle workflow in TASKS.md ## configure + CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes server-vs-client table.
  • "How do I move bulk data over Comch with low CPU?" — worked example: "stream a 64 KiB chunk every 100 µs from the host driver to a DPU agent". Answered by the producer / consumer fast-path described in CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes
    • the channel-setup workflow in TASKS.md ## configure step 4, with the "slow-path vs fast-path" selection rule.
  • "What is the maximum message size I can send?" — worked example: "can I send a 4 MiB control message in one shot?". Answered by the capability-query rule (doca_comch_cap_get_max_msg_size) in CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes
  • "Why doesn't the DPU side see the representor?" — worked example: "doca_comch_server_create returns DOCA_ERROR_NOT_PERMITTED on a freshly imaged BlueField". Answered by the representor + permission overlay in CAPABILITIES.md ## Safety policy
  • "Is this Comch capability on my installed DOCA version?" — worked example: "is doca_comch_producer in DOCA 2.6.0, or do I still need the old slow-path API?". Answered by the version-compatibility overlay in CAPABILITIES.md ## Version compatibility, which cross-links the canonical detection chain in doca-version and adds the Comch-specific 2.5 rename rule.
  • "What does this DOCA_ERROR_* from a Comch call mean and which layer caused it?" — worked example: "DOCA_ERROR_AGAIN on submitting a doca_comch_task_send via doca_task_submit". Answered by the Comch overlay on the cross-library taxonomy in CAPABILITIES.md ## Error taxonomy

Audience

This skill serves external developers building applications that consume the DOCA Comch library — i.e., users whose code calls doca_comch_* (directly in C/C++, or through FFI/bindings from another language) to exchange control or data messages between a host process and a BlueField agent over PCIe. It is not for NVIDIA developers contributing to DOCA Comch itself.

Language scope. DOCA Comch ships as a C library with pkg-config module name doca-comch. The shipped samples are written in C. C and C++ consumers are the canonical case; the worked examples in TASKS.md assume that path. Other-language consumers (Rust, Go, Python, …) consume the same *.so through FFI or language-specific bindings; the skill's contribution in that case is to keep the role-split, lifecycle, capability-discovery, permission, and error-taxonomy guidance language-neutral, and to route the agent to the public C ABI as the authoritative surface that any wrapper will eventually call.

When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work, in any language. Concretely:

  • Initializing a doca_comch_server on the DPU side or a doca_comch_client on the host side, on a representor or PCIe address the host can reach.
  • Configuring at least one of: a recv callback for slow-path messages, a producer for fast-path outbound data, a consumer for fast-path inbound data, before doca_ctx_start().
  • Reading or setting comch properties via doca_comch_set_* and doca_comch_cap_get_* — max message size, max number of clients (server side), producer / consumer queue sizing.
  • Establishing a connection between the two sides and reacting to connection-state transitions via the connection callbacks registered before start.
  • Choosing between the slow-path (send-task / recv-callback, message-oriented, lower throughput, single-call simplicity) and the fast-path (producer / consumer, asynchronous, much higher throughput, two-context setup).
  • Debugging a DOCA_ERROR_* returned from a Comch call (lifecycle vs. permission vs. capability vs. would-block) and the connection state machine across the host / DPU pair.
  • Designing or extending non-C bindings (Rust, Go, Python, …) that wrap the Comch C ABI — for the lifecycle, role-split, permission, and capability rules the wrapper must honor.

Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, install of DOCA itself, or non-Comch library questions. For those, use doca-public-knowledge-map.

Show full SKILL.md (573 more words)Show less

What this skill provides

This is a thin loader. The body keeps only the orientation needed to pick the right next file. The substantive Comch-specific material lives in two companion files:

  • CAPABILITIES.md — what Comch can express on this version: the server vs client role split, the slow-path send-task / recv-callback surface, the producer / consumer fast-path surface, the capability-query surface (doca_comch_cap_get_*), the Comch error taxonomy (mapped onto the cross-library DOCA_ERROR_* set), the observability surface (connection state callbacks, task completion callbacks), and the safety policy that gates representor and permission decisions.
  • TASKS.md — step-by-step workflows for the six in-scope Comch verbs: configure, build, modify, run, test, debug. Plus a Deferred task verbs block that points out-of-scope questions at the right next skill.

The skill assumes a host + BlueField pair where DOCA is already installed at the standard location and the user has the privileges their public install profile expects (in particular, sudo on the DPU side to see the host representor). It does not cover installing DOCA — that path goes through doca-setup.

What this skill deliberately does not ship

This skill is agent guidance, not a samples or templates bundle. To keep the boundary clean, it deliberately does not contain — and pull requests should not add:

  • Pre-written DOCA Comch application source code, in any language. The verified Comch source code is the shipped C samples at /opt/mellanox/doca/samples/doca_comch/<name>/. The agent's job is to route the user to those files and prescribe a minimum-diff modification on them via the universal modify-a-sample workflow in doca-programming-guide, layered with the Comch-specific overrides in TASKS.md ## modify.
  • Standalone build manifests (meson.build, CMakeLists.txt, Cargo.toml, …) parked inside the skill. The agent constructs the build manifest in the user's project directory against the user's installed DOCA, where pkg-config --modversion doca-comch is the source of truth.
  • A samples/, bindings/, or reference/ subtree of any kind. A mock or incomplete artifact in this skill's tree, even one labeled "reference", is misleading: users will read it as buildable.

Loading order

  1. Read this SKILL.md first to confirm the user's question is in scope.
  2. For the Comch capability matrix, role split, slow-path / fast-path surfaces, permission policy, error taxonomy, observability, and safety policy, see CAPABILITIES.md.
  3. For step-by-step workflows — configure, build, modify, run, test, debug — see TASKS.md.

Both companion files cross-link to each other, doca-version for the canonical version-handling rules, and doca-public-knowledge-map whenever the right answer is "look it up in the public docs or the installed package layout" rather than "Comch-specific guidance".

  • doca-public-knowledge-map — the routing table for every public DOCA documentation source and the on-disk layout of an installed DOCA package. The Comch URL slug is DOCA-Comch (DOCA 2.5+), not doca-comm-channel.
  • doca-setup — env preparation, install verification, representor visibility checks, and the I have no install yet path with the public NGC DOCA container. This skill assumes its preconditions are satisfied.
  • doca-version — canonical DOCA version-handling rules. This skill's ## Version compatibility cross-links the four-way match rule and adds the Comch-specific 2.5 rename overlay.
  • doca-structured-tools-contract — the bundle's structured-tools precedence rule (detect / prefer / fall back / report). The Command appendix in TASKS.md honors this contract.
  • doca-programming-guide — general DOCA programming patterns shared by every library: the canonical pkg-config + meson build pattern, the universal modify-a-shipped-sample first-app workflow, the universal lifecycle, the cross-library DOCA_ERROR_* taxonomy, and the program-side debug order. This skill layers Comch specifics on top.
  • doca-debug — the cross-cutting debug ladder (install / version / build / link / runtime / program / driver). Comch-specific debug (lifecycle violations, representor visibility, slow-path vs fast-path queue-full symptoms) overlays on top of that ladder.

© NVIDIA, 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

SKILL.md and 7 other files in skills/doca-comch of NVIDIA/skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • BENCHMARK.md
  • CAPABILITIES.md
  • SKILLCARD.yaml
  • TASKS.md
  • evals/evals.json
  • skill-card.md
  • skill.oms.sig

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0e0d506

Compare with similar skills

Doca Comch next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Doca Comch compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Doca Comch this skillNVIDIA/skills3.5k—~3.1kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Finishing a Development Branchobra/superpowers296k5 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Typescript Advanced Typesrolling-scopes/rsschool-app10k24 repos~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassMPL-2.0
PR Babysitteropeninterpreter/openinterpreter69k3 repos~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Code Review ChecklistshareAI-lab/learn-claude-code78k5 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Greplooponyx-dot-app/onyx32k4 repos~3.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Walks the last step of a branch: confirm tests pass, detect the git environment, ask how to integrate, carry out your choice and clean up the worktree.

    296k GitHub starsUsed in 5 repos~1.9k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed
  • Typescript Advanced Types

    rolling-scopes/rsschool-app

    Master TypeScript's advanced type system including generics, conditional types, mapped types, template literals, and utility types for building type-safe applications.

    10k GitHub starsUsed in 24 repos~4.2k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed
  • PR Babysitter

    openinterpreter/openinterpreter

    Watches an open GitHub pull request until it merges, handling review comments, diagnosing CI failures and retrying flaky checks along the way.

    69k GitHub starsUsed in 3 repos~4.2k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed
  • Code Review Checklist

    shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code

    Reviews code against a five-part checklist covering security, correctness, performance, maintainability and testing, and reports findings in a fixed format.

    78k GitHub starsUsed in 5 repos~1.1k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed
  • Greploop

    onyx-dot-app/onyx

    Iteratively improves a PR (GitHub), MR (GitLab), or shelved changelist (Perforce) until Greptile gives it a 5/5 confidence score with zero unresolved comments.

    32k GitHub starsUsed in 4 repos~3.3k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed
  • Guidelines

    akash-network/node

    Behavioral guidelines to reduce common LLM coding mistakes. An agent skill from akash-network/node.

    1.1k GitHub starsUsed in 22 repos~577 tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

More from NVIDIA/skills

All 380 skills in this repo
  • Official

    A skill your agent uses when the user wants to deploy, run, debug, tear down, or call the REST API of the RTVI-CV 2D detection / tracking microservice.

    3.5k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~4.5k tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Official

    Generates, validates, compares and explains HOLOLINK_def.svh macro files for the HSB IP, using bundled Python scripts and asking before it writes anything.

    3.5k GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Official

    Runs and validates an end-to-end Mission Control demo in a locally installed Isaac Sim, with a Nova Carter robot driven through a Python server.

    3.5k GitHub stars~4.8k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check passed
  • Orchestrates defect image generation for PCBA, metal surface and glass inspection with NVIDIA Cosmos AnomalyGen on OSMO, from cold-start Day 0 to real-photo Day 1 labeling.

    3.5k GitHub stars~5k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check: notes
  • Orchestrates video data augmentation and auto-labeling workflows on OSMO, from flow selection and preflight checks to submission, monitoring and output download.

    3.5k GitHub stars~4.7k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check: notes
  • Official

    Runs NVIDIA TAO Data Services KPI analysis on object detection results, comparing predictions to ground truth and writing per-class precision, recall and AP to a CSV.

    3.5k GitHub stars~2.7k tokensUpdated today
    Auto-check: notes

Categories

Questions about Doca Comch

What does Doca Comch do?

A skill your agent uses when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles…. Doca Comch is an agent skill from NVIDIA/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Use this skill when the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging, picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles, choosing slow-path send-task / recv-callback vs fast-path producer / consumer, querying max-msg-size or max-clients capabilities, registering connection callbacks, or debugging DOCAERROR returns from the Comch API.

When should I use Doca Comch?

Doca Comch fits situations like: the user is doing hands-on DOCA Comch work on a host + BlueField pair — bringing up host ↔ DPU PCIe control-plane messaging; picking server (DPU) vs client (host) roles; choosing slow-path send-task / recv-callback vs fast-path producer / consumer; querying max-msg-size.

How do I install Doca Comch in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add NVIDIA/skills --skill doca-comch -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/doca-comch in NVIDIA/skills) into .claude/skills/doca-comch in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Doca Comch in Codex?

Run `npx skills add NVIDIA/skills --skill doca-comch -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/doca-comch in NVIDIA/skills) into .agents/skills/doca-comch in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Doca Comch in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add NVIDIA/skills --skill doca-comch -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/doca-comch, .gemini/skills/doca-comch, .github/skills/doca-comch and .opencode/skills/doca-comch in your project.

What does Doca Comch need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Doca Comch is instructions for the agent only. Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires DOCA SDK installed at /opt/mellanox/doca on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or RHEL/SLES) on a host + BlueField pair (the Comch channel runs over the RoCE/IB protocol, not the TCP/IP stack). Reads the user's local install via `pkg-config doca-comch` (legacy `doca-comm-channel` on installs <2.5) and inspects /opt/mellanox/doca/{lib,include,samples,applications}. .

Does Doca Comch access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Doca Comch safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (runs commands with sudo), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Doca Comch use?

Doca Comch is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Doca Comch use?

About 3.1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 13k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Doca Comch?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Doca Comch: Finishing a Development Branch (obra/superpowers, 296k stars), Typescript Advanced Types (rolling-scopes/rsschool-app, 10k stars), PR Babysitter (openinterpreter/openinterpreter, 69k stars) and Code Review Checklist (shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code, 78k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Doca Comch?

NVIDIA (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in NVIDIA/skills, which has 3,534 GitHub stars. The repository holds 380 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Source: NVIDIA/skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.