| name | refresh-data-designer-skill |
| description | Refresh the vendored data-designer skill bundle in this plugin from the upstream NVIDIA-NeMo/DataDesigner repo at the pinned library version, adapting CLI commands and platform-specific guidance to the NeMo plugin context. Use when bumping the `data-designer` library pin in pyproject.toml, when upstream ships skill changes that need to land here, or when auditing drift. Trigger keywords - refresh data designer skill, update data designer skill, vendor data designer skill, sync data designer skill, bump data-designer version. |
Refresh Data Designer Skill
The user-facing data-designer skill at plugins/nemo-data-designer/src/nemo_data_designer_plugin/skills/data-designer/ is a vendored adaptation of the upstream skill bundle at https://github.com/NVIDIA-NeMo/DataDesigner (path skills/data-designer/). Upstream is the source of truth; this plugin's copy adds the nemo CLI prefix and a small amount of NeMo Platform-specific guidance.
This skill is for plugin contributors. End users do not run it — they get the already-vendored output.
When to use
- After bumping the
data-designer==X.Y.Z pin in plugins/nemo-data-designer/pyproject.toml.
- When upstream ships skill changes that should land here.
- When auditing drift between the vendored copy and upstream.
Inputs
- Source:
https://github.com/NVIDIA-NeMo/DataDesigner at tag v$VERSION (where $VERSION is the value pinned in pyproject.toml).
- Output dir:
plugins/nemo-data-designer/src/nemo_data_designer_plugin/skills/data-designer/.
Procedure
Step 1 — Determine the pinned version
Extract the version from plugins/nemo-data-designer/pyproject.toml:
grep -E '"data-designer==' plugins/nemo-data-designer/pyproject.toml | head -1
Capture the version string (e.g., 0.6.0) — this is $VERSION for the rest of the procedure.
Step 2 — Enumerate and fetch the upstream bundle
List every file under skills/data-designer/ at the pinned tag:
gh api "repos/NVIDIA-NeMo/DataDesigner/git/trees/v$VERSION?recursive=1" \
| jq -r '.tree[] | select(.path | startswith("skills/data-designer/")) | select(.type=="blob") | .path'
For each returned path, fetch raw content from:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA-NeMo/DataDesigner/v$VERSION/<path>
Stage the fetched files in a temp directory before adapting.
Step 3 — Adapt content
Apply the translation rules below to every fetched markdown file. Leave non-markdown files (e.g., scripts/get_person_object_schema.py) byte-identical to upstream.
Single core rule: prepend nemo to every CLI invocation of the data-designer binary. For most subcommands (agent, config, validate), nemo data-designer … accepts the same arguments as the upstream library's CLI, so subcommand names, flags, and positional arguments stay identical.
Exception — preview and create require a mode subcommand. The plugin makes preview and create into command groups with two execution modes: run (local, in-process) and submit (cluster, over HTTP). Default to run for skill instructions — local execution fits the iterative agent workflow. Insert run after the subcommand name and before any positional args / flags. So:
data-designer preview <path> --save-results → nemo data-designer preview run <path> --save-resultsdata-designer create <path> --num-records <N> → nemo data-designer create run <path> --num-records <N>- Even prose references like
the `data-designer preview` command should become the `nemo data-designer preview run` command for consistency with the actual invocation.
create does not accept --dataset-name or --artifact-path. Upstream's create exposes these flags to name and locate the local artifact folder. The plugin's create (both run and submit) stores artifacts at a Jobs-service-managed path, so there's no local folder to name or relocate. Strip --dataset-name and --artifact-path (and any related flag values) from upstream create invocations during refresh; preserve other flags like --num-records as-is.
This applies to every shell-prompt and backticked invocation of:
data-designer agent context (and other agent … subcommands) → just prepend nemo data-designer config providers|models|… → just prepend nemo data-designer validate <path> → just prepend nemo data-designer preview <path> (and any flags after) → prepend nemo AND insert rundata-designer create <path> (and any flags after) → prepend nemo AND insert run
Do not rewrite prose mentions of the project name (e.g., "the Data Designer library", "Data Designer columns"). Only shell-shaped invocations.
Resolve-CLI-command step replacement:
Upstream's workflow files (workflows/interactive.md, workflows/autopilot.md) start with a "Resolve CLI command" step that detects the standalone data-designer binary. Replace that step with one that detects the nemo binary instead:
1. **Resolve CLI command** — Run `command -v nemo 2>/dev/null || (test -x .venv/bin/nemo && realpath .venv/bin/nemo) || echo CLI_NOT_FOUND`.
- If the output is a path, use `<path> data-designer` as the command prefix for all `nemo data-designer …` invocations in this workflow.
- If the output is `CLI_NOT_FOUND`, STOP and follow the Troubleshooting section in SKILL.md. Do not continue to the next step.
Model-configs-source step replacement:
Upstream's workflow "Learn" step instructs the agent to stop if agent context reports no usable model aliases. In this plugin that's wrong — model configs can be declared programmatically and routed through IGW providers, neither of which agent context sees. Replace the "no aliases = stop" line with plugin-aware wording that points at references/nemo-platform-plugin-additions.md and explicitly says "do not stop." Also update the workflow's Clarify / Infer step (if present) so it asks about IGW provider choice when no local aliases exist. Both workflows/interactive.md and workflows/autopilot.md need this adaptation.
Output Template model_configs skeleton:
The plugin's SKILL.md Output Template includes an inline model_configs=[dd.ModelConfig(...)] skeleton inside the DataDesignerConfigBuilder(...) constructor, with a comment pointing at nemo inference providers list for provider discovery and at references/nemo-platform-plugin-additions.md for guidance. Preserve this on refresh — agents follow the template closely, and stripping it back to upstream's empty DataDesignerConfigBuilder() re-introduces the model-configs blindness this skill is supposed to compensate for.
Step 4 — Add the plugin-additions reference file
The nemo data-designer CLI accepts the same arguments as the upstream data-designer CLI for agent, config, validate, preview, and create. The plugin adds a personas subcommand group that has no upstream counterpart, plus optional NeMo Platform-side affordances. Capture those additions in a single file: references/nemo-platform-plugin-additions.md.
Recommended sections:
- Model configs: Explain that
DataDesignerConfigBuilder accepts model_configs=[dd.ModelConfig(...)] programmatically and that ModelConfig.provider can reference an IGW-managed provider (bare name or <workspace>/<provider>), with nemo inference providers list as the discovery command. Emphasize that agent context does not see these sources, so an empty alias list is not a blocker. This section is the anchor that the workflow's plugin-aware "no aliases ≠ stop" wording points at.
- Personas:
nemo data-designer personas download (install Nemotron Personas locales locally) and nemo data-designer personas make-fileset (publish a fileset to the NeMo Platform files service for cluster-side use). Cross-reference upstream's references/person-sampling.md for general persona-column usage; only document the plugin-specific install / publish steps here.
- NeMo Platform-side resources (only if relevant to the workflow): pointers to
nemo inference providers list, nemo files, nemo secrets, etc. — i.e., NeMo Platform-managed alternatives to local config that the user may already have set up.
Keep this file additive. Do not duplicate or contradict upstream content; if upstream covers a topic, defer to it.
When describing the upstream-vs-plugin difference for preview / create, avoid reproducing literal upstream-shaped shell invocations like `data-designer preview <path>` — those will trip the verification grep in Step 6 even though they're descriptive, not prescriptive. Phrase the difference in prose ("upstream's preview is a flat command that takes the config path directly") rather than in shell-shaped form.
After writing this file, add a single bullet to the Rules section of the top-level SKILL.md pointing agents at it. Example: - For commands and context specific to this NeMo Platform plugin (e.g., sourcing model configs from IGW providers or in-script \ModelConfig`s, installing or publishing Nemotron Personas locales, platform-side resource pointers), read `references/nemo-platform-plugin-additions.md`.` Without this pointer, agents will never read the additions file.
Step 5 — Write the bundle
Write the adapted bundle to plugins/nemo-data-designer/src/nemo_data_designer_plugin/skills/data-designer/. Mirror the upstream tree exactly — same subdirectory names (workflows/, references/, scripts/), same filenames. Add the new references/nemo-platform-plugin-additions.md you produced in Step 4.
If a previous vendored bundle exists, remove the old files first (so deletions upstream are reflected).
Step 6 — Verify
Run these checks and resolve any failures before considering the refresh complete:
No untranslated CLI invocations remain. This greps for data-designer not preceded by nemo , in shell-command contexts (backtick-fenced or shell prompts):
SKILLS=plugins/nemo-data-designer/src/nemo_data_designer_plugin/skills/data-designer
grep -RnE '(\s|`)data-designer\s' "$SKILLS" | grep -v 'nemo data-designer'
A clean run produces no output. False positives in prose ("the Data Designer library") are fine; CLI-shaped invocations are not.
Every referenced subcommand resolves. Extract the unique nemo data-designer … invocations and confirm each has a help page:
grep -RhoE 'nemo data-designer [a-z][a-z -]*' "$SKILLS" \
| sort -u \
| while read -r cmd; do
eval "$cmd --help" > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "OK: $cmd" || echo "MISSING: $cmd"
done
Any MISSING: line indicates upstream changed the command surface or nemo data-designer has drifted from upstream's CLI shape — investigate before merging.
Every preview / create invocation has a mode subcommand. The plugin requires run or submit after preview and create. This grep catches missed insertions:
grep -RnE 'nemo data-designer (preview|create) ' "$SKILLS" \
| grep -vE '(preview|create) (run|submit)[^a-z]'
A clean run produces no output. The trailing [^a-z] allows backtick-bounded references like the `nemo data-designer preview run` command to pass without a trailing space.
Notes
- Upstream may add new files under
skills/data-designer/ (e.g., new references). Pick them up automatically via the tree enumeration in Step 2 — don't rely on a static file list.
- Upstream may rename or remove files. The Step 5 "remove old files first" pass handles deletions; renames surface as a removed-old + added-new pair, which is the expected outcome.
- Don't edit the bundled non-markdown files (e.g.,
scripts/*.py). They're upstream's responsibility.
- The single core rule (
data-designer → nemo data-designer ) holds because nemo data-designer accepts the same arguments as upstream's CLI. If that ever stops being true (a flag diverges, a subcommand is renamed in only one of the two), call it out explicitly here and adapt the affected workflow step rather than silently hand-editing vendored output.
