name: hydrogen-instapcb description: > The playbook a (second, background) Claude conversation runs after setup to wire up the user's InstaPCB quoting workflow inside Hydrogen: find any InstaPCB quotes they uploaded earlier, bring one up in the InstaPCB quoting engine in Hydrogen, and — if they want — set up a live loop so KiCad design changes auto-import and the quote re-quotes on-the-fly with zero manual steps. Detect + report + offer first; build the watch→reload loop only on a yes. READ

  • RUN this when a thread is asked about InstaPCB quotes / "bring up my instapcb quote" / "auto reload my quote as I change my board". Trigger words — instapcb, insta pcb, instapcb quote, quoting engine, bring up my quote, reload quote, on-the-fly quote, auto quote, requote, pcb quote, board quote, kicad to quote, watch kicad reload, live quote, instapcb-quote app.

InstaPCB quoting workflow — discover & wire the live loop (background, opt-in)

You're (likely) a second background Claude conversation asked to set up the user's InstaPCB quoting loop. The dream: they tweak their KiCad board, and their InstaPCB quote updates by itself — no export, no re-upload, no clicking. Get there in stages: discover → bring up a quote → offer the live loop → build it only on a yes. Don't change anything until they confirm.

1. Discover (report, don't assume)

The InstaPCB quoting engine is the instapcb-quote app (Ray's app), surfaced inside Hydrogen as a webview/app — it is NOT part of Hydrogen itself, so locate it rather than guess:

# Is the quoting app running / reachable? (check the running webviews + workspace tabs)
adom-cli hydrogen probe                          # window_mode, sse
adom-cli hydrogen workspace get                  # open tabs — is an InstaPCB/quote tab already up?
# Where did earlier uploads land? look for staged quotes/uploads:
ls -la ~/project 2>/dev/null | grep -iE "instapcb|quote|gerber"
find ~/project -maxdepth 3 -iname "*instapcb*" -o -iname "*quote*.json" -o -iname "*gerber*" 2>/dev/null | head
  • If you can't find the app or prior quotes, say so plainly and ask the user where the InstaPCB app lives (port/URL) and where they uploaded quotes — don't fabricate a "no quotes found." (Unknown ≠ none.)
  • Report: which prior quotes you found (names/ids), and whether the quoting engine is open.

2. Bring up a quote in the engine

Open the InstaPCB app in the user's chosen surface and load the quote they pick (see hydrogen-open-url for webview-vs-pup; wv is the default for a tab they keep). If the app exposes a quote-by-id URL or an import action, use it; otherwise drive the UI (pup for a scriptable window). Verify it actually loaded (title/eval), don't assume ok.

3. Offer the live loop (the payoff) — build only on a yes

"Want me to wire it so your KiCad edits flow into the quote automatically? You change the board, I re-export and the quote refreshes — no clicking." If yes, build the loop:

  1. Watch the KiCad design — watch the user's .kicad_pcb (+ schematic) for saves. Use a file watcher in the workspace, or adom-bridge-cli watch around a poll of the board's mtime (see adom-bridge-cli-fusion's watch wrapper for the streaming pattern).
  2. On change → produce the artifact InstaPCB needs. Most quoting wants gerbers — export them from KiCad (kicad-cli / the PCB editor's plot), staged into ~/project. (KiCad bridge: open/drive the board — see hydrogen-bridges/adom-bridge-cli-kicad.)
  3. Push to the quoting engine + re-quote. Feed the new gerbers/board to the instapcb-quote app (its import/upload path) and trigger a re-quote; if it has no API, drive the upload UI via pup and reload. Reload the quote view so the user sees the new number appear on its own.
  4. Debounce + show state — don't re-quote on every keystroke-save; debounce, and surface a small "re-quoting…" / "quote updated" status so the loop is never silently running.

This is the AI-first electronics loop in miniature: KiCad → workspace → quote, glued by the AI. If it works well, it's exactly the kind of thing worth publishing to the Adom wiki so every InstaPCB user gets the live loop (see hydrogen-eda-discovery §3).

4. Etiquette

  • Detect + offer; don't auto-build. The watch loop changes files / drives the app — confirm first.
  • Verify the engine + quotes exist before claiming anything ("I found 2 quotes: …" or "I can't find the InstaPCB app — where is it?"). Never report a false negative.
  • Keep the loop observable + debounced; let the user pause/stop it.
  • InstaPCB is Ray's instapcb-quote app, not an Hydrogen feature — file quirks/bugs to the instapcb-quote feedback list, not as Hydrogen bugs.
  • hydrogen-eda-discovery — the sibling post-setup discovery tab (EDA tools); same detect→offer pattern + the AI-first/Adom-wiki frame
  • hydrogen-bridges — KiCad bridge verbs (open/plot/export the board)
  • pup — driving the InstaPCB upload/quote UI; hydrogen-open-url — opening the app (wv vs pup)