konnect-maintained
Maintained fork of the archived Konnect KiCad MCP server.
What it does and how it connects
konnect-maintained is an independent maintenance repository derived from mixelpixx/Konnect, created by its original author and contributors. The original repository was archived in October 2026, and its Git history, contributor attribution and AGPL-3.0 license are preserved here. It is maintained by dylbertram and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Orchis.ai LLC or its commercial Konnect-EDA product.
Konnect is a native KiCad plugin, a single Rust binary, that lets Claude and other AI assistants design schematics and PCBs through the Model Context Protocol. The README states 228 tools across 21 on-demand toolsets, covering schematic capture, PCB layout and routing, ERC and DRC, design-review audits, JLCPCB part search, reference circuits, and a full manufacturing export pipeline, with bundled skills and agents that teach Claude KiCad conventions out of the box.
The architecture is the same as Konnect's: a single static binary with no Node.js, Python or bindings to install, board edits through KiCad 10's official IPC API with KiCad's own undo and redo, schematic edits through its own S-expression engine with atomic writes, and a router that loads a starter kit of about 2K tokens and pulls toolsets in on demand instead of exposing all 228 tools at once. The README labels the project beta and notes no independently maintained release has been published yet.
Alternatives
Compare side by side- Copperpour
The community-maintained AGPL fork of Konnect that added 60 open pull requests on top of Konnect v0.13.0, rather than independent maintenance of the archived project.
- openkonnect
A clean-room MIT MCP server for KiCad 10, still Phase 0 with read-only inspection plus save, sync and handoff tools, rather than maintenance of the archived Konnect codebase.
- kicad-mcp-pro
An MCP server that drives KiCad workflows with profile gated tools, rather than a native KiCad plugin maintained from the archived Konnect code.
- KiCAD MCP Server (mixelpixx)
The original Python and TypeScript MCP server that Konnect succeeded, rather than Konnect itself.
Recurring errors it addresses
Error Index entries this tool is built to reduce or work around.
- The released Konnect fork binary rejected all 13 existing child-sheet symbols as stale because it used the schematic's own UUID instead of the top-level sheet UUID.Error Index
- Flipping a component with Konnect does not mirror inner copper layers the way KiCad does. On an 8-layer board the footprint moved sides but its pads stayed on In5.Cu instead of mirroring to In2.Cu, and 5 net-ties ended up tying LPDDR4 branch nets on the In5 GND plane layer instead of In2, with no warning.Error Index
- Moving a component onto another net's via through Konnect's IPC move silently re-nets the copper: KiCad changes the via's net to the moved pad's net. A ground stitching via took on the test point's supply net and the ground plane lost it, while DRC stayed clean. A synthetic repro with KiCad's own Python shows a closed-file move does not re-net, so the hazard is specific to the agent's live move path.Error Index
- The connect_to_net and connect_pins tools resolve a reference plus pin number by taking the first placed symbol with the pin, picked by file order. With two Device:R symbols both referenced R4, the call wired one of them and answered isError: false; the netlist showed the second R4's pin as unconnected, and nothing in the response said the second R4 exists.Error Index
- On any board with a copper zone, update_pcb_from_schematic marked every board net as routed and refused every pad-net change as routed_pad_net_change, even when neither the old nor the new net had any track, arc or via. The zone's own net is readable in the protobuf, but the tool failed closed on all nets instead of just the zone's. Since nearly every real board has a ground pour, no connection on such a board could be changed by the agent.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 public issues listed via the API.
- No GitHub releases exist, so latest release fields are null; the README states no independently maintained release has been published yet.
- A named individual builder beyond the repository owner handle dylbertram
Last verified November 6, 2026. Listings are informational. The evidence score measures public, verifiable evidence and is not an endorsement or a compatibility claim.