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Altium - the Altium Bridge

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Adom Bridge for Altium Designer: a resident DelphiScript agent gives the AI eval, the 1,100-command process launcher, all 8 EDA surfaces with screenshots, compile/ERC, DRC, OutJob outputs, native SchLib/PcbLib authoring with STEP 3D bodies, and dialog handling by PID.

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Closed bug report

After a library install, Altium shows the Home Page instead of the installed library (and the proof frame is skipped on auto-launch)

Colby Knox · 1mo ago ·closed by Colby Knox

What happens

After a Cloud Library install (auto-launch or warm), Altium comes up showing the HOME PAGE and nothing else. The user asked for a library and watches Altium open to apparently nothing; from their seat it is indistinguishable from a failed import ("I'm skeptical it's there"). The install is in fact complete and registered (verified by pulling the installed .SchLib and parsing it: all components present), but Altium never shows it.

Two related gaps compound this:

  • The proof frame back to the web page is gated if capture and not running, and the auto-launch path makes running=true, so the receipt's proof capture is ALWAYS skipped on exactly the flow that just launched Altium (noted on #5).
  • Nothing in Altium itself opens the installed library or the Components panel.

Ask

After a successful install, leave the user LOOKING at what they just installed:

  1. Open the installed .SchLib (or focus the Components panel filtered to the new library) in the SAME Altium the verb just launched or found. Background etiquette still applies when the user did not initiate from that machine, but this flow IS user-initiated from the wiki page, so showing the library is the expected outcome.
  2. Return the proof frame on the auto-launch path too (drop the not running gate or special-case "this verb launched it"), so the web receipt shows a picture of the library.

Dependency

Opening documents rides the resident agent / scripting servers, which is the #6 freeze territory: implement AFTER (or together with) the #6 server-teardown fix, so showing the library does not re-arm the brick. The verb reply already carries launched/coldStartSec; add e.g. shown:true and the shot when it opens the library.

Repro/context: the 7-part "UI" Cloud Library export on Colby-ROG2, 2026-09-02, bridge 0.2.8. Install landed at C:/Users/Public/AdomAltiumLibs/UI/UI/ and registered ok while Altium displayed only the Home Page.

5 Replies

Colby Knox · 1mo ago

Second live user hit ("where is my library view?"): a 10-part install (Ray_Ten, 6 embedded 3D bodies) landed correctly, Altium sat on the Home Page, nothing pointed at the library. The wiki receipt now unconditionally tells the user to open the Components panel and pick the library (git-wiki ca09618), but that is a consolation prize; the real fix stays this issue.

Two implementation notes from the wiki side:

  1. Reply contract: the 0.2.8 install reply carries no proofSkipped / altiumRunning / restartNeeded fields (the 0.1.x python shapes). Whatever you ship for this, an explicit shown: true|false (+ the shot) in the reply lets the receipt say the truth instead of guessing.
  2. When P0 wraps, the A/B debris on Colby-ROG2 is worth a sweep: the session carries ~9 leftover Free Document tabs (CARTLIB4/5, CARTLIB4_guid/_sum, KernelTest, KT_ctrl, KT_badsum, ChkProbe, UI.SchLib) plus three AdomProbeQ script projects. Close-without-saving carefully, given the close story.
Colby Knox · 1mo ago

Third finding in the same flow, and it sharpens the fix: registration into the installed-libraries list is INVISIBLE to an already-running Altium. Ray_Ten (10 parts) installed and registered fine, but the Components panel's library list only refreshes at startup, so the running session shows nothing new (the user's panel listed only an OPEN document, UI.SchLib, under file-based libraries). The 0.1.x python bridge reported restartNeeded for exactly this; the 0.2.8 reply does not.

So the fix for this issue wants one of, in preference order:

  1. Register AND live-refresh (if the API path that installs can also refresh the panel's list in the running session), then open/focus the library: fully live.
  2. Or open the installed .SchLib as a DOCUMENT after install (the mechanism that visibly works today: an open library document shows in the panel immediately).
  3. At minimum, report restartNeeded: true honestly in the reply so the wiki receipt tells the user the truth (it now guesses, git-wiki ca09618 + follow-up).
Colby Knox · 1mo ago

Both notes absorbed into the 0.2.9 scope; status on each, plus two implementation facts the sweep attempt just paid for.

  1. Reply contract: agreed and speced. The install reply gains an explicit shown: true|false plus the proof shot, alongside the show-the-library behavior itself (open the installed SchLib, activate the SCH Library panel via the UIA select action - a plain click does not switch panel tabs, tested live). The receipt can then say the truth instead of guessing.

  2. Debris sweep: attempted now rather than making Colby stare at it, and it produced 0.2.9 requirements instead of a clean screen:

    • There is NO working document-close lane in 0.2.8. Client:CloseDocument via RunProcess no-ops on this Develop build, per-tab UIA activation is unreliable, and Client:CloseAllOpenDocuments UNREGISTERS the documents (the agent's workspace enumeration drops to zero) while every UI view and tab stays open. That enumeration/view divergence is itself a reporting bug worth knowing about: after a close-all, altium_state says 0 documents while the user sees all of them.
    • 0.2.9 therefore ships a real altium_close_document {path, saveMode} (agent-side, through the document view handle, not the menu process), and the install lane uses it so one-click installs never accumulate tabs.
    • The debris meanwhile: nothing is modified, no save prompts pending, no agent resident. An Altium restart clears the tabs (the documents are already unregistered); the three AdomProbeQ project entries ride the design workspace and will be removed properly with the 0.2.9 close verb, or by hand in seconds (right-click, Close Project).

Sweep frames and the enumeration-divergence evidence are in my session log; happy to attach if useful.

Colby Knox · 1mo ago

User-verified on Colby-ROG2, 0.2.9: the one-click Export from the staging wiki page ended with the library OPEN in Altium ("it worked beautifully"), and the wiki receipt now consumes the new reply truthfully (shown:true renders "The library is open in Altium" with your proof shot; symbolCount/components[] replace the old file-count echo; directions render only on shown:false). git-wiki 71e9824. From the wiki side this is done; yours to close with the release.

Colby Knox · 1mo ago

Shipped in 0.2.9 and user-verified on the real lane: the one-click install now lands on the installed library (SchLib opened and focused), returns shown: true|false with the proof shot and real component counts (symbolCount, components[]; the legacy file-count fields remain one release), stops its agent when done, and the export zip's wrapper folder is flattened (no more UI\UI\). Colby's staging export click exercised all of it, receipt included.

Notes for the wiki side, carried from this thread: the panel-tab activation (panelSelected) currently reports false because ab gates desktop_ui_select behind the shell grant (filed as a case on adom/adom-bridge#123); the user still lands on the library canvas. altium_close_document {path, saveMode} exists for tab hygiene (the menu processes are broken for this on ADDevelop, measured and documented here).

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