KiCad MCP servers and AI agent skills

How AI connects to KiCad

An MCP server or skill can only do what KiCad lets programs do. KiCad exposes 4 automation interfaces:

• IPC API (kicad-python) (Python): A running KiCad instance acts as a server once you enable the API in Preferences. Clients talk to it with Protocol Buffers messages over NNG on a local socket, and kicad-python (the kipy module on PyPI) wraps this for Python. Requests are handled on KiCad's GUI thread, so a busy editor can delay or time out a call, and you should keep to one connection at a time. Servers using this route show their edits live in the editor and can group them into one undo step. KiCad 9 first stabilised the API; it is still growing, and schematic coverage lags the board editor. Documentation
• SWIG pcbnew Python bindings (Python): The pcbnew module loads and saves boards without the PCB Editor open, which is why older MCP servers run inside KiCad's bundled Python interpreter. It covers the PCB editor only, changes between major versions, and has been deprecated since KiCad 9; the developers plan to drop it in KiCad 11. A server that depends on it for zone fills or board edits may need rework when you upgrade. Documentation
• kicad-cli (Command line): The command-line tool runs ERC and DRC and exports netlists, BOMs, Gerbers, drill files, PDFs and 3D models without opening the GUI. Nearly every server on this page shells out to it for checks and fabrication output, because its reports come from KiCad's own engines rather than from the server's parser. Documentation
• S-expression project files (Input files): Schematics, boards, symbol and footprint libraries are plain-text S-expressions with a published format specification. Skills and file-based servers parse and write these directly, so they work without KiCad installed, but a careless write can corrupt a sheet; the stronger tools preserve UUIDs and write atomically. Documentation

What KiCad project (open source) offers

The KiCad project hasn't announced an MCP server or a built-in AI assistant. Its developer documentation describes the IPC API as the supported way for external software to control a running KiCad, and says the SWIG Python bindings are deprecated and due for removal in KiCad 11. Every server and skill on this page is a third-party project.

Checked 4 Nov 2026. Sources: KiCad IPC API (KiCad developer documentation), PCB Python bindings deprecation notice (KiCad developer documentation)

What you can do with KiCad and AI

• Place footprints, route tracks, add vias and refill zones on the board open in KiCad, with each change landing in the editor's undo history.
• Trace which pins share a net, list parts by value or reference, and extract a BOM from a .kicad_sch without opening the schematic editor.
• Run ERC and DRC through kicad-cli, triage the violations and re-run after fixes before you export Gerbers, drill and pick-and-place files.
• Review a design for missing ESD protection, decoupling gaps, regulator feedback ratios and crystal load capacitance before ordering boards.
• Generate testbenches for subcircuits found in the schematic and simulate them in ngspice or LTspice.
• Autoroute through Freerouting with a Specctra DSN export and SES import, then check the result with DRC.

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

Installing

The listings here document setup for Cherry Studio, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cline, Codex, Cursor, Gemini, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Google Antigravity, OpenCode, VS Code, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf and opencode. Install steps, copied from each project's own documentation, are on each listing's page. Most KiCad integrations run on your own computer next to KiCad, so you need KiCad installed and licensed on the same machine unless the listing says otherwise.