Inspect and doctor
Finding out what is actually happening, rather than what the interface implies.
When something is not working, the useful move is to look at state rather than at output. These are the tools for that.
/doctor
/doctor
Reports what Harmony resolved: daemon reachability, resolved data directory, detected providers with their paths and versions, runtime prerequisites.
That list is deliberately the boundary of Harmony's knowledge. It will not tell you whether you are authenticated to a provider or what your plan includes, because Harmony cannot see either.
From a shell:
nala doctor
nala doctor --json
/trace
/trace
Opens the trace view for the current work — spans, timing, and what actually ran. Use it when a turn completed but did something unexpected, rather than guessing from the transcript.
/context and /memory
/context
/memory
/context shows what is currently loaded into the model's context.
/memory shows what persists across turns.
Most "the agent forgot" complaints are a context problem, and /context
answers it directly rather than by inference.
/usage
/usage
What has been consumed in this session.
IMPORTANT
This reflects what Harmony observed. It is not a bill, and it is not your provider's authoritative usage record. Harmony cannot read your quota or plan.
/agents and /tasks
/agents
/tasks
The two questions that matter when a fleet looks busy: who exists, and what state is their work in.
NOTE
A process being alive is not progress. Read task state rather than inferring from scrolling output. See delivery lifecycle.
Structured errors
Failures carry codes with a retryable flag, and transport failures are a
separate union from domain failures:
| Code | Means |
|---|---|
DAEMON_NOT_CONNECTED | No daemon reachable |
DAEMON_TIMEOUT | Daemon did not respond in time |
DAEMON_CANCELLED | The call was cancelled |
DAEMON_RPC_ERROR | The call failed at the daemon |
Seeing one of these means infrastructure, not a model refusing. That distinction saves a lot of wasted debugging.
Before reporting a problem
nala version- What you did, expected, and got
nala doctor --json, reviewed and redacted- Whether it reproduces in a fresh workspace
Point 4 separates state problems from build problems and is worth the extra minute.
WARNING
Diagnostics contain absolute paths, workspace and repository names, and provider details — routinely revealing usernames and unreleased project names. Read before sharing.