kicad-mcp (antonmadto)
MCP server to create, review, and export KiCad designs, including a Hartley and Phil's Lab style design-review engine.
What it does and how it connects
kicad-mcp is an MCP server that lets Claude analyze, review, and export KiCad 9 designs, and edit boards live with a running KiCad. Its differentiator is a built-in design-review engine encoding the teachings of Rick Hartley and Phil Salmony of Phil's Lab: stackup, return paths, grounding, decoupling, crosstalk, SMPS layout, mixed-signal partitioning, and DFM, with anti-myth guards so it never nags about 90 degree corners or shield moats.
The README states all phases 0 through 6 are implemented: headless analysis, verification, and export, a 23-rule review engine across 10 families with anti-myth guards, live board editing over IPC verified against KiCad 9.0.8, experimental schematic writes, symbol, footprint, and JLCPCB search, an async task queue, a tool router, review history, and rip-up and re-routing. It exposes 45 tools plus 4 router tools and 4 prompts, with 191 tests. The review engine returns findings grouped by severity, each with a rule ID, a one-line physics rationale, a citation, and the exact location.
Alternatives
Compare side by side- coppermind
An IPC-first transactional MCP server with a semantic schematic flow, rather than a server built around a Hartley and Phil's Lab review engine.
- copper-mcp
A local-first MCP platform where generated work stays an immutable candidate until applied, rather than a server built around a design-review engine.
- kicad-mcp-pro
An MCP server with profile-gated tools for KiCad workflows, rather than one built around a cited design-review rule catalog.
- kicad-happy
Agent skills that review KiCad schematics, PCBs, and Gerbers, rather than an MCP server with a built-in review engine.
- kicad-mcp (blwfish)
A community MCP server that drives a full KiCad workflow from a plain-language description, rather than a server built around a design-review engine.
Recurring errors it addresses
Error Index entries this tool is built to reduce or work around.
- Interactive routing creates unwanted micro-segments and awkward paths that take time to clean up.Error Index
- Grid snap and move commands can disconnect items or reposition them in unwanted ways.Error Index
- GUI lag, occasional freezes, and sluggish editor switching interrupt concentration.Error Index
- Wayland/NVIDIA users report graphical glitches, flicker, or instability.Error Index
- A KiCad MCP bridge normalizes DRC, connectivity, and geometry into its own output format, and that normalized output can silently disagree with the native KiCad engine. The maintainer had to build seeded false-PASS and false-FAIL tests because the bridge layer cannot be trusted as engineering truth on its own.Error Index
Sources
Not verified
- Pricing: none stated on the repo.
- Real user voices: no real linked post read for this page; the repo has no open issues.
- No GitHub releases exist, so latest release fields are null.
- A named individual builder beyond the repository owner handle antonmadto
Last verified November 6, 2026. Listings are informational. The evidence score measures public, verifiable evidence and is not an endorsement or a compatibility claim.