/inspect-machine

name: inspect-machine
description: Before planning work that depends on hardware (GPU, camera, mic, USB, RAM, cores), list what this machine has — read-only, nothing identifying, and ask before using any device
tools: [bash, ask_user]
core: false
origin: creator
keywords: ["skills/inspect-machine", "system_profiler", "nvidia-smi", "lsusb", "Get-PnpDevice"]

Inspect the machine

When to use

• You are about to plan or test something whose feasibility depends on hardware: a local model or GPU work, vision or audio features, a USB or serial device, heavy parallel builds.
• A task says "on this machine", "use the camera / mic / GPU", or a test fails in a way that smells like missing hardware.
• Once per session at most. Re-run only if the user plugs something in or asks.

Don't use it for ordinary coding work. Most tasks don't care what the machine is.

Rules

1. **List, never use.** These commands only read the system's device lists. Never open a camera or microphone, capture anything, write to a device, or start a Bluetooth scan. 2. **Ask before using a device.** Knowing a camera exists is not permission to use it. Ask the user (`ask_user`) before any step that opens a device, and say what for. The operating system may ask too. **When there is no one to ask** (CI, piped or `-p` mode, any run where `ask_user` is unavailable or unanswered), never use a device: report what you found and stop there. 3. **Nothing identifying in what you keep.** Drop serial numbers, MAC and Bluetooth addresses, UUIDs and unique ids, device and host names (e.g. "Alex's AirPods"), and user names. Keep class, model, vendor, capability and counts. 4. **Don't commit it.** The profile describes one machine at one moment. Keep it in this session's context. Never write it to `memory/`, the journal, an issue or a commit.

Quick reference

Start with `uname -s`. Each command may be missing: skip what fails, and don't install anything to fill a gap.

**macOS and Linux: cores, disk** (Windows gets these from its own block)

getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN 2>/dev/null; df -h . | tail -1

**macOS** (`system_profiler` takes a few seconds; one call for all types)

sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string hw.memsize hw.ncpu
hw=$(mktemp)   # private temp file; removed after the strip step below
system_profiler -json SPDisplaysDataType SPCameraDataType SPAudioDataType SPUSBDataType 2>/dev/null > "$hw"

Apple silicon has a Neural Engine: the chip model in `machdep.cpu.brand_string` (e.g. "Apple M3") tells you. Its GPU shares system memory, so there is no separate VRAM figure: say "unified, N GB" rather than "unknown".

**Linux** (x86 and ARM)

grep -m1 'model name' /proc/cpuinfo || { tr -d '\0' < /proc/device-tree/model; echo; } 2>/dev/null   # ARM boards (Raspberry Pi, Jetson) name themselves here
grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
lspci 2>/dev/null | grep -Ei 'vga|3d|display'      # GPUs, any vendor (name only)
nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,memory.total --format=csv,noheader 2>/dev/null   # NVIDIA: memory
rocm-smi --showproductname --showmeminfo vram 2>/dev/null                    # AMD: memory
ls /dev/accel/ 2>/dev/null                           # NPUs (Intel, AMD; Linux 6.x accel driver)
ls /dev/video* 2>/dev/null                           # cameras
cat /proc/asound/cards 2>/dev/null                   # sound devices
lsusb 2>/dev/null | sed -E "s/[[:alnum:]]+[’']s /(personal) /g"   # USB (vendor:product and names)
ls /dev/ttyUSB* /dev/ttyACM* 2>/dev/null             # serial boards

**Windows** (the `bash` tool needs Git Bash or WSL here; it hands the script to PowerShell on stdin, so nothing needs escaping)

powershell.exe -NoProfile -Command - <<'PS'
$cs = Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem
$cpu = Get-CimInstance Win32_Processor | Select-Object -First 1
"CPU: $($cpu.Name) ($($cs.NumberOfLogicalProcessors) logical cores)"
"RAM: {0:N0} GB" -f ($cs.TotalPhysicalMemory / 1GB)
Get-CimInstance Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter "DeviceID='C:'" | ForEach-Object { "C: free {0:N0} GB" -f ($_.FreeSpace / 1GB) }
Get-CimInstance Win32_VideoController | Select-Object Name, AdapterRAM
Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly -Class Camera,AudioEndpoint,USB,ComputeAccelerator | Select-Object Class, @{n='FriendlyName'; e={$_.FriendlyName -replace "\w+['’]s ", '(personal) '}}
PS
nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,memory.total --format=csv,noheader 2>/dev/null   # NVIDIA: real memory

`AdapterRAM` is a 32-bit field and stops at 4 GB, so a 16 GB card shows about 4 GB. Trust it only below 4 GB; for NVIDIA use `nvidia-smi`, otherwise say "4 GB or more". `ComputeAccelerator` is the class NPUs register under (e.g. Intel AI Boost).

**Strip identifying fields from JSON** (macOS output) before reading it:

python3 - "$hw" <<'EOF'
import json, re, sys
DROP = re.compile(r"serial|uuid|unique|location_id|address|mac_?addr|host_?name", re.I)
PERSONAL = re.compile(r"[\u2019']s\b")  # "Alex's AirPods"
def clean(v, key=""):
    if isinstance(v, dict):
        return {k: clean(x, k) for k, x in v.items() if not DROP.search(k)}
    if isinstance(v, list):
        return [clean(x) for x in v]
    if key == "_name" and isinstance(v, str) and PERSONAL.search(v):
        return "(personal device name)"
    return v
out = json.dumps(clean(json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))), indent=1)
print(out[:6000] + (f"\n... [{len(out) - 6000} more characters not shown]" if len(out) > 6000 else ""))
EOF
rm -f "$hw"

`_name` holds each device's model ("FaceTime HD Camera"), so it is kept, unless it looks personal. USB vendor and product ids are kept too: they identify the kind of board, not the person. The `lsusb` and PowerShell lines above replace "Name's " in device names; neither prints serials by default. Anything else identifying in text output (a serial, an address), drop when you summarize.

Procedure

1. Run the commands for this OS (one batch). 2. Summarize in at most ten lines, in your context only:

   MACHINE: macOS 15 · Apple M3 (8 cores, Ne