mcp-server-kicad

Let an AI assistant edit real KiCad projects without corrupting them.

109 MCP tools covering schematic capture, PCB layout, symbol and footprint libraries, ERC and DRC, and manufacturing exports. No screenshots, no copy-paste, no hand-edited s-expressions: the model calls tools, KiCad files change on disk.

Quick start • What you get • Configuration • Tool reference • Requirements • Contributing

What it looks like

"Add a 100 nF decoupling cap on U1's VCC pin, then check ERC."

  get_pin_positions            locate U1's VCC and GND pins
  auto_place_decoupling_cap    place C3, wire it, drop the junctions
  run_erc                      report what the change broke

"Now push the netlist to the board and route it."

  update_pcb_from_schematic    sync footprints and pad nets onto the PCB
  autoroute_pcb                route with Freerouting
  run_drc                      clearance, width, and unconnected checks

Every tool works on the real file. Writes go through a byte-preserving substrate, so bytes you did not ask to change reach the disk unchanged, and an edit that cannot be done correctly is refused with the file intact. That now covers every board and schematic this server writes. The two library upgrades are the only tools that let KiCad do the writing, and they say so on themselves.

Quick start

Claude Code

Install the plugin. It wires up the server and ships the design skills with it:

claude plugin marketplace add ProductOfAmerica/mcp-server-kicad
claude plugin install kicad

Claude Desktop

Download kicad-<version>.mcpb from the latest release and install it from Settings, then Extensions. Claude Desktop fetches Python and the package itself, so KiCad is the only thing you need installed first.

Fill in the schematic, board, and export paths it asks for. Unlike the Claude Code plugin, Desktop does not run from your project directory, so nothing is auto-detected. Leave the kicad-cli field blank unless KiCad lives somewhere unusual; stock installs are found on their own, on every platform. The design skills are Claude Code only.

Everything else

pip install mcp-server-kicad

Then point your MCP client at the unified server and set cwd to a KiCad project directory so paths resolve themselves:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kicad": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-server-kicad", "mcp-server-kicad"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/kicad/project"
    }
  }
}

That single entry registers all 109 tools. Prefer to split them across five smaller servers? See Configuration.

What you get

Five tool servers

Run them as one unified server, or separately when you want a smaller tool surface in context.

Six design skills (Claude Code plugin)

Tools alone let a model click every button. The bundled skills teach it which buttons, in what order, and what "done" looks like.

The design skills hand their artifacts to independent reviewer subagents (agents/) before moving on, so a bad BOM or a bad placement plan gets caught before it becomes a schematic.

Configuration

Split servers

Five entries instead of one, when you want to load only part of the tool surface:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kicad-schematic": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-server-kicad", "mcp-server-kicad-schematic"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/kicad/project"
    },
    "kicad-pcb": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-server-kicad", "mcp-server-kicad-pcb"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/kicad/project"
    },
    "kicad-symbol": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-server-kicad", "mcp-server-kicad-symbol"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/kicad/project"
    },
    "kicad-footprint": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-server-kicad", "mcp-server-kicad-footprint"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/kicad/project"
    },
    "kicad-project": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "mcp-server-kicad", "mcp-server-kicad-project"],
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/kicad/project"
    }
  }
}

uvx --from mcp-server-kicad mcp-server-kicad-schematic

How paths resolve

Highest priority wins:

1. Tool parameters. Every tool accepts an explicit path.
2. Environment variables. They override anything auto-detected.
3. Auto-detect. The working directory is scanned for a .kicad_pro, and the schematic, board, and library paths are derived from it.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• KiCad 9.x or 10.x, for the tools that shell out to kicad-cli: ERC, DRC, and every export. The read and write tools parse files directly and need no KiCad install at all.

CI runs the full suite on Linux against KiCad 9 and on macOS against KiCad 10, plus a KiCad-free matrix across Python 3.10 through 3.13.

Finding your KiCad install

kicad-cli is looked up on PATH, then inside /Applications/KiCad/KiCad.app on macOS, then in the standard Windows install folders, machine-wide under Program Files and per-user under AppData, newest version first. Neither installer adds it to PATH. Everything else in the KiCad tree is located relative to it, the same way KiCad itself does it, so a stock install on any platform needs no configuration: the stock symbol libraries and the bundled Python that provides pcbnew are both found automatically.

Override any of it if your install is unusual:

CLI-backed tools are always registered. Without kicad-cli they fail with a message naming KICAD_CLI_PATH, rather than vanishing from the tool list.

KiCad 10 files

Every tool parses and edits through the byte-preserving substrate, so none of them refuses a file on its format version, and none of them rewrites bytes you did not ask to change. Two caveats are worth knowing about.