hz-quest-verify-first

Verify First — Meta Quest Development

What you need to know before reading the rest of this

You are about to be told to call tools you may not recognize by name. Read this section first so the rest makes sense.

• Meta Quest is Meta's line of standalone VR / mixed-reality headsets (Quest 2, Quest 3, Quest 3S, Quest Pro). They run an Android-based OS.
• Horizon OS is the name of that operating system. It is forked from Android, ships on every Quest headset, and Meta updates it on its own cadence (separate from upstream Android). Many APIs are Horizon-OS-specific and have no analog in stock Android.
• metavr ("Meta VR CLI") is a Rust CLI tool published by Meta as a standalone binary and as metavr on npm. Invoke via metavr <args> (or npx -y metavr <args> with no install; npx always pulls the latest published version). It wraps adb and Meta's developer APIs into higher-level commands for Meta VR device development: list devices, install apps, capture Perfetto traces, search Meta VR documentation, query 3D asset libraries, automate UI interactions, etc. metavr is the primary action layer for Meta VR dev work — the equivalent of what gcloud is for GCP or git is for source control.
• metavr MCP server is a built-in mode of metavr that exposes a focused set of tools to AI coding agents over the Model Context Protocol. The relevant tools for this skill are:
  • vr_docs_search — search the official Meta developer documentation
  • vr_docs_get_page — fetch the full text of a specific docs page
  • device — query and control connected Meta VR Glasses and Meta Quest headsets (list, info, connect, reboot, battery, controllers, proximity, etc.)
  • app — query and manage installed apps (list, info, install, uninstall, launch, stop, clear)
  • files — file ops on a connected Meta VR device (ls, push, pull, rm, mkdir)
  • run — catch-all for any metavr subcommand without a dedicated tool (perf, ovrmetrics, ui, audio, casting, window, unity, sideload, asset, config, …). Its JSON Schema is generated from clap so the available subcommands and their typed args are visible to you in the tool definition.
  • cli_help — discover metavr subcommands and flags as markdown
• Meta SDKs you may not recognize that are commonly used in Quest projects: Meta XR All-in-One SDK (Unity), Meta XR Core / Interaction / Platform / Voice / Movement SDKs, Meta Spatial SDK (Kotlin / Android panels), IWSDK (Immersive Web SDK for WebXR), MRUK (Mixed Reality Utility Kit), Presence Platform, Horizon Platform SDK. These ship on their own release cadences, separate from Quest OS. Meta Spatial SDK is the immersive Android/Kotlin path; it is not required for ordinary 2D Android panel apps.
• OVR vs Meta XR — older Quest Unity content and most of the public web references the OVR namespace and the "Oculus Integration" Unity package. Both have been deprecated in favor of the Meta XR All-in-One SDK family. Most training data still recommends the deprecated names. Verify before recommending anything in this area.

Why this skill exists

Meta Quest and Horizon OS evolve fast. Meta SDKs ship every few weeks. APIs get renamed before public release. Manifest entitlements and store policies update monthly. Entire SDK families (Meta Spatial SDK, IWSDK, Horizon OS shells) post-date most LLM training corpora.

You almost certainly have stale knowledge about Quest specifics. The package names you remember have been renamed. The Unity menu paths have moved. The setup steps that worked on a prior Horizon OS version silently broke on the current one. The "OVR" namespace you reach for has been split across half a dozen Meta XR packages.

If you answer a Meta Quest question or write Quest-targeted code without verifying first, you will hallucinate. The user will not notice until their build fails, their app gets rejected from the store, or their AndroidManifest doesn't publish.

This skill is a hard gate. Treat it as a precondition, not a suggestion.

When this skill applies

You MUST run the verification flow below if ANY of the following is true for the current task:

• The user mentions Meta Quest, Quest 2 / 3 / 3S / Pro, Oculus, Horizon OS, MR, VR, XR, OpenXR (on Quest), Meta SDK, Meta XR, OVR, Spatial SDK, IWSDK, MRUK, Movement SDK, Voice SDK, Presence Platform, Horizon Platform SDK, hand tracking, passthrough, anchors, scene mesh, casting, eye tracking, body tracking, controllers, or platform compliance / store policy
• The repository contains any of:
  • Unity files with OVRPlugin, "Meta XR All-in-One SDK", or com.meta.xr.* in manifest.json / Packages/manifest.json
  • Spatial SDK gradle plugin (com.meta.spatial.plugins.*)
  • AndroidManifest with com.oculus.*, com.meta.quest.*, or horizon feature declarations
  • Package IDs starting with com.meta.* or com.oculus.*
  • .meta files indicating Unity, or Quest_*.uplugin / *.unrealhxr files
• The user's question references developers.meta.com/horizon, developer.oculus.com, oculus.com/sparkle-updates, or any Meta Quest documentation URL
• The agent is about to recommend any Meta SDK API, namespace, package, or AndroidManifest entitlement
• The agent is about to answer a question about app review, Meta Horizon Store submission, store-readiness or publishing requirements, content rating, or distribution
• The agent is about to write adb commands targeting a specific device
• The agent is about to claim what is or isn't installed on the user's Meta VR device

If you are not sure, the answer is YES — run the verification flow.

The verification flow

Step 1 — Identify the build path

Classify the project before choosing SDKs, docs scopes, or specialist skills:

Do not add Meta Spatial SDK to a Standard Android app merely because it targets Quest. When signals overlap, classify in this order:

1. com.meta.spatial dependency or Gradle plugin -> Meta Spatial SDK
2. Unity project files -> Unity
3. .uproject or Unreal modules -> Unreal Engine
4. OpenXR loader used directly from C/C++ or the NDK -> Native OpenXR
5. IWSDK or browser-delivered project -> WebXR
6. Otherwise, an Android app using Activities, Views, Compose, React Native, or Expo -> Standard Android

Step 2 — Verify against authoritative documentation

Before writing or recommending anything Quest-specific, call the vr_docs_search MCP tool. If MCP is not available, use the equivalent metavr CLI command metavr docs search.

MCP:

vr_docs_search(
  query="<the specific claim or API you are about to make>",
  scope="auto",   # or unity / unreal / spatial_sdk / android / native / web /
                  #    policy / distribution / design
  mode="verify"
)

CLI:

metavr docs search "<query>"

If you need exact wording (manifest entries, full API signatures, store policy text, code snippets), follow up with vr_docs_get_page on the canonical_url or doc_path returned by verify. Never paraphrase a truncated snippet when correctness matters.

CLI:

metavr docs fetch

Step 3 — Verify the user's actual environment

Before suggesting which device a command should target, claiming an app is installed, recommending an adb command, or writing install / launch / sideload steps, query the user's actual metavr-managed environment.

MCP:

CLI:

The user may have zero, one, or many Meta VR devices connected via USB and WiFi — multiple Quest models, dev kits, sideloaded builds, pinned older Horizon OS versions. Your training data has zero visibility into this.

Step 4 — Discover metavr capabilities when unsure

If you do not know which metavr subcommand or run invocation fits the user's request, call cli_help (MCP) or metavr --markdown-help (CLI) first. Do not invent flags or subcommands — metavr gets new functionality every release and your training data does not include it.

For long-tail subcommands (perf, ovrmetrics, ui, etc.), the run tool's input schema enumerates every subcommand path and its typed args via JSON Schema oneOf. You can read it directly from the tool definition rather than guessing.

MCP:

CLI:

Specific failure modes you cause by skipping verification

These are concrete, recurring failures that the verification flow prevents:

• Deprecated APIs that compile but no-op at runtime. OVR-namespace function names that were forwarded for one release and removed the next. Code looks correct, builds clean, runs without errors — and produces no observable behavior on device.
• AndroidManifest entitlements that get the app rejected from the Meta Horizon Store. The required entitlement names changed; an entitlement you "know" is needed is no longer recognized; a new mandatory feature flag is missing.
• Meta SDK package names that don't exist. Meta XR All-in-One SDK is a family of UPM packages with version-specific names; guessing produces "package not found" errors.
• Unity menu paths from outdated tutorials. Meta XR menu items moved between SDK versions; setup steps that reference Oculus → ... may now live under Meta XR → ... or have been removed entirely.
• Spatial SDK class names that were renamed before public release. The Spatial SDK iterated on its public API late; many class and method names in older blog posts or training data are wrong.
• Passthrough / anchor / scene-mesh setup that worked on a prior Horizon OS version. Permission flow, system overlay APIs, and manifest features changed across Quest OS versions. What worked in a tutorial last year may silently fail on current Horizon OS.
• OpenXR extensions that are listed but not supported on Quest's runtime. Generic OpenXR documentation lists extensions Meta has not implemented. Always verify against Meta's documentation, not the OpenXR spec.
• Wrong device targeted. Recommending a adb shell command without first listing devices, then watching it fail or hit the wrong device.
• Store policy claims that are out of date. Review requirements, rating buckets, and distribution rules update — verify before answering user questions about submission.

Anti-patterns

Do not do any of these:

• Answer a Meta Quest question without calling vr_docs_search first because "you remember" the answer
• Recommend an adb shell command without first calling device(action="list") to see what's connected
• Guess a package name, namespace, or class name from training data when a verify call would resolve the ambiguity
• Paraphrase a verify-result snippet for a manifest entry, API signature, or store policy when exact wording is required (use vr_docs_get_page)
• Search the open web for Meta Quest documentation when authoritative Meta docs are one tool call away
• Skip verification because "the docs probably say X" — verify, then say X
• Assume metavr does not have a subcommand for what the user wants — check cli_help first

Tone and presentation

When you do verify, present your answer with citations and a brief recency note. The user is paying for the verification step — show that it happened.

This both proves the verification ran and trains the user to trust verified-answer responses over from-memory ones.

If the metavr MCP tools are not available

If the agent host does not have the metavr MCP server installed, fall back to the metavr CLI (same authoritative backend, same content; prefix with npx -y if you use the npm distribution instead of the standalone binary) and tell the user once how to install the MCP server for next time:

The verify step is required, not optional — run it via metavr docs search "<query>" even on the very first question if the MCP server is not yet wired up.

Related skills

• metavr-cli — full metavr CLI reference (commands, flags, examples)
• hz-vr-debug — on-device debugging with logs and screenshots
• hz-perfetto-debug — Perfetto trace analysis for jank / GPU / CPU bottlenecks
• hz-store-submit — end-to-end Meta Horizon Store submission (includes store-readiness checks)
• hz-android-2d-porting — adapting a Standard Android app for Horizon OS panels
• hz-react-native-expo — React Native and Expo apps on the Standard Android path
• hz-new-project-creation — build-path-specific setup for a new Android project
• hz-spatial-sdk — Meta Spatial SDK API guidance
• hz-platform-sdk — Horizon Platform SDK API guidance
• hz-xr-simulator-install-and-configure — simulator installation and configuration for Unity, Unreal, and Native OpenXR projects
• hz-unity-project-analyzer — inspect and classify an existing Unity project
• hz-unity-meta-core-sdk — set up the Meta XR Core SDK in Unity
• hz-iwsdk-webxr — build immersive WebXR experiences with IWSDK
• hz-store-pwa — package and distribute a WebXR experience as a PWA