zephyr-rtos-ai

Expert guidance on Zephyr RTOS thread management, scheduling, and workqueues. Use when implementing threads (k_thread_create, K_THREAD_DEFINE), choosing thread priorities (cooperative vs preemptive), configuring scheduling behavior (time slicing, yielding), managing thread lifecycle (start, suspend, resume, abort, join), or using workqueues for deferred processing. Triggers include questions about thread stacks, priority inversion avoidance, system threads (main, idle), and thread-to-thread synchronization patterns.

Expert guidance on Zephyr kernel synchronization primitives (Semaphores, Mutexes, Events, Condition Variables). Use when the user asks about thread synchronization, locking, signaling, mutual exclusion, priority inversion, thread-safe resource access, ISR-to-thread signaling, or choosing the right synchronization primitive in Zephyr RTOS.

Comprehensive Zephyr device driver expertise covering driver model, device instances, initialization levels, power management, and bus-specific patterns (I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO). Use this skill when you need to: (1) Create custom device drivers from scratch, (2) Use existing driver APIs (GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, ADC, PWM, etc.), (3) Understand DEVICE_DT_DEFINE and device model concepts, (4) Write sensor drivers using the sensor subsystem, (5) Implement bus-specific device drivers, (6) Test drivers with Ztest, emulators, or fakes, (7) Debug driver initialization or runtime issues.

Expert guidance on Zephyr RTOS power management. Use when working with system sleep states, runtime device power management, wake sources, PM policy constraints, low-power design, wake-latency tradeoffs, or measuring and debugging current draw in Zephyr applications and drivers.

Guide for creating effective skills for Zephyr OS project.

Expert guidance for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) development in Zephyr OS. Covers GAP roles (peripheral, central, broadcaster, observer), GATT services and characteristics, advertising, scanning, connections, pairing/bonding, and built-in services (BAS, DIS, HRS, NUS). Use when implementing BLE functionality, creating custom GATT services, configuring advertising data, handling connections, or troubleshooting BLE issues.

CBOR (Concise Binary Object Representation) encoding and decoding in Zephyr RTOS using the zcbor library. Use when encoding C data to CBOR binary format, decoding CBOR payloads into C variables, generating type-safe C code from CDDL schemas, working with CoAP/LwM2M/SUIT/SMP payloads, or implementing efficient binary serialization for IoT protocols.

JSON serialization and deserialization in Zephyr RTOS using the descriptor-based JSON library. Use when encoding C structs to JSON strings, parsing JSON into C structs, working with nested objects or arrays, handling cloud/IoT protocols (MQTT, HTTP, CoAP payloads), or implementing REST APIs on embedded devices.

Expert guidance for BSD sockets, TLS/DTLS secure sockets, and DNS resolution in Zephyr OS. Covers TCP/UDP socket programming, secure socket creation with mbedTLS, TLS credential management, hostname resolution with getaddrinfo/dns_resolve, mDNS/LLMNR support, and socket offloading. Use when implementing network clients/servers, adding TLS security to connections, resolving hostnames, or configuring socket-based networking.

Expert guidance on Zephyr RTOS Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs). Use when the user asks about interrupts, ISR handlers, IRQ configuration, interrupt priorities, direct ISRs, dynamic ISRs, zero-latency interrupts, IRQ locking, ISR-to-thread offloading, shared interrupts, or interrupt context behavior in Zephyr.

Comprehensive Zephyr Devicetree expertise including overlays, bindings, C API macros, pin control, clocks, interrupts, DMA, and address translation. Use this skill when you need to: (1) Understand or create .dts/.dtsi/.overlay files, (2) Write or debug devicetree bindings (.yaml), (3) Use DT_* macros in C/C++ code, (4) Configure pin control, clocks, interrupts, or DMA in devicetree, (5) Resolve devicetree-related build errors, (6) Understand address translation and memory regions.

File system support in Zephyr OS including VFS API, LittleFS, FAT, ext2, and FCB. Use when working with file I/O operations, mounting filesystems, reading/writing files, directory operations, formatting storage, choosing between filesystem types, configuring flash partitions for filesystems, or implementing persistent file-based storage. For key-value storage with numeric IDs, use zephyr-storage instead. For string-key settings persistence, use zephyr-settings instead.

GPIO driver implementation guidance for Zephyr RTOS. Use when working with digital I/O pins, LEDs, buttons, or any GPIO-controlled peripherals. Covers pin configuration, reading/writing, interrupts, and devicetree bindings.

Comprehensive Zephyr I2C subsystem expertise for Inter-Integrated Circuit bus communication. Use when: (1) Configuring I2C controllers or devices via devicetree or Kconfig, (2) Implementing synchronous I2C transfers with i2c_transfer/i2c_read/i2c_write, (3) Using register access helpers like i2c_reg_read_byte/i2c_reg_write_byte, (4) Implementing asynchronous I2C with i2c_transfer_cb or RTIO, (5) Setting up I2C speed modes (standard 100kHz, fast 400kHz, fast-plus 1MHz), (6) Implementing I2C target/slave mode with callbacks, (7) Using SMBus protocol functions, (8) Troubleshooting I2C communication issues (NACK, bus stuck, clock stretching).

Comprehensive Zephyr Kconfig expertise for build-time configuration. Use this skill when you need to: (1) Create or edit Kconfig files to define new configuration symbols, (2) Configure applications via prj.conf, boards/*.conf, or overlay configs, (3) Debug 'unmet dependencies', 'symbol not visible', or 'unknown symbol' errors, (4) Use menuconfig/guiconfig interactively, (5) Integrate Kconfig with external modules or out-of-tree drivers, (6) Use Kconfig functions with devicetree (dt_chosen_enabled, etc.), (7) Understand symbol visibility, hidden configs, or select/imply behavior.

Enhances the knowledge of an AI agent with all kernel objects and subsystems used to pass data between threads and ISRs in Zephyr OS. Use this skill when you need to implement, explain, or debug data passing mechanisms (FIFO, LIFO, Stack, Message Queue, Mailbox, Pipe, ZBus, Ring Buffer).

Expert guidance on Zephyr RTOS memory management (Heaps, Memory Slabs, Memory Blocks, Memory Domains, Virtual Memory). Use when the user asks about dynamic memory allocation, memory pools, k_malloc, k_heap, memory slabs, fixed-size allocators, memory protection, memory partitions, userspace memory isolation, virtual memory, demand paging, or choosing the right memory allocator in Zephyr.

Expert guidance on Zephyr's Network Buffer (net_buf) subsystem for efficient data management. Use when the user asks about buffer pools, net_buf allocation, reference counting, data manipulation (add/push/pull/remove), buffer fragmentation, headroom/tailroom, or implementing protocol parsing/encoding in Zephyr applications (networking, Bluetooth, USB).

Comprehensive skill for persistent configuration storage in Zephyr OS. Covers Settings subsystem, handlers, backends (NVS, ZMS, FCB, File), and runtime API. Use when you need to store device configuration, runtime state, calibration data, or implement settings handlers. Helps with backend selection (choosing between NVS/ZMS/FCB/File), troubleshooting persistence issues, and integration with other Zephyr subsystems (Bluetooth, Shell, Logging).

Comprehensive Zephyr Shell subsystem expertise for creating and managing CLI commands. Use this skill when you need to: (1) Create or register new shell commands with SHELL_CMD_REGISTER or SHELL_CMD_ARG_REGISTER, (2) Define static or dynamic subcommands, (3) Implement command handlers with shell_print/shell_error/shell_warn output, (4) Create dictionary commands for string-to-value mappings, (5) Configure shell backends (UART, RTT, USB, Telnet, BLE NUS), (6) Enable shell Kconfig options (CONFIG_SHELL_*), (7) Parse command arguments or use getopt, (8) Debug shell command issues or understand shell architecture.

Expert guidance on Zephyr State Machine Framework (SMF) for implementing flat and hierarchical state machines. Use when the user asks about state machines, state transitions, entry/run/exit actions, hierarchical states (HSM), event-driven state machines, SMF_CREATE_STATE, smf_set_state, smf_run_state, or implementing UML statecharts in Zephyr RTOS.

Comprehensive Zephyr SPI subsystem expertise for serial peripheral communication. Use when: (1) Configuring SPI controllers or devices via devicetree or Kconfig, (2) Implementing synchronous SPI transfers with spi_transceive/spi_read/spi_write, (3) Implementing asynchronous SPI with spi_transceive_cb or spi_transceive_signal, (4) Setting up SPI modes (CPOL, CPHA, word size, bit order), (5) Managing chip select via GPIO or hardware CS, (6) Using scatter-gather buffers for multi-part transactions, (7) Choosing between sync and async APIs for a use case, (8) Troubleshooting SPI communication issues (clock polarity, CS timing, data corruption).

Direct key-value storage using NVS (Non-Volatile Storage) and ZMS (Zephyr Memory Storage) subsystems in Zephyr OS. Use when storing data directly to flash with numeric IDs (not string keys), choosing between NVS and ZMS, configuring flash partitions for storage, calculating flash wear and device lifetime, or working with storage APIs (mount, read, write, delete). For high-level string-key persistence, use zephyr-settings skill instead.

Comprehensive guidance for unit testing and integration testing Zephyr RTOS applications. Use this skill when you need to: (1) Create test suites using the Ztest framework, (2) Write test cases with fixtures, assertions, and expectations, (3) Configure testcase.yaml for Twister test runner, (4) Mock functions using FFF (Fake Function Framework), (5) Run tests with Twister on emulators or hardware, (6) Debug failing tests or configure test infrastructure, (7) Implement pytest-based integration tests.

Comprehensive Zephyr UART subsystem expertise for serial communication. Use when: (1) Configuring UART peripherals via devicetree or Kconfig, (2) Implementing polling-based UART read/write with uart_poll_in/uart_poll_out, (3) Implementing interrupt-driven UART with uart_irq_* functions and callbacks, (4) Implementing async DMA-based UART with uart_tx/uart_rx_enable and event callbacks, (5) Choosing between polling, interrupt, or async APIs for a use case, (6) Troubleshooting UART communication issues (baud rate, flow control, errors), (7) Understanding UART configuration structures (parity, stop bits, data bits, flow control).

Expert guidance for WiFi development in Zephyr OS. Covers Station (STA) and Access Point (AP) modes, scanning, connection management, security types (WPA2-PSK, WPA3-SAE, EAP-TLS), power save modes, and Target Wake Time (TWT). Use when implementing WiFi connectivity, configuring network parameters, handling scan results, managing connections, or troubleshooting WiFi issues.