Keysight ADS MCP servers and AI agent skills

How AI connects to Keysight ADS

An MCP server or skill can only do what Keysight ADS lets programs do. Keysight ADS exposes 2 automation interfaces:

• ADS Python API (keysight.ads.de and related packages) (Python): ADS bundles its own CPython with packages for the design environment (workspaces, libraries, schematics and layouts), datasets, Data Display and the circuit simulator. Some functions only work inside a running ADS process, which is why the official MCP server attaches to a live session. Recent releases add Python macro recording, which turns a GUI workflow into equivalent code, and script generation from an existing schematic or layout, both useful as examples for an agent. Documentation
• AEL (Application Extension Language) (Other): AEL is the older C-like extension language behind much of the ADS user interface, menus and design kits. It still matters for non-interactive tasks such as Gerber and drill import, where ADS 2026 Update 2 added eleven new AEL calls, and the community skill can bridge to AEL from Python when a feature has no Python API yet.

What Keysight offers

Keysight announced MCP servers for ADS 2027 and RF Circuit Simulation Professional on 6 October 2026, described as giving agents Keysight-built skills and tools and working with whatever assistant you already use. The ADS 2027 release notes say the ADS MCP server connects clients such as VS Code to an active session to run Python and fetch documentation. ADS also offers EDA Chat and EDA Copilots as add-ons, opened from Help > Chat.

Checked 4 Nov 2026. Sources: Keysight news release, "Keysight Advances its Design Software with Agentic AI", Keysight ADS 2027 product release

What you can do with Keysight ADS and AI

• Attach to the ADS session you have open, summarise the workspace, and run Python against its libraries, cells and schematics.
• Run harmonic balance, S-parameter or DC simulations on an amplifier, mixer or filter and read the numbers straight from the .ds dataset into CSV or JSON.
• Synthesise transmission lines with LineCalc, lay out a PCB with substrates, pad stacks and vias, and set up a Momentum or RFPro EM run.
• Run DRC and export Gerber and drill files, then check the exported drill data independently.
• Search ADS workflow guides and Python API reference pages from the agent before it writes code.

Taken from the listings' own documentation. Check each listing for exactly what it supports.

Installing

The listings here document setup for Codex and VS Code. Install steps, copied from each project's own documentation, are on each listing's page. Most Keysight ADS integrations run on your own computer next to Keysight ADS, so you need Keysight ADS installed and licensed on the same machine unless the listing says otherwise.