Troubleshooting Ansys Workbench through sim-cli

Workbench not detected

Symptom. sim check workbench reports the solver as missing; sim connect --solver workbench exits immediately with a launcher error.
Diagnostic. uv run sim plugin doctor workbench --deep.
Likely fix. Confirm a licensed Ansys installation that includes Workbench is on the host, and that the Workbench launcher is on PATH or discoverable via the documented Ansys install layout.

Symptom. Workbench launches then immediately exits with a license error; or a journal step fails when reaching a paid-only system.
Diagnostic. Launch Workbench once interactively outside sim-cli to confirm licensing, then uv run sim plugin doctor workbench --deep.
Likely fix. Resolve the license-server error with your Ansys administrator. Confirm the feature your journal needs (Mechanical, Fluent, etc.) is actually licensed on the seat sim-cli is using.

Symptom. Agent thinks Workbench is open but journal steps target a different process or no process at all; the project file is locked by a stray previous session.
Diagnostic. uv run sim inspect session.health.
Likely fix. sim disconnect, close any orphan Workbench windows and AnsysWBU / Ans.Mechanical background processes, then reconnect against the canonical .wbpj path.

Symptom. Agent reports an edit to one project but a fresh inspection of the systems tree disagrees; or a Mechanical handoff references a stale model.
Diagnostic. uv run sim inspect session.summary and confirm the reported .wbpj path matches what the agent thinks it edited.
Likely fix. Close stray sessions, reopen against the canonical .wbpj path, save a Workbench archive checkpoint after the next successful step, and re-link any downstream Mechanical/Fluent system before continuing.

Symptom. Journal snippets reference Workbench, DesignModeler, Mechanical, or Fluent API names that don’t exist; sim exec fails with attribute errors.
Diagnostic. Re-read the bundled sim-ansys-workbench skill in .agents/skills/sim-ansys-workbench/ (or .claude/skills/sim-ansys-workbench/).
Likely fix. Re-prompt the agent with: “Do not guess Workbench journal or DesignModeler API names. Inspect the project first, then use only names returned by the inspection.” If the skill is missing, re-run uv run sim plugin sync-skills --target .agents/skills --copy.