An agent branches on the tool's exit code and stdout, and several paths sent it the wrong way: a rolled-back save printed a success-shaped result, two processes editing one project failed as an internal error, and a refusal before any save said commit_state unknown, which the skill tells the agent means repair storage.
Recurring agent failure issue in kicad-cli-extended (Hybirdss)
What engineers report
A recurring agent failure problem in kicad-cli-extended (Hybirdss) that mostly hits the electrical engineer.
Failure pattern: agent / failure
Analyst note
From the Grok pain-radar digests, Nov 8-9 2026 (Nov 8 8:41 AM ET through Nov 9 6:41 AM ET digests plus the Haitch editions). Verified live 2026-11-09: issue/PR read; title and state confirmed.
What it costs a team
Modeled annual cost
$30,000
For a team of 5
Prototype delay
3 days
Modeled schedule slip per occurrence
Time lost
240 min
Per engineer per month, about 1 incidents
How the cost is modeled
240 min/month × 5 engineers × 12 months = 240 hours × $125/hour = $30,000
A modeled estimate with medium confidence. Swap in your own team size and loaded rate to size it for your team.
Engineering tools that address it
No engineering tool profile lists this error yet. Browse tools that connect to kicad-cli-extended (Hybirdss).
Evidence
More recurring errors in kicad-cli-extended (Hybirdss)
- After an autoroute added 9 DRC errors, fab package still produced a JLC Gerber zip marked complete true with exit 0, unless the caller remembered a --fail-on-drc flag. The author's own words: an agent that gates on complete would send a shorted board to the fab.ECAD · impact 74
- On KiCad's pic_programmer demo, pcb place near put a VCC pad on another net's track and exited 0, so DRC later found shorts and solder mask bridges. The update step also reported unrouted connections using pre-placement coordinates about 100 mm off, and a worker crash reported placed.skipped with exit 0.ECAD · impact 74
- An autoroute threw away 651 seconds of routing. Grid auto refinement failed on its last step after 651 s on pic_programmer, exit 2, nothing saved. The DRC before/after gate also counted unrouted connections as new errors, so a partial route was refused and nothing saved. Follow-up to PR #10 from the 7:41 sweep.ECAD · impact 66
- On a non-English machine every ERC fix hint came back null because the wrapper parsed kicad-cli's translated messages. On KiCad 10.0.8 a valid STEP export got reported as a crash because the check looked for an English log line that build no longer prints.ECAD · impact 66
- The autoroute and placement gates compare KiCad DRC before and after an edit by item UUID. KiCad 5 boards store no UUIDs for pads or some tracks, so every load invents new ones and every old finding looked new. A routing edit far from the problem exited with DRC has 1 new error(s) and a placement was refused. Two earlier fixes matched findings by position, then by position and description, and reviewers broke both.ECAD · impact 66
- The autoroute reported routed 21, failed 0 while DRC went from 0 to 9 errors, because the router used fixed 0.6/0.3 mm vias against the board's 0.9/0.5 mm minimums and ignored copper text. Sizes now come from the board rules, and any new DRC error exits 3 without saving.ECAD · impact 66
Sourced from public community reports. Costs and delays are modeled estimates, not measurements. Know a better source or a fix? Tell us at hello@productflo.io.