| name | sima-environment-setup |
| description | Use when setting up a SiMa.ai development environment from scratch — installing sima-cli, authenticating to the SiMa Developer Portal, installing the Palette Neat SDK and Model Compiler, pairing a Modalix DevKit, compiling a model to an MPK package, and building or running NEAT C++/Python and GenAI/LLiMa applications. Do not use for Neat Library application design or API selection (use neat-application-builder), for hardware bring-up such as serial, network, or firmware procedures (follow the hardware docs), or for repository maintenance. |
SiMa Environment Setup
Overview
Take a host (and optionally a Modalix DevKit) from zero to a working SiMa.ai
development environment. The single source of truth is the published agent
onboarding page — fetch it first and follow its numbered phases; it carries
the exact commands and the currently supported version pins:
- Raw (preferred):
https://developer.sima.ai/agents.md or https://developer.sima.ai/llms.txt
- Rendered:
https://developer.sima.ai/agents
- Local fallback when working inside the docs repo:
src/pages/agents.md
(note: the source contains unsubstituted %key% version tokens; values
live in src/versions.json)
This skill encodes the workflow and guardrails; the page carries the commands.
Workflow
- Gather inputs from the human before running anything: SiMa Developer
Portal credentials (community.sima.ai), the DevKit IP address (if a DevKit
is in scope), a Hugging Face token (GenAI only), and the target silicon
(default
modalix).
- Fetch the source of truth:
curl -fsSL https://developer.sima.ai/agents.md.
- Pick the phase subset from the page's decision matrix (Phase 0) that
matches the stated goal. Do not run phases the goal does not need.
- Execute the phases in order. Stop at every Verify block, run it, and
confirm the expected result before continuing. Never skip verification.
sima-cli login and the SDK installer are interactive — hand those
prompts to the human rather than trying to automate credentials.
- On any failure, consult
references/troubleshooting.md, then the page's
Phase 9. Retry the failed Verify before moving on.
- Before claiming success, run the end-state checks in
references/verification.md for the phases you executed.
- To route follow-up questions ("where do I read about X?"), use
references/documentation-map.md.
Defaults
- Target silicon
modalix (gen2); mlsoc/davinci (gen1) only when the
human says the hardware is the legacy generation.
- Primary host assumption: Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 x86_64 with Docker Engine.
- Install the SDK with
sima-cli neat install sdk@<channel> using the channel
named on the page; do not pin versions from memory.
- Everything installs through
sima-cli — do not docker pull or pip install SiMa components directly unless the page says so.
Boundaries
- Do not design application code or choose between Model/Graph/GenAI APIs —
defer to the
neat-application-builder skill and the Develop Apps docs.
- Do not perform hardware bring-up (serial cabling, network configuration,
firmware flashing) beyond linking the human to the hardware pages the
onboarding page references.
- Do not invent commands, package names, or version numbers from memory —
always re-fetch the raw page.
- Do not claim success without the Verify results to show for it.
References
references/verification.md
references/troubleshooting.md
references/documentation-map.md