DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool

Examples

• "Which comch servers and connections are currently visible?" — this is in scope. Stay on the admin CLI; do not open a new comch channel from this skill.
• "The program reports CONNECTED but the admin tool lists zero channels." — cross-check representor binding before rewriting the comch app.

Instructions

Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for run / debug. Open the capabilities companion for table columns and error layers. Do not open every companion file.

Actual binary contract. doca_comm_channel_admin is one zero-application-argument, read-only scan-and-print operation. It scans every comch-capable doca_dev on the current side via resourcedump (MFT) and prints SERVERS and CONNECTIONS tables. It has no list, inspect, device-scope, drain, restart, or other application operation. This skill does not retain conceptual workflows under invented command names.

Where to start: This is a tool skill for invoking the DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool — the read-only inventory CLI counterpart to the doca-comch library. The shipped doca_comm_channel_admin binary takes no arguments beyond ARGP defaults (--help, --version, --log-level, --sdk-log-level, --json) and performs one inventory pass per invocation: it walks every doca_dev on this side, filters to comch-capable devices, shells out to resourcedump (MFT) on each, and prints two ASCII tables (SERVERS and CONNECTIONS). There is no list subcommand, no inspect subcommand, no drain flag, and no restart flag — those are not part of the tool's surface. Open the tasks companion and start at ## run for the single-shot invocation, or ## debug when the user reports the tool sees a different channel set than the program. Open the capabilities companion when the question is what the printed tables actually mean and what is not in this tool's scope. If the user has not installed DOCA yet, route to doca-setup first; if the user needs MFT (resourcedump on PATH with the privilege documented for the installed release), doca-setup + doca-public-knowledge-map cover that. If the user is holding pre-2.5 docs that mention "Comm Channel", route to doca-comch for the rename rule. If the user wants to change channel state, route to the program-side reconnect lifecycle in doca-comch or to BlueField mode / driver reload in doca-setup + doca-hardware-safety — not to this tool.

Example questions this skill answers well

The CLASSES of admin-tool 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.

• "Which comch servers and connections are currently visible?" — worked example: "print every server and connection row visible on this side". Answered by the scan-and-print surface in the capabilities companion
  • the single invocation in the tasks companion.
• "What does the tool report for this server or connection?" — locate the matching row in the SERVERS or CONNECTIONS table; there is no second per-channel query. Answered by the capabilities companion
  • the tasks companion.
• "How do I know the admin tool's view matches what my Comch program sees?" — worked example: "the program reports CONNECTED but the admin tool lists zero channels". Answered by the cross-checking pattern in the tasks companion and the representor-binding layer in the capabilities companion.
• "Is this admin tool on my installed DOCA version, and does it match the comch library version?" — worked example: "is the tool available on DOCA 2.4". Answered by the overlay in the capabilities companion, which redirects to the canonical doca-version rules and adds the Comm Channel Admin Tool specifics.
• "The tool prints nothing — is the install broken or is there genuinely no channel?" — worked example: "list returned an empty result on a host with a known-good Comch client". Answered by the empty-output interpretation rules in the tasks companion + the capabilities companion.

Audience

This skill serves external operators and AI agents who need to inventory a host-DPU comch channel from the outside — after the doca-comch library has been used to create the channel from a program. Concretely:

• A platform operator who runs a Comch-using service on BlueField and needs to confirm the channel is healthy before declaring the service ready.
• A developer of a Comch consumer who sees DOCA_ERROR_AGAIN or a silent stall on the program side and wants to read the channel's state from outside the program rather than guessing.
• An AI agent capturing the external server/connection rows before recommending a program-side code or lifecycle change.

It is not for users debugging the admin tool itself, not a substitute for the live public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide, and not the right place for users learning the comch API — that audience belongs in doca-comch.

The tool is shipped as a CLI binary under /opt/mellanox/doca/tools/, not a library you link against. The skill uses the same kind: tool three-file shape as the rest of the bundle so the agent's task-verb contract (configure / build / modify / run / test / debug) is uniform across libraries, services, and tools.

When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is — or the agent needs to — invoke the DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool on a real host or BlueField Arm with DOCA installed (or inside the public NGC DOCA container with the right device passthrough). Concretely:

• Listing currently active comch channels on a host or DPU.
• Reading the row for one named server or connection from the complete zero-argument scan.
• Cross-checking the admin tool's view against the program-side connection callback state when the two appear to disagree.
• Capturing a side-effect-free channel snapshot as prerequisite evidence for a later debug session that crosses program / channel / driver layers.

Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, the comch programming API, library install, or comch protocol design. For those, route to doca-public-knowledge-map, doca-comch, or doca-setup.

What this skill provides

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

• the capabilities companion — what the Comm Channel Admin Tool reports: the two read-only tables, the version-availability overlay that redirects to doca-version, the layered error taxonomy (tool-not-installed / device-binding / channel-discovery / channel-state-stuck / permission / version / cross-cutting), the tool's role as an observability primitive for doca-comch debug sessions, and the read-only safety policy.
• the tasks companion — step-by-step workflows for the in-scope task verbs: configure (route to install), build (route to install), modify (refuse), run (one scan-and-print), test (cross-check the printed rows), debug (the layered diagnosis ladder), plus a Deferred task verbs block and a Command appendix that honors the bundle's doca-structured-tools-contract preamble.

The skill assumes a host or BlueField where DOCA is already installed (or the public NGC DOCA container is running with the right device passthrough) and the operator has whatever privileges the public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide requires.

What this skill deliberately does not ship

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

• Verbatim flag inventories, subcommand names, or output column names. The public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide on docs.nvidia.com and the installed --help on the user's version are the joint source of truth; copying them here pins the skill to one release and silently rots when the tool evolves. The skill routes the agent at those sources instead.
• Pre-baked example output. Output is install-, version-, and channel-state-specific. A captured example will mislead an operator on a different platform / state.
• Wrappers, parsers, or scripts in any language that consume the admin tool's output. The output format is documented; users who want to script against it should read the live guide and write the parser against their installed version.
• A samples/ or reference/ subtree. This is a thin loader for a documented CLI; substantive material lives on the public page and in --help.

Loading order

1. Read this skill first to confirm the user's question is in scope (the user wants to inventory a comch channel from the outside, not learn the comch API).
2. For what the tool reports, version availability, the layered error surface, observability, and safety posture, see the capabilities companion.
3. For the single invocation and cross-check workflow — configure, build, modify, run, test, debug, plus the Command appendix — see the tasks companion.

Related skills

• doca-comch — the library whose channels this tool inventories. Pair them in every triage session: the program-side connection callback and the admin tool's channel state are the two halves of the same picture.
• doca-public-knowledge-map — routing to the public DOCA Comm Channel Admin Tool guide and the rest of the public DOCA documentation set.
• doca-version — canonical DOCA version-handling rules. The ## Version compatibility section in the capabilities companion is a concise overlay that redirects here for the body.
• doca-structured-tools-contract — the bundle's detect → prefer → fall back → report contract for structured helper tools. The Command appendix in the tasks companion honors this contract.
• 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-debug — the cross-cutting debug ladder. The Comm Channel Admin Tool slots in at the runtime layer as the read-only inventory surface before any code change is recommended.