Doca Bf3 Deployment

OrganizationPopular

NVIDIA

doca-bf3-deployment

Use this skill for BlueField-3 (BF3) day-1 platform bring-up via the classic RShim/BFB path: pushing a BlueField bundle (BFB) to the DPU over RShim with bfb-install from the host, the host-to-DPU TMFIFO management channel (tmfifo_net0, the 192.168.100.x convention), RShim daemon state and console-over-rshim, DPU mode selection (DPU/embedded-function vs separated-host/NIC mode) via mlxconfig, post-BFB recovery, a six-state BlueField-state classifier, and verifying the install (cat /etc/mlnx-release plus version checks). Trigger even when the user does not say "BF3" — typical phrasings include {push a BFB to my BlueField-3}, {bfb-install exited 0 but the DPU never came back}, {ping 192.168.100.2 works but ssh fails}, or {is DOCA on the host or the Arm side?}. BFB reflash, mlxconfig set, mode changes, and firmware burns are destructive: require explicit target-bound confirmation and load doca-hardware-safety. App launch, container deploy, env install, and the BF4 BMC-Redfish path route elsewhere.

Overview

Publisher	NVIDIA
Repository	`skills`
Skill name	`doca-bf3-deployment`
Stars	3.3K
Forks	397
Bundled files	7
License	Apache-2.0
Links	Skill source Repository Homepage

Markdown instructions
A SKILL.md file the model loads on demand, so it only costs tokens when a request actually matches.
Works with any LLM
AI skills are plain Markdown, not provider-specific code, so this works with GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model.
7 bundled files
Scripts, templates, and references the model can read while it works. Files are read-only and never executed.
Open source
Published by NVIDIA on GitHub. Read the source before you install it.

Installation

Install the Doca Bf3 Deployment AI skill in TypingMind to use it with any LLM, or drop it into another agent that reads SKILL.md.

Install in TypingMind

TypingMind installs a skill straight from its GitHub folder — it reads SKILL.md, bundles the resource files, and stores the result locally.

Open the app and go to Plugins → Skills.
Choose "Install from GitHub".
Paste the skill folder URL below and confirm.
Enable the skill in any chat where you want it available.

Plugins → Skills → Add skill → From GitHub URL, then paste the folder URL and press Continue.

Install in another agent

Any agent that reads the Agent Skills format can use this skill — copy the folder into that agent's skills directory.

Claude Code — .claude/skills

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NVIDIA/skills.git /tmp/skills
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/skills/skills/doca-bf3-deployment .claude/skills/doca-bf3-deployment

Restart Claude Code after copying so it picks up the new skill.

Use it in TypingMind

Enable Doca Bf3 Deployment in any TypingMind chat and the model takes it from there. Its name and description sit in the system prompt, and the moment a request matches, the model loads the full instructions itself — you never invoke it by hand, and it costs no tokens until it is actually used.

The model loads Doca Bf3 Deployment on its own as soon as a request matches it.

Works with any AI model

AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so Doca Bf3 Deployment is not tied to the model it was written for. Install it once in TypingMind and use it with GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama, or a local model you run yourself — all on your own API keys.

Loaded only when it is needed
The system prompt carries just the name and description. The instructions are fetched on the first matching request, so an idle skill costs nothing.
Switch models mid-chat
Because the skill is instructions rather than code, changing model does not break it — the next model reads the same SKILL.md.

Skill instructions

This is the SKILL.md content the model loads. Read it before installing — a skill is instructions your model will follow.

DOCA BlueField-3 (BF3) deployment

Where to start: This skill is the bundle's home for BlueField-3 day-1 platform bring-up — taking a BF3 from "powered card in the slot" (or a card that just came back broken from a BFB push) to "Arm OS healthy, TMFIFO up, host PFs bound, four-way version match closed, ready to run a workload". It owns the classic RShim/BFB path that BF3 uses today; the newer BMC-Redfish provisioning path is the sibling skill doca-bf4-deployment (the BF4 equivalent). If the user has a BF3 and needs to push a BFB, recover a DPU that did not come back, or verify the install, open TASKS.md and start at ## configure. If the question is what shape does the BF3 platform-bring-up surface even have, start at CAPABILITIES.md. Once the BF3 is healthy, this skill routes onward to the deployment skills — running a binary goes to doca-bare-metal-deployment; deploying a service container goes to doca-container-deployment.

Every mutating burn invoked from a bring-up step — the BFB reflash itself, any mlxconfig set (including a DPU/separated-host mode flip), a firmware burn, or a kernel-boot-parameter change — is governed by the change-application meta-policy in doca-hardware-safety, which the agent loads ALONGSIDE this skill. This skill adds only the BF3-specific operational sequencing on top; it does NOT redefine the preflight / OOB-console / maintenance-window / rollback discipline that meta-policy owns.

Audience

This skill serves external DOCA operators bringing up a real BlueField-3 — i.e. people who already have:

a physical BlueField-3 in a host (or a standalone BF3 they can reach over its console / management network),
host-side RShim access to the DPU (the RShim userspace daemon and the /dev/rshim* character-device tree present over the PCIe or USB RShim interface), and
a matching DOCA-Host install on the host plus a BlueField bundle (BFB) image downloaded from the public DOCA Downloads page.

It is not for:

BlueField-4 bring-up (the BMC-Redfish provisioning path) — route to doca-bf4-deployment, the BF4 equivalent of this skill,
kernel-driver or BlueField-OS developers contributing to mlx5_* or the BFB image itself (that is internal-tree work, not a field deployment),
operators who already have a healthy BF3 and just want to run a binary (route to doca-bare-metal-deployment) or deploy a service container (route to doca-container-deployment),
fresh-no-hardware users with no DOCA install — route to doca-setup ## no-install.

The skill teaches the agent the BF3 bring-up procedure and the rules for quoting documented commands from the public BlueField Platform Software Manual, the public DOCA Installation Guide, and the MFT manual via doca-public-knowledge-map; it does not invent bfb-install flag sets, BFB image filenames, RShim character-device paths, bf.cfg schema keys, mlxconfig parameter names, or TMFIFO subnets from memory. Where a fact is already vetted in doca-bare-metal-deployment ## bluefield-lifecycle, this skill reuses that exact fact rather than restating a new one.

When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is doing hands-on BlueField-3 platform bring-up over the RShim/BFB path, or asking a cross-cutting BF3 lifecycle question that is not specific to one library's API. Concretely:

Pushing a BFB image to a BF3 for the first time (or re-pushing after a failed install), from the host over the RShim interface with bfb-install.
Bringing up or recovering the host-to-DPU TMFIFO management channel (tmfifo_net0, the documented 192.168.100.x convention) and the RShim console.
Confirming RShim driver/daemon state on the host (the userspace rshim daemon and the /dev/rshim* tree) before any push or console capture.
Deciding (and routing) a DPU-mode change — DPU / embedded-function mode vs separated-host / NIC mode — knowing the actual mlxconfig set burn leaves this skill for doca-hardware-safety.
Recovering a BF3 that did not come back after a BFB push: bfb-install exited 0 but the DPU never reached the documented DPU is ready marker; ping 192.168.100.2 works but SSH refuses; host PFs are present in lspci -d 15b3: but their netdevs are gone.
Verifying a BF3 install — cat /etc/mlnx-release on the Arm side, the four-way version match per doca-version — and distinguishing the host-side DOCA install from the BlueField-Arm-side DOCA install.
Cross-cutting questions: "is DOCA on the host or on the Arm side, and which one do I install?", "my BF3 was fine last week and after a BFB push it never came back — where do I start?", "how do I tell which /dev/rshim<N> is which BlueField on a multi-DPU host?".

Do not load this skill for: BlueField-4 bring-up (route to doca-bf4-deployment, the BF4 equivalent); running a DOCA-linked binary on a healthy BF3 (route to doca-bare-metal-deployment); deploying a DOCA service container (route to doca-container-deployment); env-preparation including hugepages, IOMMU, pkg-config, and devlink mode flips (use doca-setup); the body of the version-match rule (use doca-version); or any hardware-state-changing burn itself — the change-application discipline is meta-policy owned by doca-hardware-safety, loaded ALONGSIDE this skill.

What this skill provides

This is a thin loader. Substantive material lives in two companion files:

CAPABILITIES.md — the BF3 platform-bring-up contract: the RShim/BFB transport surface (the userspace RShim daemon, the /dev/rshim* tree, console-over-rshim, the BFB image as the unit of input), the TMFIFO management-channel surface (tmfifo_net0 / tm-br, the documented 192.168.100.x convention, the ip route get-before-ping loopback gotcha), the DPU-mode surface (DPU / embedded-function vs separated-host / NIC mode, set via mlxconfig at BFB-install time — a MUTATING burn routed to doca-hardware-safety), the host-side-vs-Arm-side DOCA install distinction, the BF3-version overlay on the four-way match owned by doca-version, the cross-cutting error taxonomy, the observability surface, and the safety policy (overlay on doca-hardware-safety).
TASKS.md — step-by-step workflows for the in-scope BF3 lifecycle verbs: configure, build (routing stub), modify, run (the BFB-install + RShim/TMFIFO bring-up sequence), test (the post-BFB readiness smoke), debug (the six-state bluefield-state-classifier), and the Deferred task verbs block routing app-launch / container / install / library-API / hardware-state-change / BF4 questions out to their owning skills.

The skill assumes a target where:

a BlueField-3 is physically present and powered, reachable from a host that has the RShim daemon and /dev/rshim* tree available,
the operator has a BFB image downloaded from the public DOCA Downloads page (route via doca-public-knowledge-map), and
the operator has an out-of-band path (BMC console, serial-over-LAN, or physical UART) to reach the BF3 if a push breaks the Arm OS.

It does not cover installing DOCA on a host from scratch (that goes through doca-setup), and it does not cover BlueField-4 (that goes through doca-bf4-deployment).

Loading order

Read this SKILL.md first to confirm the user's question is in scope (BF3 platform bring-up over the RShim/BFB path; NOT BF4, NOT app-launch, NOT a library-API question).
For the bring-up contract (RShim/BFB transport, TMFIFO channel, DPU-mode surface, host-vs-Arm install distinction, BF3-version overlay, error taxonomy, observability surface, BF3 safety overlay), see CAPABILITIES.md.
For step-by-step workflows — configure, build (routing stub), modify, run (BFB install + RShim/TMFIFO bring-up), test (post-BFB readiness smoke), debug (the six-state bluefield-state-classifier), plus the Deferred task verbs block — see TASKS.md.

Bundled files

The model reads these on demand while the skill is loaded. They are exposed as readable files and are never executed.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Doca Bf3 Deployment AI skill do?

Why use Doca Bf3 Deployment on TypingMind?

Because you install it once and use it with any model. Doca Bf3 Deployment is plain Markdown rather than provider-specific code, so the same skill runs on GPT-5, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or a local model — and you can switch model mid-chat without it breaking. TypingMind runs on your own API keys, so you pay providers directly instead of a per-seat subscription, and your skills and chats stay in your own storage.

How do I install Doca Bf3 Deployment in TypingMind?

Open Plugins → Skills → Install from GitHub in TypingMind and paste https://github.com/NVIDIA/skills/tree/main/skills/doca-bf3-deployment. TypingMind reads its SKILL.md and bundles its files and installs it as a skill you can enable per chat.

Which AI models can use Doca Bf3 Deployment?

Any model you connect in TypingMind. AI skills are plain Markdown instructions rather than provider-specific code, so GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, and local models can all load this skill when a request matches it.

How many AI models can I use with Doca Bf3 Deployment?

As many as you like. As long as a model supports skills, you can use Doca Bf3 Deployment with it — GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama and more — all on TypingMind with your own API keys.

Is the Doca Bf3 Deployment AI skill free?

Yes. It is published on GitHub by NVIDIA under the Apache-2.0 license. You only pay your own AI provider for the tokens you use.

What are AI skills?

An AI skill is a reusable instruction bundle that teaches an AI model how to do one specific task. It follows the open Agent Skills format: a SKILL.md file with a name and description, plus any scripts, templates or reference files the model may need. The model reads the instructions only when your request matches the skill, so an installed skill costs nothing until it is used.

How are AI skills different from plugins or MCP servers?

A plugin or MCP server gives a model new tools to call — code that runs somewhere and returns a result. An AI skill gives the model knowledge and process instead: how to approach a task, which steps to follow, what good output looks like. Skills are plain Markdown, so they need no server, no API key and no runtime, and they work with any model.

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Overview

Installation

Install in TypingMind

Install in another agent

Use it in TypingMind

Works with any AI model

Skill instructions

DOCA BlueField-3 (BF3) deployment

Audience

When to load this skill

What this skill provides

Loading order

Example questions this skill answers well

What this skill deliberately does not ship

Related skills

Bundled files

Frequently asked questions

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