Konnect README

Konnect *BETA Release

AI-assisted PCB design for KiCAD 10. 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 (MCP).

228 tools across 21 on-demand toolsets. Schematic capture, PCB layout and routing, ERC/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.

Status: beta. The core toolchain is tested and working, but this is a young release and it wants real-world mileage and review. Issues and PRs are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md and the naming conventions.

Add realtime research to KiCAD MCP and Konnect. Introducing Nimrod

Nimrod is our web-research MCP server: quality-scored Google search, clean webpage extraction, and deep multi-source research. Design the board with Konnect while Nimrod pulls live parts availability, datasheets, and errata — no more guessing from year-old training data

• Works with claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, VS Code, and any MCP client
• 1 credit = 1 search · extraction always free · free 50-credit trial, no card
• Official MCP Registry: ai.orchis/nimrod

Why Konnect exists

Konnect is the successor to KiCAD-MCP-Server, a Python/TypeScript project that proved AI-driven PCB design works — and, in the process, showed exactly where that architecture runs out of road. Konnect was built to fix those specific problems:

The call path was too long. In the original server, a single tool call travels through TypeScript, schema validation, a spawned Python subprocess, JSON over stdin/stdout, a command router, and finally SWIG-generated C++ proxy objects before anything touches your board. That's four language and serialization boundaries, each with its own failure modes — subprocess lifecycle management, stdout parsing that filters out warnings KiCAD leaks into the stream, chunked-JSON reassembly. In Konnect, a tool call is a function call. One process, one language, no plumbing.

The dependency surface was enormous. Running the original means carrying Node.js and its npm tree, Python and its pip packages, wxPython, kicad-skip, and KiCAD's SWIG bindings — two package ecosystems plus a binding layer, every one of them a moving target that can break an install. Konnect is a single static binary — 20–25 MB depending on platform, a ~9 MB download. There is nothing to install alongside it and nothing to version-match.

SWIG is a dead end. The original's PCB backend depends on KiCAD's SWIG Python bindings, which KiCAD is deprecating in favor of its IPC API. SWIG also carried real operational scars: a zone-fill call that can segfault the backend, proxy-object comparison bugs, and a fallback path that can silently swap backends mid-session. Konnect talks to KiCAD 10 through the official IPC API (protobuf over NNG) — the interface KiCAD is investing in — with real-time board edits that integrate with KiCAD's own undo/redo.

Schematic edits should not corrupt files. Konnect edits .kicad_sch files through its own S-expression engine with atomic writes (write, fsync, rename), UUID preservation, and round-trip tests — no third-party schematic library with known gaps, no text-manipulation workarounds.

Context economy is a feature. Exposing all 228 tools to an LLM costs roughly 23K tokens of context on every listing. Konnect's router loads a starter kit (~2K tokens) and lets the model pull in toolsets on demand — plus built-in observability (get_recent_calls, server_stats, JSONL call logs) so the model can diagnose its own tool failures.

The result is smaller, faster to install, aligned with where KiCAD is going, and built for production use rather than experimentation. The original project remains open, maintained, and useful — see the comparison below.

What it does

Instead of describing changes and applying them by hand, the AI works your project directly:

• Place and wire schematic components — add resistors, ICs, connectors; wire them together by pin name
• Lay out the PCB — place, move, rotate, and route footprints in real time via KiCAD's IPC API, with full undo/redo integration
• Run design checks — ERC, DRC, connectivity validation, decoupling audits, power-rail review, BOM health checks
• Export production files — Gerbers, drill, BOM, pick-and-place, 3D models, PDF
• Search JLCPCB parts — find in-stock components in a local 2.5M-part catalog and suggest alternatives
• Start from reference circuits — USB-C, LDO, buck converter, STM32, I2C, LED templates with verified component values
• Watch it happen — a live schematic viewer auto-refreshes as the AI edits

The full tool catalog is documented in tool-directory.md.

How it works

Explore the request path and safety boundaries in the interactive architecture diagrams. They are published from a standalone documentation repository and add no dependencies to Konnect.

Installation

From the KiCAD Plugin Manager (recommended)

1. Download the package for your OS from Releases: konnect-pcm-v<version>-windows.zip, -macos.zip, or -linux.zip. Each bundles that platform's server binary — the macOS package is a universal build, so one download covers Apple Silicon and Intel. (The konnect-pcm-* assets are the KiCAD plugin packages; the other archives are standalone server binaries.)
2. Open KiCAD 10 → Plugin and Content Manager
3. Click Install from File and select the zip
4. Restart KiCAD

Verify: open the PCB Editor → Tools → External Plugins → you should see Konnect.

For KiCad 10, the Konnect settings dialog also offers an optional native Specctra bridge. When enabled, export_specctra_dsn can ask the active PCB Editor to generate its native DSN while Konnect still binds the export to the exact IPC snapshot and creates the strict reverse manifest used during SES import. The bridge is local-only, authenticated, disabled by default, and not the KiCad 11 integration path. Konnect uses its Rust exporter by default; native_bridge_mode: "prefer" enables fallback to Rust when the bridge is unavailable, while "require" refuses instead.

For end-to-end autorouting, run check_freerouting, then export_specctra_dsn → route_specctra_dsn → plan_specctra_ses_import / apply_specctra_ses. Readiness reports engine discovery, native-MCP compatibility, and complete bridge availability separately. The owned Java child is loopback-only and is reaped on success, failure, timeout, or cancellation. The first supported profile preserves fixed straight tracks and through vias; unlocked routing, arcs, zones, and unsupported geometry are rejected before mutation.

Build from source

# protoc is required (protobuf code generation), and cmake (the nng crate
# compiles the NNG C library with it).
# Windows: choco install protoc cmake
# macOS:   brew install protobuf cmake
# Linux:   apt install protobuf-compiler cmake
cargo build --release -p konnect

Install guidance for your AI client

Konnect bundles shared KiCad skills for Claude and Codex. Select the client when installing, checking, or removing that guidance:

# Existing behavior remains the default: Claude skills, agents, and hooks
konnect init

# Codex installs only the shared skills under ~/.agents/skills
konnect init --client codex
konnect status --client codex
konnect uninstall --client codex

MCP server startup never installs or restores guidance. Run konnect init explicitly when you want those files installed; after konnect uninstall, starting the server leaves them removed.

Guidance written by an older konnect init is not updated by upgrading the binary. konnect status compares every installed skill, agent, and hook with the bundle in the binary you run and marks each current, different, or missing. The server makes the same check once for each installed version: the first start after konnect init compares the files, records the result in ~/.konnect, and adds a one-line notice to its initialize instructions if guidance is out of sync. Later starts reuse that record, so guidance you chose to keep is not reported again. get_installation_info shows the result. Re-run konnect init to update it. It overwrites differing files, so keep a copy of any file you edited. --client remains accepted in server commands for compatibility. For example, register a standalone binary with the Codex CLI using:

codex mcp add konnect -- /path/to/konnect --client codex

Claude remains the default when --client is omitted. The installer tracks the two clients independently, and a Codex install does not create or modify ~/.claude.

--help on any subcommand prints that subcommand's usage and writes nothing — konnect init --help describes the installer rather than running it. An argument Konnect does not recognise is an error rather than being ignored, so a typo such as --cleint codex stops instead of quietly installing for the default client.

To verify which Konnect process an MCP client is actually using, call the always-visible get_installation_info tool. It reports the serving build, executable path, verified installation source when one can be proven, KiCad CLI and IPC detection, and restart guidance. A missing build commit or an unknown installation source means the available evidence was insufficient; it is not silently guessed from a directory name.

macOS

The Releases page ships standalone server binaries for both Apple Silicon (aarch64-apple-darwin) and Intel (x86_64-apple-darwin). They are not yet code-signed, so if you download one through a browser, clear the quarantine flag before first launch:

tar xzf konnect-v*-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ./konnect   # only needed for browser downloads
./konnect --help

Or build from source as above (verified on Apple Silicon; the same target/release/konnect binary is the MCP server).

KiCad on macOS keeps its tools inside the app bundle and they are not on PATH, so point Konnect at them in ~/Library/Application Support/konnect/config.toml:

kicad_cli = "/Applications/KiCad/KiCad.app/Contents/MacOS/kicad-cli"
kicad_binary = "/Applications/KiCad/KiCad.app/Contents/MacOS/kicad"
# KiCad 10's IPC socket on macOS (enable it in KiCad:
# Preferences → Plugins → "Enable KiCad API")
ipc_address = "ipc:///tmp/kicad/api.sock"

Claude Desktop's config lives at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "konnect": {
      "command": "/path/to/konnect"
    }
  }
}

For Claude Code, put the same snippet in a .mcp.json in your project root.

The macOS PCM package (konnect-pcm-v<version>-macos.zip) bundles a universal server binary, so one download covers Apple Silicon and Intel. The schematic viewer compiles and launches on macOS (Tauri 2 uses the system WKWebView — WebView2 is only a Windows requirement) but hasn't had the same mileage as the Windows build yet.

Setup with Claude Desktop

After a PCM install, the server binary lives in your KiCAD documents folder:

C:\Users\<YOU>\Documents\KiCad\10.0\3rdparty\plugins\com_github_mixelpixx_konnect\bin\konnect.exe

Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "konnect": {
      "command": "C:\\Users\\<YOU>\\Documents\\KiCad\\10.0\\3rdparty\\plugins\\com_github_mixelpixx_konnect\\bin\\konnect.exe"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and the Konnect tools appear. For Claude Code, drop the same snippet into a .mcp.json in your project root (see examples/).

Schematic viewer

A standalone viewer that auto-refreshes as the schematic file changes:

schematic-viewer.exe path\to\your\root_schematic.kicad_sch

Point it at the root sheet of a hierarchical design and every sub-sheet is rendered too, with a depth-indented sheet selector in the toolbar. Edits saved from KiCAD (or made by the AI through the schematic tools) re-render only the sheets that changed and refresh the view live — rendering runs against temp-folder snapshots, so the viewer never blocks KiCAD from saving. Pan with click-drag, zoom with the wheel, 0 to fit, R to refresh, drag-and-drop to open a different file. Also launchable by the AI via the open_schematic_viewer tool.

Needs the WebView2 runtime (pre-installed on Windows 10/11) and a KiCAD install for kicad-cli (auto-discovered, or pass --kicad-cli <path>). Built separately from the main workspace — see DEV.md for build steps.

Requirements

• KiCAD 10 (Windows is the most-tested platform; macOS works from the release binaries or a source build — see the macOS section above. Linux compiles and passes tests in CI but hasn't had per-platform QA yet; both are tracked on the roadmap)
• kicad-cli (ships with KiCAD — used for exports, ERC, DRC)
• For most PCB tools: KiCAD running with the target board open (IPC API). place_component, move_component, rotate_component, and (on KiCAD 10.0.6+) flip_component can safely fall back to a closed board file when IPC is unreachable. An older reachable KiCAD makes flip_component fail closed with unsupported_capability; it never edits the file underneath a live editor that cannot perform the native flip.

License: free for the little guys

Konnect is licensed under the GNU AGPL-3.0.

If you're a hobbyist, student, freelancer, or open-source project: use it freely, no strings attached. Design boards, ship them, sell them.

If you're a business: the AGPL requires that anything you build on or around Konnect — including software provided over a network — be open-sourced under the same license. If that doesn't work for you, commercial licenses are available: see COMMERCIAL.md.

Relationship to KiCAD-MCP-Server

The original Python/TypeScript project remains fully open (MIT) and maintained. Konnect is where new development happens — the architecture it proved, rebuilt for production:

Troubleshooting

Plugin doesn't appear in KiCAD — install via the Plugin and Content Manager (not manual copy), then restart KiCAD.

PCB tools return "KiCAD must be running with the board loaded" — open KiCAD with that board first; most PCB tools talk to the running PCB editor. Only an unreachable KiCAD produces that message: if KiCAD is running and the tool refuses anyway, the error is the tool's own reason for refusing. place_component, move_component, rotate_component, and (on KiCAD 10.0.6+) flip_component can fall back to a closed board file when no KiCAD process is reachable. An older, reachable KiCAD makes flip_component refuse rather than silently editing the file underneath it.

See docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md for socket setup, tools that don't appear after load_toolset, and transaction recovery.

"kicad-cli not found" — common install paths are auto-detected; set the path explicitly in the plugin settings dialog, in a settings.json beside the binary, or in a konnect.toml in the working directory. (A file under any other name works only when passed with --config.)

Support

• Community Discord: join the Konnect community for installation help, AI-client setup, design-workflow discussion, contributor coordination, and live project-status updates
• Issues & feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Roadmap: ROADMAP.md
• Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md