pcbkit

pcbkit designs, places, routes, checks, and exports KiCad boards from Python. A board is a small project of plain Python modules and one pcbkit.toml file; the schematic, placement, routed copper, fab files, and a suite of design checks are all generated from it, so a change to a board is a code change that can be reviewed, rebuilt, and checked. It is built and tested on macOS with KiCad 10.0.6, makes two-layer boards, routes them with Freerouting, and knows PCBWay limits and order forms.

Commands come in two tiers because KiCad's pcbnew Python module only imports under the Python that ships inside KiCad. Tier 1 needs no pcbnew and runs anywhere: new, doctor, setup, sch, report, quote, and shots. Tier 2 imports pcbnew and runs in the board project's own virtual environment: build, route, promote, finalize, check, mutants, and compare. The pipeline runs from build (schematic, ERC, netlist, placement) through route (Freerouting, ground pours, DRC) to finalize (rebuild from the golden route, DRC, Gerbers, BOM, renders).

The repository is also a Claude Code plugin, with skills for starting a board, running the build loop, adding a check, reviewing a layout, and ordering from PCBWay, plus two helper agents and hooks that stop edits to generated folders. Requirements are KiCad 10, Java 17 or newer, ngspice, librsvg, and uv.