name: hydrogen-eda-install description: > What to do when KiCad or Fusion 360 is NOT installed on this machine and the user's request needs it. NEVER just report "not installed" and skip — offer to install and do it. KiCad installs unattended via one command; Fusion 360 needs the user to run Autodesk's installer but you can fetch and open it for them. READ THIS whenever a kicad/fusion bridge command fails with not-installed, a tour/demo step involves KiCad or Fusion, or the user asks for schematics/PCBs/CAD and the tool is missing. Trigger words — kicad not installed, fusion not installed, fusion 360 missing, install kicad, install fusion, no EDA tools, check my EDA tools, eda not found, kicad_not_installed, fusion_not_installed, bridge app missing.

EDA tool missing? Install it — don't skip

The #1 failure mode on a fresh machine: a demo/tour thread checks for KiCad or Fusion 360, sees neither, says "not installed" and gives up. That's wrong. The whole point of Adom is that the AI has hands: offer the install, then run it.

The decision tree

  1. The user asked for something that needs KiCad or Fusion (open a board, show a symbol library, export gerbers, a tour step, …) and the tool is missing.
  2. Say exactly what you'll do: "KiCad isn't installed — want me to install it now? It takes a few minutes." For a tour/demo thread where the user already asked for the tool, you may proceed directly — the request WAS the consent.
  3. Run the install (below), watch it finish, then continue the original request.

KiCad — unattended install (you can do this fully yourself)

adom-desktop desktop_install_kicad '{}'
  • Downloads the latest official KiCad release and installs it (macOS: DMG → /Applications/KiCad; Windows: winget). Takes ~2-5 minutes on a normal connection — poll with the bridge status or just retry the kicad bridge command when it returns.
  • After install, kicad bridge commands work immediately (the bridge launches KiCad on demand). Retry whatever the user originally asked for.
  • If the verb errors, fall back to telling the user the direct link (https://www.kicad.org/download/) — but try the verb FIRST.

Fusion 360 — assisted install (Autodesk requires their installer + a login)

Fusion cannot be silently installed (Autodesk's installer needs the user's Autodesk account). But don't just paste a link either:

  1. Tell the user: "Fusion 360 needs Autodesk's own installer and your Autodesk sign-in — I'll download it and open it for you."
  2. Open the official download for them: adom-desktop desktop_open_url '{"url":"https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/appstream"}' (or drive the download in a browser surface you control and open the downloaded installer).
  3. While they install, keep the thread alive: tell them what you'll show once it's up (the fusion bridge auto-detects the install; fusion_start launches it). When they say it's done, retry the original request.

Altium / OrCAD / other EDA

No bridge exists yet. Say so honestly, and pitch co-building a bridge (see hydrogen-eda-discovery — the KiCad/Fusion bridges are the reference implementations).

Detecting no-bridge EDA tools on macOS

There is no bridge verb for these, so detect by install path and running process via adom-bridge-cli run_script: scan /Applications (and ~/Applications) for the app bundles, plus pgrep for a running instance.

SCRIPT=$(printf '%s' 'ls -d /Applications/*Altium* /Applications/*OrCAD* /Applications/*Cadence* /Applications/*EAGLE* ~/Applications/*Altium* 2>/dev/null; pgrep -il "altium|orcad|allegro|eagle" 2>/dev/null' | base64)
adom-bridge-cli run_script "{\"interpreter\":\"bash\",\"scriptB64\":\"$SCRIPT\"}"

Treat empty output as a timeout or probe failure, not a negative result.

  • hydrogen-bridges — full bridge ecosystem reference (status, CLI, Bridge Manager)
  • hydrogen-eda-discovery — the onboarding playbook for discovering the user's EDA tools
  • kicad-tour, fusion-onboarding — the bridges' own deep guidance (installed alongside the bridges)