Doca Public Knowledge Map

---
license: Apache-2.0 AND CC-BY-4.0
name: doca-public-knowledge-map
description: >
  Use this skill when the user needs to locate authoritative
  information about NVIDIA DOCA without access to the source tree —
  finding the right docs.nvidia.com page for a library/service/tool,
  identifying which DOCA libraries are installed and at what version,
  locating a sample on disk or its public GitHub source, decoding an
  on-disk path under /opt/mellanox/doca, or recovering from a 404'd
  or renamed doc URL. Trigger even when the user does not explicitly
  mention 'DOCA' or 'docs.nvidia.com' — typical implicit phrasings
  include 'where can I read about this library', 'which version do I
  have installed', 'where is the sample for X', 'this NVIDIA URL is
  broken what is the new one', 'what is in /opt/mellanox/doca', or
  'where can I ask NVIDIA about this'. Refuse and route elsewhere
  for hands-on programming patterns, env prep and install
  verification, library API tutorials, or hardware/firmware
  mutation — those belong to doca-programming-guide, doca-setup, the
  per-library skills, and doca-hardware-safety.
metadata:
  kind: knowledge
compatibility: >
  No DOCA install required to read this skill (it is an overlay
  loaded against any DOCA artifact skill); the validation steps
  within this skill require a live DOCA install at /opt/mellanox/doca.
---

# DOCA Public Knowledge Map

**Where to start:** Reach for this skill whenever the question is "where does
the authoritative answer live?" — a docs page, the on-disk install layout, a
sample, or an NGC catalog entry. Read [`## Public documentation entry points`](#public-documentation-entry-points)
first; then jump to the routing-table section that matches the user's intent.

## When to load this skill

Load this skill whenever the user asks anything about NVIDIA DOCA where the
agent needs to **locate authoritative information** without access to the
DOCA source tree. That includes **documentation-routing questions** about
installing DOCA, building a sample, learning a DOCA library (Flow, DPA, Comm
Channel, GPUNetIO, …), debugging an error, finding an API or error reference,
finding a sample, release notes, or the developer forum. This skill locates
the authoritative answer; hands-on installation, building, tutorials, and
debugging route to the workflow-owning skills named in the frontmatter and
[`## Related skills`](#related-skills).

This skill is intentionally a **routing table**, not a tutorial. Pick the
entry that matches the user's intent, fetch the URL or inspect the local
install path, and only then answer.

## First-contact discovery — the four questions to ask before any drill-down

When a user opens with an open-ended orientation question (*"I'm new with
DOCA, how do I start?"*, *"can you guide me?"*, *"what's the easiest way to
try DOCA?"*), the agent does **not** have enough information yet to pick a
path. Asking these four questions before drilling avoids wasted recommendations
that the user cannot actually execute on their setup. Ask them as a single
short message; do not interrogate one-at-a-time.

| Question | Why it matters | What it routes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. **What OS are you on?** macOS, Windows, Linux laptop, cloud VM, lab Linux box, BlueField OS itself? | DOCA installs natively only on supported Linux distributions; macOS / Windows users cannot install it at all. | Picks between the four DOCA acquisition paths in [`doca-setup ## no-install`](../doca-setup/TASKS.md#no-install). macOS / Windows / no-Linux → Path 0 (NGC container). Supported Linux → Path A or B per the Installation Guide. |
| 2. **What hardware do you have?** No NVIDIA hardware, ConnectX SmartNIC, BlueField as a SmartNIC in a host, BlueField as a standalone DPU, not sure? | Real-traffic runtime needs a real NIC; build / read / learn does not. The user's hardware decides which DOCA libraries are even relevant. | Picks the runtime story (container is build-only without hardware). Filters which libraries make sense to learn (Flow needs a real port to do anything visible; Comch needs a host ↔ DPU pair). |
| 3. **What's your goal?** Just exploring, building a small first app on a specific library (Flow / RDMA / Comch / Telemetry / GPUNetIO / DPA / …), running an existing reference application, operating a service (DMS / DTS / BlueMan / Firefly), or something else? | The bundle's first-app workflow (`doca-programming-guide ## modify`) starts from a **shipped C sample** and edits down. The right sample depends on the library the user is targeting. | Picks which library skill (if any) to load next. If the user does not yet know which library — that itself is a routing answer (see the *Library- and module-specific guides* table above and let the user pick). |
| 4. **Which language do you plan to write the program in?** C / C++, Rust, Go, Python, other? | DOCA's public surface is a C ABI. Non-C consumers go through FFI / language bindings (`doca-programming-guide CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes` and the per-library skill). The C samples are the reference even when the user's language is not C. | Picks whether the agent's first-app guidance is *direct C build* or *FFI / bindings against the C ABI*. Does **not** change which sample the agent points at first. |

The four-question gate applies when an open-ended orientation, install,
build, or run recommendation depends on the user's environment. For that
class, **never recommend a specific install path, container tag, or runnable
sample without first having the answers to questions 1–3** (question 4 is
needed for the first-app workflow but not for orientation itself). Pure
documentation lookups — a URL, API reference, sample location, version
reference, or stale-link recovery — skip this gate and route directly.
If the user cannot or will not answer a required question, state which
environment-dependent recommendation cannot be made, give only the safe
version-agnostic umbrella documentation route, and do not guess the missing
value. Volunteering specific commands before this is the single most common
failure mode for DOCA orientation.

If the user has already volunteered some of the information in their first
message, mark those questions answered and only ask the rest. Do not re-ask
what the user has already told you.

## Topic to "where to look first" routing table

When the user asks something, route as follows:

| User intent | First place to look |
| --- | --- |
| "How do I install DOCA?" | Installation Guide + Downloads page (Public documentation entry points). |
| "How do I start with DOCA — what's the very first thing?" | Developer Quick Start Guide *if* the user has BlueField + host hardware; otherwise [`doca-setup ## no-install`](../doca-setup/TASKS.md#no-install) Path 0 (NGC container). Use the four questions in [*First-contact discovery*](#first-contact-discovery--the-four-questions-to-ask-before-any-drill-down) to pick. |
| "Do I need a BlueField? A SmartNIC? Or just DOCA-Host?" | Overview page (`doca-overview/index.html`) plus the Installation Guide's *DOCA installation profiles* section. The bundle does not pick the hardware for the user — these two pages do. |
| "Which package gives me library X?" | Installation Guide section on package matrix; then verify on the user's system with `pkg-config --list-all`. |
| "Show me a sample that uses library X." | `/opt/mellanox/doca/samples/doca_<X>/` if installed; otherwise the per-library guide on `docs.nvidia.com/doca/sdk/` (each library guide documents the samples shipped with it). |
| "How do I build a DOCA sample?" | Library guide + the sample's own `meson.build` inside `/opt/mellanox/doca/samples/...`. |
| "What is the API for X?" | Library guide; confirm by inspecting headers under `$(pkg-config --variable=includedir doca-common)` (commonly `/opt/mellanox/doca/include/` on DOCA 3.3+; `/opt/mellanox/doca/infrastructure/include/` on legacy / split-profile installs). |
| "Why does my build fail with `pkg-config` not finding `doca-...`?" | "Layout of an installed DOCA package" (`PKG_CONFIG_PATH`), then load [`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md) for environment preparation and debugging; do not silently mutate the environment. |
| "What is the latest version / what changed?" | Release Notes. |
| "Is there a newer DOCA — should I upgrade / downgrade / roll back?" | [`doca-upgrade`](../doca-upgrade/SKILL.md) for the detect → report → ASK → guided-upgrade discipline (never auto-upgrade); Release Notes for what the target release contains. |
| "Is the component I depend on being sunset / deprecated?" | Release Notes (lifecycle / deprecation notices), reached via the [`doca-upgrade`](../doca-upgrade/SKILL.md) sunset-awareness check; do not assert deprecation from memory. |
| "What does the DOCA version number mean? Is LTS still supported?" | Compatibility Policy (Public documentation entry points table). |
| "How do I run DOCA on Kubernetes / provision a DPU?" | DOCA Platform Framework on GitHub. |
| "I have a behavior I cannot explain." | Release Notes (known issues) first; then the DOCA Developer Forum. Never go to the forum first. |
| Any intent not matched above | Start at the DOCA SDK index and the Libraries / Services / Tools umbrella page in [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#public-documentation-entry-points). If the authoritative route remains unresolved, say so and use the Developer Forum; do not invent a URL or component name. |

## What this skill deliberately does not cover

This file is intentionally a **map**, not a tutorial. It does not contain:

- DOCA library tutorials (those live in the per-library guides).
- API reference (lives in headers and the per-library guides).
- Build-system deep-dives (lives in the Installation Guide and the sample
  `meson.build` files).
- Performance tuning, driver-level setup, OFED interaction (lives in the
  Installation Guide and library-specific guides).

When the agent needs those, it should fetch the matching public document or
read the matching installed file. As more focused skills are added, they
should appear in [SKILLS.md](../../SKILLS.md) and link back here for the
"where to look" lookups.

## Related skills

For env preparation — install verification, build environment
(`pkg-config`, headers, hugepages, devlink), env-class debugging, and
the *I have no install yet* path with the public NGC DOCA container
(`nvcr.io/nvidia/doca/doca`) as the universal Stage-1 fallback for any
user on macOS, Windows, or Linux without DOCA — load
[`doca-setup`](../doca-setup/SKILL.md). That skill stops at *"the
install is healthy and the env is ready"*.

For general DOCA programming patterns shared across every library —
the canonical `pkg-config doca-<library>` build pattern (C/C++ direct
or non-C via FFI), the universal *derive a custom first app from a
shipped sample* workflow, the universal lifecycle (`cfg-create →
init → start → use → stop → destroy`), the cross-library
`DOCA_ERROR_*` taxonomy, and the program-side debug order — load
[`doca-programming-guide`](../doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md). Each
library skill extends its `## modify` (first-app derivation) with
library-specific overrides.

For DOCA Flow internals — port and representor setup, pipe creation,
match/action specifications, pipe validation before hardware programming,
Flow counters and traces, Flow version compatibility, and debugging
`DOCA_ERROR_*` failures from the Flow API — load
[`doca-flow`](../libs/doca-flow/SKILL.md). That skill assumes this one is
available for shared documentation routing and install-layout lookups,
`doca-setup` for environment preparation, and `doca-programming-guide`
for the cross-library programming patterns it layers on top of.

## Example questions this skill answers well

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#example-questions-this-skill-answers-well).
## Library- and module-specific guides

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#library--and-module-specific-guides).
## DOCA services

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#doca-services).
## DOCA tools

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#doca-tools).
## Externally-productized DOCA software — not in this bundle, but here is where to route

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#externally-productized-doca-software--not-in-this-bundle-but-here-is-where-to-route).
## Public source code: GitHub

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#public-source-code-github).
## Layout of an installed DOCA package

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#layout-of-an-installed-doca-package).
## Where to find the version

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#where-to-find-the-version).
## URL audit

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#url-audit).

## Ground rules for any agent using this skill

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#ground-rules-for-any-agent-using-this-skill).
## Public documentation entry points

See [`references/map.md`](references/map.md#public-documentation-entry-points).