
Jetson Quick Start
OfficialFreeStreamline your Jetson BSP customization process.
Free · Opens the source repo
What Jetson Quick Start does
jetson-quick-start serves as an entry point for customizing the Jetson and IGX Board Support Package (BSP). This skill is designed to simplify the setup process by acting as a dispatcher that collects essential user inputs through a streamlined questionnaire. Users can choose from three setup modes: Auto Setup, Guided Setup, or Use Existing Workspace, each tailored to different scenarios depending on the user's current environment and resources. The skill does not perform any direct setup actions but instead gathers the necessary information and passes it along to the appropriate downstream skills that handle the actual setup tasks.
The Auto Setup mode is ideal for users starting with a fresh workspace and an available network, while Guided Setup is for those who have existing paths or repositories. The Use Existing Workspace mode caters to users who already have their BSP image and source tree prepared. By providing these options, jetson-quick-start allows users to select the most efficient path for their specific needs, ensuring a more personalized experience.
Before initiating the questionnaire, the skill provides a disclaimer that emphasizes the importance of reviewing generated plans and commands to avoid potential issues, such as data loss or unbootable devices. This cautionary step is crucial for users who may not be familiar with the intricacies of Jetson BSP setup. Following the disclaimer acceptance, the skill opens the core questionnaire, which is mandatory for proceeding with the setup process. The questionnaire is designed to be lightweight and efficient, ensuring that users can quickly provide the necessary information without unnecessary delays.
Overall, jetson-quick-start is a valuable tool for developers and engineers working with NVIDIA Jetson platforms, offering a structured approach to BSP customization while emphasizing user responsibility in reviewing generated setups.
When to use it
Use this skill when starting a new Jetson BSP project or when needing to customize an existing setup.
When not to use it
This skill is not suitable for users who require direct setup actions or those who prefer to manually configure their environments without guided assistance.
What you can build with it
New Jetson Project Setup
When starting a new project, use this skill to quickly gather the necessary setup information and streamline the process.
Customizing Existing BSP
If you have existing paths or repositories, the Guided Setup mode allows you to efficiently customize your current setup.
Using Prepared Workspaces
For users with pre-prepared BSP images and source trees, the Use Existing Workspace mode helps verify and utilize existing resources.
How to install Jetson Quick Start
View source1. Install with the skills CLI
npx skills add nvidia/skills/jetson-quick-start --agent claude-code2. Or install it manually
Download the skill folder and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/ for all projects, or .claude/skills/ to scope it to one repo. Restart Claude Code so it picks up the new skill.
Anthropic's agentic coding CLI, and the reference implementation of Agent Skills. Drop a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills and Claude Code loads it automatically whenever a task matches the skill's description. Claude Code docs
Inside SKILL.md
Written by nvidiaQuick Start — BSP customization entrypoint
jetson-quick-start is a dispatcher and intake form. It does not download,
extract, materialize sources, bind documents, or derive carrier files. It
chooses the setup path, gathers core answers, then hands those answers to
the skills that own the actual work.
Modes
Do not ask setup mode in a separate prompt. Include it as the first field in the core quick-start questionnaire, with choices shown in this fixed order:
Auto SetupGuided SetupUse Existing Workspace
Offer cancel separately as an exit action, not as a setup mode.
| Mode | Use when | Planned skills |
|---|---|---|
Auto Setup | Fresh workspace, network available | target setup, /jetson-download-bsp, /jetson-init-image, /jetson-init-source, /jetson-link-docs, /jetson-generate-kb, optional /jetson-derive-carrier |
Guided Setup | User already has paths, repos, or archives | target setup, /jetson-init-image, /jetson-init-source, /jetson-link-docs, /jetson-generate-kb, optional /jetson-derive-carrier |
Use Existing Workspace | BSP image, source tree, and docs are already prepared | target setup, workspace verification, /jetson-generate-kb, optional /jetson-derive-carrier; route to init skills only for missing prerequisites |
Target setup means keep the active profile, switch via /jetson-set-target,
or create one via /jetson-init-target.
Procedure
Print Disclaimer
Before opening the core questionnaire or inspecting setup inputs, print this disclaimer block exactly once:
================================================================================
DISCLAIMER
These skills help automate Jetson BSP setup and customization, but they do not
replace NVIDIA official documentation or engineering review. Review generated
plans, commands, diffs, and commit messages before accepting them.
Flashing can erase device storage or leave a target temporarily unbootable.
Keep backups and verify the active target, BSP release, and hardware setup
before deploy steps.
================================================================================
Disclaimer Acceptance Gate
Immediately after printing the disclaimer, open a separate one-question
AskUserQuestions disclaimer form and wait for the user's submitted
answer before doing anything else. Do not collect disclaimer acceptance
with a plain-text chat reply, inferred default, prior run state, active
profile, cached answer, or any other non-UI signal.
The form must contain exactly one question:
accept_disclaimer— prompt: "Accept the disclaimer and continue quick-start?" Choices:accept_disclaimerandcancel.
Treat only a submitted accept_disclaimer choice as acceptance. The
disclaimer form is separate from the core questionnaire and does not
replace any of the four routing-critical core questions.
If the form cannot be opened, is unavailable, is cancelled, returns no
submitted answer set, or returns any answer other than
accept_disclaimer, stop immediately and report that quick-start cannot
continue until the disclaimer is accepted through AskUserQuestions.
Mandatory Questionnaire Gate
After the disclaimer has been accepted, jetson-quick-start MUST open the
core AskUserQuestions questionnaire and wait for the user's submitted
answers before doing any setup dispatch. If the questionnaire cannot be
opened, is unavailable, is cancelled, or returns no submitted answer set,
stop immediately and report that quick-start cannot continue without the
questionnaire.
Do not continue by using existing active profiles, workspace state,
tarball names, cached answers, release compatibility, or "obvious"
defaults. Do not call downstream skills until this gate has a submitted
mode answer and normalized quick_start_prefill.
Survey State
Inspect target-platform/active_target.yml and existing
target-platform/*.yaml profiles. If an active profile exists, show
reference_devkit.name, optional custom_carrier.name, and active
flash_config. Do not infer platform identity from tarballs, repo names,
or document titles.
Read ../../references/bsp-platforms-catalogue.md
and parse every row in the product / chip / SKU / flash-config table.
This catalogue is the source for the full active_platform
questionnaire list. If the list is incomplete, update the catalogue;
do not duplicate or patch the platform list inside quick-start. Do not read
jetson-init-target/SKILL.md or run the init-target flow during
quick-start preprocessing; downstream target creation remains owned by
jetson-init-target.
Keep this survey lightweight so the core questionnaire appears quickly:
read target profile pointers/summaries, perform cheap path existence
checks when useful, and fetch only lightweight Jetson Linux release
metadata from the official archive needed to populate bsp_release
choices. Parse all current release sections, not only the section that
appears to match the selected platform. Do not scan large BSP / source /
document trees, inspect archives, generate KB content, or run setup tools
before the user submits the core questionnaire. Prepare the possible plans
for all three modes; choose the actual downstream plan only after the form
is submitted.
Print Platform Reference List
Before opening the AskUserQuestions UI, print the full platform list
parsed from bsp-platforms-catalogue.md with stable numeric indexes for
this run:
Available platforms:
T234 - Orin
1. Jetson AGX Orin 64GB | CVM P3701-0005 | CVB P3737-0000 | jetson-agx-orin-devkit.conf
...
T264 - Thor
N. Jetson AGX Thor T5000 | CVM P3834-0008 | CVB P4071-0000 | jetson-agx-thor-devkit.conf
Use these indexes only for the immediately following questionnaire. Do not auto-select an index, even when there is an active profile or a single obvious match.
Ask Core Questionnaire
Generate one click-to-select core questionnaire for the whole setup run
using the AskUserQuestions UI. Do not collect quick-start answers with
plain-text prompts, inline chat questions, inferred defaults, or manual
summary confirmation.
This is a hard gate: do not skip it, do not use a one-profile shortcut,
and do not auto-select mode, active_platform, bsp_release, or
custom_carrier from active_target.yml, filenames, tarballs, repo
names, release compatibility, workspace state, cached answers, or prior
runs. An existing active profile may be shown as an option, but it is not
selected until the user submits the AskUserQuestions form.
Because AskUserQuestions can ask at most four questions, the core form
must contain only routing-critical fields:
mode—Auto Setup,Guided Setup,Use Existing Workspace, orcancel.active_platform— use the printed full platform list; follow the active-platform question rules below.bsp_release— recent global concrete release candidate shortcuts generated from the official Jetson Linux archive for this run, sorted newest first by dotted numeric order, plusskip. Preserve each official release token exactly as listed; concrete tokens may have two or three numeric components, such as38.2,38.2.1,38.4, orR36.4.4. Do not normalize38.2to38.2.0, and do not infer a missing patch component. Do not hard-code or cache candidates. If metadata fetch is slow or fails, still showskipand a typed concrete release option. Do not platform-filter this list in quick-start; include at least the newest concrete row from each current major release line found in the archive. If parsing returns only one major release line, treat the release list as incomplete and fall back toskipplus typed input instead of showing a partial candidate list.custom_carrier— if the selected/active profile already has a custom carrier, offerkeep_existing_custom_carrier,no_custom_carrier,add_custom_carrier, andskip; otherwise offerno_custom_carrier,add_custom_carrier, andskip.
The user submits this AskUserQuestions form once. Only after that
submission may mode, active platform, BSP release, and custom-carrier
intent decide which downstream skills run and which prefilled answers are
consumed or ignored. If there is no submitted form result, stop; never
continue with inferred answers. add_custom_carrier is only a routing
intent; carrier name, ID, SKU, revision, and custom flash config remain
downstream-owned.
Render the form using the shared
User input prompt style
and normalize submitted UI answers into quick_start_prefill. Follow the
shared
quick_start_prefill contract.
Active-platform question rules:
- Print the full indexed platform list before the questionnaire.
- Explicit choices are only the first row from each chip-family group,
labeled with full-list index and product name, for example
Index 1 — Jetson AGX Orin 64GB. - For all other platforms, the user chooses
Type somethingand enters the numeric index from the printed list.Type somethingmust be the tool's built-in freeform row, not a custom explicit choice. - Prompt text: "Pick a platform shortcut, or choose Type something and enter the numeric index from the full platform list printed above. Type skip to skip platform selection and let downstream setup ask later."
- Only platform shortcuts may be explicit choices. Do not add
skip,Other, or custom manual-entry choices;skipmust be typed through the built-inType somethingpath. Do not paraphraseType somethingasOtherin prompt text. - Do not resolve flash-config variants here; pass the selected catalogue
row to
jetson-init-target, which owns validation and flash-config selection.
Each non-skip answer must be explicit and directly consumable by the
owning downstream skill; use skip for anything unknown. A BSP release
answer must be a concrete version token with an optional leading R and
two or three numeric components (for example R38.4, 38.2, 38.2.1,
or 36.4.4). Family placeholders such as R38.x or "pin a version
later" are not acceptable; use skip instead. Preserve the user's/source
token exactly when passing quick_start_prefill.download.bsp_release.
Image paths, source paths, document paths, carrier details, repository overrides, toolchain choices, and document bindings are non-core setup details. Leave them to the owning downstream skill. Downstream setup skills should use documented defaults without asking when safe, and ask only on conflicts, overwrites, incompatible releases, missing artifacts, or user-requested overrides.
For Auto Setup, /jetson-download-bsp owns listing supported BSP releases
for the selected platform and warning on platform/BSP incompatibility.
Quick-start may forward a requested global candidate or typed release, but
it does not validate support or override compatibility decisions itself.
Build Prefill Bundle
Normalize only explicit non-skip answers and keep them in memory:
quick_start_prefill:
mode: Auto Setup | Guided Setup | Use Existing Workspace
target: { active_platform, custom_carrier }
download: { bsp_release }
Omit any skipped field and omit owner subsets with no core answer. Validate only enough to avoid obvious misrouting, such as blank mode or a BSP placeholder. Downstream defaults are skill behavior, not prefill fields. Do not invent missing identity values and do not write profile blocks from quick-start.
Invoke Downstream Skills
Build the downstream plan from quick_start_prefill.mode, target state,
and prerequisite checks. Before invoking downstream skills, print a
non-blocking execution plan summary with the selected mode, target
platform intent, requested BSP release or downstream release-selection
handoff, custom-carrier intent, planned downstream skills in order, and
non-core details that downstream skills may still ask for. Do not ask to
approve this summary; continue dispatching unless the user chose cancel
in the core questionnaire. This does not bypass downstream blocking
validation gates.
Pass each downstream skill its relevant quick_start_prefill subset plus
the top-level mode.
The downstream skill must use valid prefilled answers, ask again for
missing, invalid, ambiguous, or incompatible required inputs, and own any
mutation of its profile block: reference_devkit:, custom_carrier:,
bsp_image:, source:, or documents:.
For Use Existing Workspace, verify:
<bsp_image.root_path or workspace/Image>/Linux_for_Tegra/exists.Linux_for_Tegra/rootfs/etc/nv_tegra_releaseexists, provingapply_binaries.shran; otherwise route to/jetson-init-image.<source.root_path or workspace/Source>/Linux_for_Tegra/exists and is a git repo.- recorded
documents:paths exist when present.
Finish with executed skills, skipped skills, remaining downstream questions,
and whether the workspace is ready for customize-*.
Suggest I/O customization next steps
After the dispatch summary, print a non-blocking "Next steps —
I/O customization" list only when the active profile's documents:
block has at least one carrier-board-related slot bound via
/jetson-link-docs. The qualifying slots are:
documents.carrier_board_specdocuments.carrier_schematicdocuments.ref_devkit_pinmux_xlsdocuments.custom_carrier_schematicdocuments.custom_carrier_pinmux_xls
If none of those are bound, skip this step — the user has not yet
provided the carrier-board files these skills depend on, and the right
next step is /jetson-link-docs, not a customize-* skill. Say so in
one line ("No carrier-board docs bound — run /jetson-link-docs to
register the carrier schematic / pinmux xlsx before I/O customization")
and stop.
When at least one qualifying slot is bound, print the list below. Adapting a board to its on-board peripherals typically starts with pinmux and UPHY, then branches per-controller:
/jetson-customize-pinmux— per-pin SFIO / direction / pull state (consumesdocuments.custom_carrier_pinmux_xlsordocuments.ref_devkit_pinmux_xls)./jetson-customize-uphy— UPHY lane allocation viaODMDATA(consumesdocuments.module_design_guideanddocuments.custom_carrier_schematic/documents.carrier_schematic)./jetson-customize-pcie— per-controller PCIe wiring (consumesdocuments.module_design_guide,documents.custom_carrier_schematic/documents.carrier_schematic, anddocuments.custom_carrier_pinmux_xls/documents.ref_devkit_pinmux_xls)./jetson-customize-usb— USB2 / USB3 SS port enable / disable (consumesdocuments.module_design_guide,documents.custom_carrier_schematic/documents.carrier_schematic, anddocuments.custom_carrier_pinmux_xls/documents.ref_devkit_pinmux_xls)./jetson-customize-mgbe— Multi-Gigabit Ethernet PHY wiring (consumesdocuments.module_design_guide,documents.custom_carrier_schematic/documents.carrier_schematic, anddocuments.custom_carrier_pinmux_xls/documents.ref_devkit_pinmux_xls)./jetson-customize-camera— CSI / MIPI / GMSL sensor bring-up (consumesdocuments.module_design_guideanddocuments.custom_carrier_schematic/documents.carrier_schematic).
For each suggested skill, flag any required documents.* slot that is
not yet bound as "run /jetson-link-docs first to bind <field>" rather
than hiding the skill — the user may want to fix the binding and retry.
Do not invoke the customize-* skills here; quick-start ends at the
suggestion.
Purpose
Single entrypoint that gathers the four routing-critical answers
(mode, active_platform, bsp_release, custom_carrier) and
dispatches the right downstream Setup skills. Not a one-stop installer
— it never downloads, extracts, materializes, or binds anything on its
own.
Prerequisites
bsp-platforms-catalogue.mdreachable (used to build the platform list).- Submitted
accept_disclaimeranswer from the disclaimerAskUserQuestionsform. AskUserQuestionsUI available — quick-start refuses to continue without submitted disclaimer and core questionnaire forms.- Network access only required for the Auto Setup branch
(
/jetson-download-bspis the actual fetcher).
Limitations
- Asks at most four core questions; any non-core value (image paths, source paths, document paths, carrier IDs, toolchain) is left to the owning downstream skill.
- Does not validate platform / BSP-release compatibility — that is
/jetson-download-bsp's job. - Does not write to
target-platform/*.yaml; profile mutation stays with/jetson-init-target,/jetson-init-image, etc.
Troubleshooting
- "questionnaire cancelled" exit — the form must be submitted; rerun
/jetson-quick-startand complete the four questions. - "disclaimer not accepted" exit — rerun
/jetson-quick-start, read the disclaimer, and chooseaccept_disclaimerin the disclaimer form when ready to continue. - Active profile not auto-selected — by design; even with one matching profile, the user must pick it explicitly in the form.
- Unknown
bsp_releasetyped — pass it as-is;/jetson-download-bspvalidates the release against the official archive.
Gotchas
- Ask the core questionnaire once. Downstream skills ask for non-core values, blanks, invalid values, or ambiguous choices.
- Keep
quick_start_prefillin memory unless the user asks to save it. - Never construct NVIDIA artifact URLs here;
/jetson-download-bspfollows links from the selected Jetson Linux archive release. platform_template.yamlhas no User Guide / Release Notes slots. Store those files or URLs in the final summary or KB, not as invented profile fields.
References
Frequently asked questions about Jetson Quick Start
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