Tuyaopen/debug Helper

TuyaOpen Debug Helper

Provides non-blocking serial log capture for agents using tos.py monitor -l. The monitor runs as a background subprocess; the agent reads log output from a file and stops the process when done.

Script location

.agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py

No extra dependencies — uses Python stdlib only.

Quick usage

# Start background monitor (logs to <project_dir>/.target_logging/YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.log)
$OPEN_SDK_PYTHON .agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py start -p /dev/ttyACM1

# Read last 200 lines (JSON output for agent parsing)
$OPEN_SDK_PYTHON .agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py --json tail -n 200

# Stop monitor (releases serial port)
$OPEN_SDK_PYTHON .agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py stop

Commands

Add --json before the command for machine-readable output.

Log file location

All logs and session state are written to <project_dir>/.target_logging/, where <project_dir> is the directory containing app_default.config (the TuyaOpen project root). The script finds this automatically by searching upward from the current working directory.

This location keeps logs with the project they belong to. The TuyaOpen SDK .gitignore contains .target_logging as an unanchored rule — it matches at any depth in the repository, so logs are always gitignored regardless of where the project lives under the SDK.

<project_dir>/                    e.g. apps/tuya_cloud/switch_demo/
└── .target_logging/              gitignored by SDK .gitignore
    ├── session.json              active monitor session (PID + log path)
    └── YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.log       auto-named log file per session

Session file

Session state (PID + log file path) is stored in <project_dir>/.target_logging/session.json. Only one monitor session runs at a time — starting a new one automatically stops the previous.

Port selection: single-serial vs dual-UART boards

List ports with the USB metadata that identifies them, and group on usbSerial — one physical board is one usbSerial:

$OPEN_SDK_ROOT/tools/tyutool/tyutool_cli list-ports --json

Rank by usbInterface, not by COM/ttyACM number — they disagree on Windows, where a board can enumerate COM33 = interface 2 (log) next to COM34 = interface 0 (flash). Typical, not guaranteed: if log output is absent or garbled after start, try the other port of the same usbSerial.

Single-serial boards: the monitor owns the port exclusively. Flash, auth and log all share one OS resource, so a running monitor makes tos.py flash / tyutool_cli authorize fail with PermissionError 13 / Access is denied / Device or resource busy. stop the session before those commands and start it again afterwards — on these boards the build-flash-monitor loop is strictly sequential. Dual-serial boards can hold the log port open throughout.

Bare ls /dev/ttyACM* or [System.IO.Ports.SerialPort]::GetPortNames() still shows that ports exist, but carries no usbSerial / usbInterface, so it cannot tell you which port to open or whether two entries are one board.

Typical agent workflow

# 1. Start background monitor
$OPEN_SDK_PYTHON .agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py \
    --json start -p /dev/ttyACM1

# 2. Flash firmware (monitor keeps logging while flash runs on other port)
tos.py flash -p /dev/ttyACM0

# 3. Wait for boot, then read log
$OPEN_SDK_PYTHON .agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py \
    --json tail -n 200

# 4. Analyze: look for [ty E], OPRT_ errors, "feed watchdog", "mqtt connected"

# 5. Stop when done
$OPEN_SDK_PYTHON .agents/skills/tuyaopen-debug-helper/scripts/monitor_helper.py stop

Log analysis patterns

Related skills

• tuyaopen/dev-loop — full build→flash→monitor→analyze loop (calls this skill)
• tuyaopen/device-auth — serial port needed before writing auth credentials