SBC Programmer Skill

An AI agent skill for writing hardware-facing Python on Linux single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson, BeagleBone, Orange Pi and Rock Pi.

The main rule is simple: never write board-specific hardware code until the agent has identified the exact SBC and software environment.

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Mandatory Environment Detection

Before GPIO/I2C/SPI/UART/PWM/camera/sensor code, the agent checks:

Exact SBC model + revision
SoC + CPU architecture
Linux distribution + version
Kernel version
Python version + interpreter
Virtual environment / dependency manager
Active user + groups/permissions
GPIO backend
Enabled interfaces
Relevant /dev device nodes
Pin-numbering convention

That prevents Raspberry Pi assumptions from leaking into Jetson code, or instructions for an old OS release being applied to a newer image.

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Library Decision Gate

When a new hardware dependency or reusable device driver is needed, the agent asks:

Do you want to use an existing library, or build a custom Python library/driver?

If you choose custom, it must then ask:

What exactly should the custom library/driver do?

Only after the required behavior is defined will it design the API and write the driver.

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Supported Work

• Raspberry Pi GPIO and Linux GPIO
• NVIDIA Jetson GPIO/header work
• GPIO input/output and edge events
• I2C
• SPI
• UART / serial
• PWM
• External ADCs
• Sensors and actuators
• CSI / USB cameras
• CAN where supported
• USB hardware
• Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / networking
• Python virtual environments
• udev permissions
• systemd services
• Docker hardware access
• threading / asyncio
• hardware debugging
• power and thermal diagnostics

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Engineering Behavior

The skill requires the coding agent to:

• Inspect the existing project before modification
• Verify the exact board and OS instead of guessing
• Verify pin numbering before wiring/code
• Check voltage compatibility and driver requirements
• Preserve the project's existing GPIO/hardware stack
• Avoid sudo pip install as a default fix
• Avoid running the whole application as root just to solve permissions
• Avoid changing boot/device-tree/pinmux configuration without evidence
• Distinguish Linux event timing from MCU hard real-time behavior
• Verify hardware at runtime instead of declaring success from imports alone

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Debugging Order

Board
→ OS/version
→ kernel/BSP
→ Python environment
→ wiring/power
→ pin mapping/pinmux
→ interface enablement
→ device nodes
→ permissions
→ library compatibility
→ minimal hardware test
→ protocol
→ application logic

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Repository Structure

SBC_Programmer/
├── SKILL.md       # Complete SBC hardware-Python engineering workflow
├── README.md      # Overview and usage
└── LICENSE        # MIT License

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Usage

Place the directory in your agent's skills path, for example:

~/.gemini/config/skills/SBC_Programmer/

The agent can then activate it for Raspberry Pi, Jetson and other Linux SBC hardware-programming tasks.

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.