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KiCad AI Assistant (kcaa)

v0.1.7

Feature DerivationLocalHardware

Based on paul356/KiCad-AI-Assistant (PyPI: kcaa). The plugin embeds chat in Schematic/PCB editors; the same MCP can run standalone over stdio for Cursor. Covers symbols/wires, hierarchical sheets, footprint placement scoring/alignment, netlists, circuit pattern ID, BOM, and DRC rules. Optional KiCad IPC hot-reload; can still operate on project files without the GUI.

📖 Docs 🔗 Source

§ Quickstart

Add the following to your MCP client configuration (Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.):

After pip install, run kcaa for Cursor / Claude Desktop and similar clients.

⚠️

Plugin install uses the Releases zip + setup_plugin; standalone MCP does not require the GUI. IPC tools fail if KiCad is not running — file-level edits still work.

Install:

pip install kcaa

MCP Client Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kicad-ai-assistant": {
      "command": "kcaa",
      "env": {
        "KICAD_SEARCH_PATHS": "C:\\path\\to\\your\\kicad-projects",
        "KICAD_APP_PATH": "C:\\Program Files\\KiCad\\10.0\\share\\kicad",
        "KICAD_VERSION": "10.0"
      }
    }
  }
}

Config file locations

Cursor: Settings → MCP, or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json
Claude Desktop: edit claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\)

View full setup guide →

§ Tools Reference

12 tools

list_projects

List KiCad projects under search paths

open_project

Open a project for subsequent tools

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
path	string	✓	Project path

find_component_connections

Trace pin-level component connections

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
reference	string	✓	Reference, e.g. U1

extract_project_netlist

Extract project-level netlist

add_symbol_to_schematic

Add a symbol to the schematic

connect_pins_with_wire

Connect pins with a wire

score_placement

Score current PCB placement quality

set_footprint_position

Set footprint position

run_drc_check

Run a DRC check

analyze_bom

Analyze the BOM

update_pcb_from_schematic

Update PCB from schematic

check_kicad_ipc_connection

Check whether KiCad IPC is connected

§ Examples

Once configured, you can ask the AI directly:

Trace component nets

Open my project, trace all U1 pin connections, and highlight power and ground.

Typical schematic investigation.

Placement advice

Score current PCB placement and list footprints to adjust first.

Kickoff for layout iteration.

Schematic to board

Update PCB from schematic, then list remaining ratsnest items.

Find unrouted nets after sync.