Agent skill · software engineering · nvidia
jetson-headless-mode
Plan and apply safe Jetson headless-mode changes to reclaim GUI and daemon memory.
Why this skill is useful
Adds two executable scripts for planning and applying headless mode changes on Jetson devices, which are not commonly found in public documentation.
What it needs
Requires bash installed locally. About 4k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 2,816 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Jetson Headless Mode Plan-then-apply for safe, reversible user-space memory reclamation: switch the default systemd target away from graphical.target and disable a curated set of non-essential daemons. This is the highest-yield, lowest-risk memory win on Jetson. Purpose Build a user-approved headless-mode plan from live audit data, then apply only safe, reversible user-space changes that reduce desktop and daemon memory use on Jetson. When to use "Free as much memory as possible — I don't need the GUI." "I'm shipping this Jetson as an inference appliance / edge node." After jetson-memory-audit shows defaultsystemdtarget=graphical.target or shows gdm3 / lightdm / sddm active on a system the user describes as headless. When NOT to use The user needs the local desktop, display output, kiosk UI, or any X/Wayland session. In that case, do not recommend disabling the graphical target or display manager; use jetson-memory-audit for a read-only view and suggest non-GUI memory options instead. You do not have current audit data. Run jetson-memory-audit first, or ask the user for its output, before proposing changes or estimating savings. Use live device data as the source of truth. Jetson family, SKU/variant, memory totals, active display services, and savings estimates must come from jetson-diagnostic/scripts/detectjetson.sh, audit.json, or a fresh jetson-memory-audit run. If a value is not available, say it is unknown instead of guessing. The savings numbers below are upper bounds; the real delta is whatever a before/after audit reports. Prerequisites Start from a current jetson-memory-audit JSON snapshot. Confirm the user does not need the local desktop, display output, kiosk UI, or X/Wayland session. Mutating changes require sudo and explicit user approval; dry-run first unless approval was already given in the same prompt. Run on the Jetson host or in a host-visible sandbox with access to systemd state. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills nvidia/jetson-headless-mode