DOCA Firefly Service

Subsystem inventory (Run-12 correction, verified Run-13).
DOCA Firefly is NOT just "a PTP daemon." The shipped
doca_firefly.yaml exposes six PTP-stack subsystems via
environment variables, each with its own *_STATE,
CONFIGFILE, and (where relevant) _INTERFACE /
*_DEVICE knobs (the count is six because the PTP Monitor
subsystem ships an internal phc2sys monitor client that is
distinct from the standalone PHC2SYS subsystem — both ship in
the same container image):

1. PTP (PTPSTATE, PTPINTERFACE, PTPCONFIGFILE) —
the ptp4l daemon (or master, depending on profile) that
drives the BlueField PHC.
2. PTP Monitor (MONITORSTATE, MONITORCONFIG_FILE,
MONITORCLIENTTYPE, MONITORCLIENTPHC2SYS_INTERFACE,
MONITORCLIENTCONNECTION_TIMEOUT) — the monitor server +
client surface; the internal phc2sys monitor client
(MONITORCLIENTTYPE=phc2sys) is a real subsystem inside
Firefly, not just a host-side concern.
3. PHC2SYS (PHC2SYSSTATE, PHC2SYSARGS,
PHC2SYSCONFIGFILE) — the container-internal phc2sys
instance; the bundle previously framed phc2sys as
host-only, which is wrong.
4. PPS (PPSSTATE, PPSDEVICE) — the Pulse-Per-Second
output (with the additional enablewhilerunning and
do_nothing states beyond plain enable/disable).
5. SyncE (SYNCESTATE, SYNCEINTERFACE,
SYNCECONFIGFILE) — Synchronous Ethernet frequency
distribution; orthogonal to PTP.
6. Firefly Servo (SERVOSTATE, SERVOCONFIG_FILE) —
the proprietary Firefly servo loop (alternative to the
upstream linuxptp servo).

The valid PROFILE values are exactly **default / media /
telco-l2 / custom** (per doca_firefly.yaml comments) —
the agent must not invent additional values. Subsystems configured
as definedbyprofile are controlled by the active PROFILE.

Configuration-override env vars follow the pattern
CONF<SUBSYSTEM><section>_<key> (e.g.
CONFPTPglobalpriority1, CONFSYNCEglobalbackend,
CONFMONITORglobaltelemetryexport); these are the
documented surface for overriding individual config keys
without shipping a full custom config file.

Configuration hierarchy: the mounted Firefly config file is
mandatory and owns the primary PTP axes (role, profile, domain,
interface, and transport). CONF<SUBSYSTEM><section>_<key>
variables are optional, documented per-key overrides of that file;
they are not a second standalone configuration model.

Where to start: This skill is for operating the DOCA Firefly Service container, not for linking against a library. Firefly is the PTP / PHC2SYS / PPS / SyncE / Servo / Monitor stack that drives and observes the BlueField PTP Hardware Clock (PHC); it is not the host-side time follower, not the consumer workload, and not a programming surface. If the user wants to deploy the container, open [TASKS.md](TASKS.md) and start at [## configure](TASKS.md#configure). If the question is what shape of service is Firefly and what PTP roles / profiles does it speak, start at [CAPABILITIES.md](CAPABILITIES.md). If DOCA is not installed on the BlueField yet, route to [doca-setup](../../doca-setup/SKILL.md) first. If the user's real question is "I have a Rivermax SMPTE workload and the docs say I need PTP", the right pairing is this skill plus [doca-rmax](../../libs/doca-rmax/SKILL.md) — Firefly disciplines the PHC; Rivermax reads the disciplined time.

Example questions this skill answers well

The CLASSES of Firefly 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.

• "Do I actually need Firefly, or is NTP / chrony good enough?" —

worked example: "my distributed app is fine on chrony today; is there a reason to add PTP?". Answered by the PTP-vs-NTP path- selection rule in [CAPABILITIES.md ## Safety policy](CAPABILITIES.md#safety-policy) + the env-prep checklist in [TASKS.md ## configure](TASKS.md#configure).

• **"What four PTP configuration axes do I have to decide before

starting the container?"** — worked example: "a SMPTE ST 2110 broadcast plant that wants Firefly in slave role on the wire-side port". Answered by the four-axis configuration table in [CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes](CAPABILITIES.md#capabilities-and-modes) + the PTP-config step in [TASKS.md ## configure](TASKS.md#configure).

• **"Firefly's container is running but the host's time isn't

following — what did I miss?"** — worked example: "ptp4l / Firefly says it's locked but chronyc tracking on the host shows drift". Answered by the END-TO-END time-sync discipline in [CAPABILITIES.md ## Safety policy](CAPABILITIES.md#safety-policy) + the host-follower step in [TASKS.md ## configure](TASKS.md#configure).

• **"PTP locks but the offset / jitter is way past spec — what's

wrong with the path?"** — worked example: "sync acquired but offset is in the tens of microseconds". Answered by the PTP-aware-path rule in [CAPABILITIES.md ## Safety policy](CAPABILITIES.md#safety-policy) + the layered debug ladder in [TASKS.md ## debug](TASKS.md#debug).

• "How does Firefly pair with a Rivermax SMPTE workload?" —

worked example: "SMPTE ST 2110 video sender that needs to be PTP- locked". Answered by the Rivermax-pairing rule in [CAPABILITIES.md ## Capabilities and modes](CAPABILITIES.md#capabilities-and-modes) + the pairing step in [TASKS.md ## configure](TASKS.md#configure), which routes the Rivermax side to [doca-rmax](../../libs/doca-rmax/SKILL.md) and refuses to collapse the two services into one.

• **"My Firefly container starts but PTP never reaches

SLAVE / MASTER state — was it role, domain, profile, or interface?"** — worked example: "container green but the ports-state output never advances past LISTENING". Answered by the four-axis-mismatch rule in [CAPABILITIES.md ## Error taxonomy](CAPABILITIES.md#error-taxonomy) + the layered ladder in [TASKS.md ## debug](TASKS.md#debug).

Audience

This skill serves external operators and platform teams who deploy the DOCA Firefly Service container to provide PTP-grade time synchronization to time-sensitive workloads on BlueField + the host behind it. Concretely: people running the Firefly container on BlueField Arm, choosing its PTP role / profile / domain / interface from the public Firefly guide, wiring the host-side follower (chrony with the PHC source, or ptp4l reading the PHC) so the host clock tracks the BlueField PHC, and validating the end-to-end discipline before scaling a Rivermax, 5G UPF, financial-trading, or distributed- database workload that depends on it.

It is not for NVIDIA developers contributing to Firefly itself, and it is not a programming guide for building applications on top of DOCA libraries (that is [doca-programming-guide](../../doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md) plus the matching libs/<library> skill). Firefly is a service, not a library: the operator runs a container and configures PTP via the documented config surface; they do not link against a libfirefly.so to write their own program.

Path selection up front. Use Firefly when sub-microsecond, PTP-grade time precision is required on BlueField AND the host (SMPTE ST 2110 broadcast workloads layered on Rivermax, 5G UPF time requirements, distributed systems that need PTP-grade time, anything where NTP / chrony jitter is not tight enough). Do not reach for Firefly when NTP / chrony already meets the workload's time-precision budget, when no PTP-aware switching / boundary-clock infrastructure exists in the path, or when pure software-side time precision is sufficient — in those cases the correct answer is to keep the host's existing chrony / NTP setup and route the agent away from Firefly, not to deploy it speculatively.

When to load this skill

Load this skill when the user is doing hands-on Firefly deployment work on a BlueField where DOCA is already installed. Concretely:

• Deciding whether Firefly is the right answer for the user's

time-precision requirement (vs. keeping NTP / chrony on the host).

• Deploying the Firefly container on BlueField Arm — choosing image

source per the public DOCA Firefly Service Guide, mounting the Firefly config, and starting / stopping the container.

• Choosing the four PTP configuration axes — PTP role (master /

slave / boundary clock / transparent clock), profile (the PROFILE env var accepts EXACTLY default / media / telco-l2 / custom per services/firefly/doca_firefly.yaml; these map onto industry PTP profile names: default → IEEE 1588, media → SMPTE 2059-2, telco-l2 → G.8275.1 only (G.8275.2 corresponds to the separate telco-l3 config, reached via custom) — do NOT put the industry names directly into the env var), domain number, network interface — for the user's deployment.

• Wiring the host-side follower so the host clock tracks the

BlueField PHC (chrony with the PHC source, or ptp4l / phc2sys reading the PHC) — without this step the host clock does NOT follow the Firefly-disciplined PHC, regardless of how cleanly Firefly comes up.

• Pairing Firefly with a time-sensitive consumer workload (Rivermax

SMPTE, 5G UPF, finance, distributed databases) and validating the end-to-end discipline.

• Reading the Firefly container's logs, the PHC offset, the

ports-state output, or any other documented observability surface to confirm PTP is locked.

• Debugging a Firefly deployment where the container is healthy but

PTP is not syncing, or PTP is syncing but the host clock is not following, or sync is up but jitter is past spec.

Do not load this skill for general DOCA orientation, install of DOCA itself, library-API questions, or non-PTP time topics. For those, route via [doca-public-knowledge-map](../../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md), [doca-setup](../../doca-setup/SKILL.md), or the matching libs/<library> skill.

What this skill provides

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

• CAPABILITIES.md — Firefly's architecture (container that drives

the BlueField PHC and speaks PTP on the wire), the four PTP configuration axes (role / profile / domain / interface, with transport as a fifth knob), the deployment shape (container on BlueField Arm per the public Container Deployment Guide), the pairing surface (Rivermax + host-side time-sync follower), the observability surface (container logs + PHC offset + ports state), the error taxonomy (four-axis-mismatch / host-follower / PTP-aware- path / container-runtime), and the safety policy (PTP-vs-NTP path selection, END-TO-END discipline, smoke-before-scale).

• TASKS.md — step-by-step workflows for the in-scope Firefly

verbs: configure, build, modify, run, test, debug, plus a Deferred task verbs block routing out-of-scope questions and a Command appendix of recurring commands.

The skill assumes a BlueField where DOCA is already installed and the operator has the privileges the public Firefly Service Guide expects to pull, run, and configure containers on BlueField Arm. It does not cover installing DOCA — that path goes through [doca-setup](../../doca-setup/SKILL.md).

What this skill deliberately does not ship

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

• Pre-baked Firefly configuration files (full PTP config blocks,

ready-to-run role / profile / domain bundles) intended to be copy-pasted into production. PTP configuration is deployment- specific (per the user's profile, domain plan, interface naming, and upstream PTP topology); the safe answer for an external operator is to derive the config from the public Firefly Service Guide against their own deployment. The agent's job is to prescribe the procedure and the four-axis decision, not to ship a config the user might run unmodified.

• Container image names, tags, or registry paths. The

authoritative image source is the public DOCA Firefly Service Guide reachable through [doca-public-knowledge-map ## DOCA services](../../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md#doca-services); Firefly's image tag is version-bound and changes between DOCA releases. Inventing or memorizing a tag is the canonical hallucination failure mode for a service skill.

• Host-side chrony stanzas or ptp4l / phc2sys config files.

Those are host-environment-specific and live on the host, not inside the Firefly container. The skill names that the host-side follower must be wired and what its source must be (the BlueField PHC); the chrony / ptp4l config bodies belong to the host operator and to upstream Linux PTP documentation.

• A samples/, templates/, or reference/ subtree of any

kind. A mock or incomplete artifact in this skill's tree, even one labeled "reference", is misleading: operators will read it as production-ready.

Loading order

1. Read this SKILL.md first to confirm the user's question is in

scope and that Firefly is the right answer at all (vs. keeping NTP / chrony on the host).

1. **For Firefly's deployment shape, the four PTP configuration

axes, the Rivermax + host-follower pairing surface, the error taxonomy, the observability surface, and the END-TO-END safety policy, see [CAPABILITIES.md](CAPABILITIES.md).**

1. **For step-by-step workflows — configure, build, modify, run,

test, debug — see [TASKS.md](TASKS.md).**

Related skills

• [doca-public-knowledge-map](../../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md)

— the routing table to the public DOCA Firefly Service Guide and the rest of the public DOCA documentation set. The Firefly URL is listed under [## DOCA services](../../doca-public-knowledge-map/SKILL.md#doca-services).

• [doca-setup](../../doca-setup/SKILL.md) — env preparation and

install verification on the BlueField where the Firefly container will run, including the I have no install yet path via the public NGC DOCA container. This skill assumes its preconditions are satisfied on BlueField Arm.

• [doca-version](../../doca-version/SKILL.md) — canonical DOCA

version-handling rules. Firefly's container tag is version-bound; this skill's ## Version compatibility cross-links the four-way match rule and adds the container-tag-lags-host-package overlay.

• [doca-structured-tools-contract](../../doca-structured-tools-contract/SKILL.md) —

the bundle's structured-tools precedence rule (detect / prefer / fall back / report). The Command appendix in [TASKS.md](TASKS.md) honors this contract.

• [doca-programming-guide](../../doca-programming-guide/SKILL.md)

— general DOCA patterns. Firefly is service-shaped not library- shaped, so the build / modify / first-app pattern there does not apply directly, but the cross-library debug discipline (frontend- before-backend, env-before-program) remains useful when Firefly reports an error that originated in the container runtime or in a DOCA library it called.

• [doca-rmax](../../libs/doca-rmax/SKILL.md) — the canonical

paired workload. SMPTE ST 2110 Rivermax streams depend on a Firefly-disciplined PHC; Firefly is the time-source side and Rivermax is the timing-precise data-plane side. The two skills load together for any broadcast-style deployment, and they do NOT collapse into one another — Firefly does not stream media; Rivermax does not discipline the PHC.

• [doca-dms](../doca-dms/SKILL.md) — sibling service skill. The

agent reading both skills should see the same service-skill shape (container, BlueField Arm, deployment pattern, smoke-before-scale, env preconditions, config schema) layered on top of a different per-service domain (DMS = device management via gNMI / gNOI; Firefly = time synchronization via PTP).

• [doca-debug](../../doca-debug/SKILL.md) — the cross-cutting

debug ladder (install / version / build / link / runtime / program / driver). Firefly-specific debug (PTP not syncing, host clock not following, jitter past spec) overlays on top of that ladder.