doca-version

DOCA version handling: detect the installed release and validate the four-way match across pkg-config doca-common, applications/VERSION, doca_caps --version, and bfver/mlnx-release on BlueField; reason about NGC tags; look up whether a capability exists on this release; diagnose build-vs-runtime drift. Use this skill alongside doca-debug when a symptom smells of version skew: "built but nothing on the wire", "undefined reference to a symbol the docs claim exists", "DOCA_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED at runtime", "what does latest mean for this tag", or "is my LTS still supported". Once all four sources match, the component's build / run workflow belongs to its own library, service or tool skill. Refuse install / package choice (doca-setup), per-library API questions (matching library skill), DOCA_ERROR_* taxonomy (doca-programming-guide), and the general debug ladder (doca-debug).

DOCA version

Examples

• "What DOCA version do I actually have installed?" — run the four-source detection chain and require a four-way match.
• "The program built but does nothing on the wire." — treat mixed-install drift as a version problem before rewriting application code.

Instructions

Follow Loading order below. Open the tasks companion for detect / validate / diagnose, and the capabilities companion for the four-way match and NGC tag rules. Do not open every companion file.

Where to start: This skill is the bundle's single source of truth for DOCA version handling. Open the tasks companion if the user wants to do something with the version (detect / validate / diagnose mismatch); open the capabilities companion when the question is what does version handling cover (the four-way match, the detection chain, NGC semantics, the per-library overlay pattern). Every other skill in the bundle that touches version routes here — they MUST NOT redefine the rules.

Example questions this skill answers well

The CLASSES of version-handling 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.

• "What DOCA version do I actually have installed?" — worked example: "the docs say 3.3 but I'm not sure what's on this host". Answered by the canonical detection chain in

  configure +

  Capabilities and modes

  source-of-truth table.
• "My program built but does nothing on the wire — is my install consistent?" — worked example: "pkg-config --modversion says 3.3.0; doca_caps --version says 3.2.0". Answered by the four-way match rule in

  Version compatibility

  • the partial-install diagnosis in

  debug.

• "Is this DOCA capability / API / sample on the version I have?" — worked example: "is the symmetric-RSS hash mode in Flow 2.6.0". Answered by the version-matrix lookup procedure in

  test (which uses the

  version-matrix.json schema defined in doca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md#schemas with fallback to per-library docs via doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md).
• "Can I run my host package version X against BFB version Y?" — worked example: "host is 3.5.0 GA, BlueField BFB is 3.2.3 LTS". Answered by the routing to the DOCA Compatibility Policy documented in

  Version compatibility.

• "I'm inside the NGC DOCA container — what does the version match look like?" — worked example: "do I still need to check pkg-config / applications/VERSION / doca_caps separately?". Answered by the NGC container rule in

  Version compatibility

  • the container path in

  configure.

• "How do I write a per-library version-compatibility section for a new skill?" — worked example: "adding doca-comch to the bundle, what does its ## Version compatibility look like?". Answered by the per-library overlay pattern in

  Safety policy

  • the worked-example template in

  modify.

• "My apt list shows DOCA 3.3.0109, but /etc/apt/sources.list.d/doca.list is pinned at latest / a different release — is the next apt install doca-* going to silently upgrade me?" — worked example: "I rolled back BFB to 3.1.0105 but my sources still point at the latest channel." Answered by the apt-source consistency precheck in

  apt-source consistency,

  which enumerates the three legitimate shapes of a configured DOCA apt source (network URL, local file-repo, RHEL/OEL equivalent) and the do-not-install-until-the-source-matches rule that protects pinned installs from accidental drift.

When to load this skill

Load this skill whenever version handling is the load-bearing concern. The decision must be made before the agent composes its first sentence — the activation checklist below is the same one referenced from AGENTS.md ## Cross-cutting overlay activation triggers (bundle AGENTS.md#cross-cutting-overlay-activation-triggers), mirrored here so the activation rule is at hand whenever this skill is consulted.

Agent activation checklist — load this skill at the START of the answer when any cell below is true

Trigger class	Concrete prompt-side signals (any one fires the overlay)
Direct version question	"what DOCA version do I have", "is X consistent", "is feature Y supported on version Z", "can I mix host package version A with BFB version B", "is my LTS still supported", "what does the version string mean"
Container tag question	any prompt that mentions a specific NGC container tag, or asks about latest, or asks how to pin a tag in a Dockerfile / pod spec / Compose file. The agent MUST also cite the "never invent a tag string from memory, never quote latest without confirming it" rule from ## Safety policy.
Build vs runtime drift	any debug session where the symptom is "the program built fine but DOCA_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED at runtime", "undefined reference to a symbol the docs say exists", "my code does nothing on the wire", "counter didn't increment" — these are the canonical partial-install symptoms
Upgrade / downgrade plan	the user is planning to upgrade or downgrade DOCA on a host already running other DOCA workloads, or to refresh the BFB on a BlueField pair already attached to a host
Per-artifact cross-link	a per-artifact skill's ## Version compatibility section cross-links here for the rule body, OR the agent is about to author a new per-artifact skill and needs the overlay template

When any cell above fires, the agent MUST:

1. Cite the four-source detection chain from ## Capabilities and modes explicitly in the answer — pkg-config --modversion doca-common → cat /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/VERSION → doca_caps --version → bfver plus cat /etc/mlnx-release (BlueField hosts). Do not paraphrase or summarize the chain; cite the commands by name. Do NOT substitute mlxprivhost or bfb-info for the BFB leg — those are common hallucinations and the bundle explicitly bans them in ## Capabilities and modes.
2. State the four-way match rule from ## Version compatibility verbatim if the prompt could possibly involve a mismatch (every deploy-shape question and every debug-shape question can; orientation-shape questions usually cannot).
3. Refuse to invent a version string. If the agent doesn't have the actual pkg-config --modversion output from the user's host, the answer must say so and route to the detection chain — not assert a version from training-data recall.

Universal version-coherence trigger

Whenever ANOTHER overlay (e.g. doca-setup/SKILL.md, doca-hardware-safety/SKILL.md, doca-container-deployment/SKILL.md, doca-bare-metal-deployment/SKILL.md) calls a ## test / ## configure / ## modify step that requires "the install is healthy" or "versions are consistent", that step MUST resolve to a citation of this skill's four-source detection chain and four-way match rule. The agent does NOT redefine the rule per-overlay — every step that needs a version verification must route here. This is the only place in the bundle that owns the rule body.

Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, for install procedures (use doca-setup/SKILL.md), or for library-specific API questions (use the matching library skill).

What this skill provides

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

• the capabilities companion — the version-handling surface: the canonical source-of-truth table for version detection, the four-way match rule, NGC container semantics, the per-library overlay pattern, the routing to the DOCA Compatibility Policy, the error taxonomy for version-related failures (pkg-config missing, partial install, BFB/host mismatch, NGC mixing), the observability surface (which command to read for which version source), and the safety policy ("never invent a version, never quote latest").
• the tasks companion — step-by-step workflows for the six in-scope version verbs: configure (detect on this host), build (build-time match), modify (update a version pin in a build manifest), run (runtime check), test (four-way validation + version-matrix lookup), debug (diagnose mismatch / partial install). Plus a Deferred task verbs block.

Loading order

1. Read this skill first to confirm the user's question is in scope.
2. For the version-detection sources, four-way match rule, NGC semantics, per-library overlay pattern, error taxonomy, observability, and safety policy, see the capabilities companion.
3. For step-by-step workflows — configure, build, modify, run, test, debug — see the tasks companion.

Related skills

• doca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md — the JSON schemas for the helper tools the agent should prefer when present. This skill's ## test workflow uses the version-matrix.json schema defined there; do not redefine the schema here.
• doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md — the routing table to public DOCA docs, including the Compatibility Policy. This skill cites the Compatibility Policy URL once via that map; it does not duplicate the routing.
• doca-setup/SKILL.md — env-side install / verify / NGC container path. This skill assumes its preconditions are satisfied (i.e., something is installed somewhere; the version question is what was installed and is it consistent).
• doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md — program-side guidance (quote the version observed, header-wins, capability-discovery rules). The program-side ## Version compatibility section there is now a 3-5 line redirect to this skill plus the program-side overlay (quote vs assume; never use agent-memory version).
• doca-debug/SKILL.md — the cross-cutting debug ladder. Layer 2 (version mismatch) of that ladder is owned by this skill's ## debug workflow.