KiCad-AI-Assistant (paul356)ECADConfidence: Medium

On Windows with a machine-wide proxy, the system bypasses localhost but not 127.0.0.1, and the plugin always calls its MCP server at 127.0.0.1, so every tool call went to the proxy and failed. The plugin then wrongly reported KiCad IPC API not enabled, sending users to a preference that was already set correctly.

Impact Analysis

Persona

Electrical Engineer

Team Size Impact

5x Multiplier

Prototype Delay

3 Days

Est. Annual Cost

$30,000

1 user · 1 month240 min
Rest of team960 min
Rest of year13,200 min

monthly_minutes × 12 × team_multiplier ÷ 60 × $75/hr = $30k/yr

$75/hr assumed rate.

Annual team-minutes decomposed from the reported monthly inputs.

Evidence & Sources

1 Sources

paul356/KiCad-AI-Assistant Issue #230: [BUG] Windows: loopback MCP calls are proxied, IPC failures misreported as "KiCad API not enabled"

github.com

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Analyst Notes

From the Grok pain-radar digests, Nov 1-2 2026 (Nov 1 8:41 AM ET through Nov 2 7:41 AM ET digests plus the Haitch editions). Verified live 2026-11-02: issue/PR read; title and state confirmed.