---

name: setup-and-basics description: "Install, verify, and troubleshoot the basic NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails package, extras, imports, and CLI without live providers." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: NOASSERTION

setup-and-basics

Use this sub-skill when the task is about installing NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails, selecting extras, proving that the package imports, checking the CLI entry point, or explaining optional dependency import errors without contacting a live model provider.

Route here for

• pip install nemoguardrails, Python version support, resolver or pip check failures.
• Choosing extras such as server, eval, tracing, chat-ui, sdd, jailbreak, multilingual, gcp, or cautious all installs.
• Minimal package health checks: version, top-level imports, testing helpers, and python -m nemoguardrails --help.
• Optional dependency errors that mention missing modules or pip install 'nemoguardrails[extra]'.
• Broken nemoguardrails console command where module invocation might still work.

Route away

• Config folders, config.yml, Colang, rails selection, prompts, custom actions, or provider definitions: use ../configure-rails/SKILL.md.
• Guardrails/LLMRails generation, server startup, LangChain/RunnableRails execution, streaming, /v1/* API usage: use ../run-rails/SKILL.md.
• Evaluation, tracing, telemetry, metrics, or compliance reports: use ../evaluate-and-observe/SKILL.md.
• Editing the source checkout, running maintainer tests, PR policy, or contribution workflow: use ../repo-development/SKILL.md.

Operating workflow

1. Confirm Python is >=3.10,<3.14; install with the smallest extra set that matches the requested feature. See references/installation-and-extras.md.
2. Run no-provider verification before attempting live chat, server, eval, or provider-specific workflows:
   • python -m pip check
   • python -m nemoguardrails --help
   • bundled scripts/check_install.py
3. Use references/package-surface.md to identify stable public imports and testing helpers.
4. Use references/troubleshooting.md for optional dependency, console-script, Python-version, moved-import, and FastEmbed/network-smoke pitfalls.

Safe helper

Run the bundled helper from any working directory:

python sub-skills/setup-and-basics/scripts/check_install.py
python sub-skills/setup-and-basics/scripts/check_install.py --json
python sub-skills/setup-and-basics/scripts/check_install.py --check-cli
python sub-skills/setup-and-basics/scripts/check_install.py --check-module fastapi:server --check-module streamlit:eval

The helper imports package metadata and modules only. --check-cli checks CLI module importability without running a command. The helper does not instantiate rails, start servers, call providers, download models, or write files.