Bitbake debug

Skill Higangssh/yocto-agent-skills/skills/bitbake-debug

Debug BitBake and Yocto build failures from task logs, run scripts, metadata expansion, packages, providers, rootfs errors, fetch/patch/configure/compile/install/package/image failures, and common QA messages. Use when the user provides BitBake output, tmp/work logs, do_* task failures, package/rootfs errors, or asks how to diagnose a Yocto build.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add Higangssh/yocto-agent-skills --skill bitbake-debug

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

6 stars6 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

2.7 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

BitBake Debug

Use this skill to diagnose Yocto/BitBake failures from concrete evidence. Prefer log.do_*, run.do_*, bitbake -e, bitbake-layers, and pkgdata over guesses.

Evidence First

Ask for or inspect:

failing target and task
first fatal error, not only the final summary
tmp/work/.../temp/log.do_<task>
tmp/work/.../temp/run.do_<task>
conf/local.conf
conf/bblayers.conf
affected recipe or bbappend

Useful commands:

bitbake-layers show-layers
bitbake-layers show-recipes <recipe>
bitbake-layers show-appends
bitbake -e <recipe>
bitbake -c listtasks <recipe>
bitbake -c devshell <recipe>
bitbake -g <target>
oe-pkgdata-util list-pkgs
oe-pkgdata-util find-path '*/path/or/file'

Task Playbook

do_fetch: verify SRC_URI, protocol, branch, SRCREV, checksums, network policy, mirrors, DL_DIR, and credentials only when the source is private.
do_unpack: verify archive layout, S, multi-source unpack paths, and subdirectories.
do_patch: verify patch path, strip level, order, fuzz, upstream status, and apply=yes/no only when automatic patch handling is wrong.
do_configure: verify inherited class, PACKAGECONFIG, EXTRA_OECONF, EXTRA_OECMAKE, EXTRA_OEMESON, DEPENDS, and recipe-sysroot.
do_compile: verify compiler command, generated files, missing -native tools, cross variables, and parallel race signs.
do_install: verify installation under ${D}, permissions, ownership, and paths using ${bindir}, ${libdir}, ${sysconfdir}, etc.
do_package / do_package_qa: verify package splits, FILES:*, runtime dependencies, and QA tags.
do_rootfs: verify package names, providers, IMAGE_INSTALL, license policy, package conflicts, and postinstall scripts.
do_image: verify rootfs completion, IMAGE_FSTYPES, WIC kickstart, boot artifacts, and deploy output.

References

Read references/yocto-field-guide.md for the broader task playbook.
Read references/qa-errors.md for common QA failures.
Read references/variables-core.md when the fix depends on variable semantics.

Output

For every diagnosis, provide:

most likely cause
evidence that supports it
exact next command or metadata change
why this is the Yocto/BitBake fix
validation command

What ships with it: 3 files

22.9 KB alongside SKILL.md

references/

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most debug triage skills give

Counted across 1,020 of the 1,639 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06

Find root cause before attempting any fixin 134 of 1020, across 118 files
Create a failing test case before implementing a fixin 109 of 1020, across 95 files
Read error messages and stack traces completelyin 102 of 1020, across 88 files
Reproduce the issue consistently before investigatingin 90 of 1020, across 77 files
Make the smallest possible change to test a hypothesisin 90 of 1020, across 76 files
Trace data flow backward to find the sourcein 84 of 1020, across 70 files
Form a single hypothesis before testingin 78 of 1020, across 64 files
Implement only one fix at a timein 76 of 1020, across 63 files
Question the architecture if three fixes failin 73 of 1020, across 59 files
Add diagnostic instrumentation at component boundariesin 68 of 1020, across 56 files
Compare broken code against working examplesin 68 of 1020, across 57 files
Write a regression test before applying the fixin 62 of 1020, across 55 files

Said here and by no other author read

Inspect log.do_task and run.do_task files
Verify SRC_URI and checksums for fetch failures
Check patch application and strip levels
Validate PACKAGECONFIG and dependencies for configure failures
Check compiler commands and parallel race signs
Verify installation paths and permissions

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once.