FPGA 12/13 · Deploy Claude — Release and Handover

The problem

FPGA accelerators often fail at the handoff stage because domain users without hardware backgrounds cannot navigate HDL, constraints, or complex synthesis tools. A technically perfect design is useless if the recipient cannot commission it without touching hardware-specific code.

What it does

• Packages verified bitstreams from existing repositories to avoid redundant and error-prone re-synthesis.
• Enforces call compatibility between software references and hardware variants so calling code remains unchanged.
• Generates automated receiver acceptance tests to verify bit-level results against software references within defined tolerances.
• Produces a transparent handover document that distinguishes between raw kernel speedups and actual end-to-end performance gains.
• Builds release manifests with checksums to ensure every delivery artifact is traceable to its original source state.

Why this beats prompting it yourself

This skill enforces a rigid delivery protocol that prevents common deployment traps like "hidden HDL" requirements or missing manual fallbacks. It ensures the agent focuses on the recipient's ability to run the system without hardware knowledge, rather than just generating files.

Use cases

• Creating a ready-to-run FPGA release package for a software engineering team.
• Generating a handover document that honestly communicates performance gains and limitations.
• Setting up a two-stage deployment path to validate designs on cheap hardware before target rollout.
• Standardizing an API signature to allow seamless switching between CPU and FPGA implementations.

Known limitations

Requires a fully worked-through release catalog from preceding documentation stages to begin the packaging process.