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KiCad - the KiCad Bridge

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Drive your own KiCad from an AI, in the background: open every editor, read the whole board as data (the EDA Bridge Standard board model), stack-up, part heights, netlists, place, route, pour, DRC and exports.

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Closed bug report

PCM: an AI could not find docs/pcm.md and reverse-engineered KiCad source instead (verb hints + workspace skills)

John Lauer · ·closed by John Lauer

What happened (2026-10-11, arav-rog, KiCad 10.0.3, kicad-bridge 1.0.55)

An AI in Hydrogen was asked to package a user's 7 KiCad symbol libraries as a PCM package, host it on an Adom wiki page and install it. It read the kicad_pcm_* verb docs dozens of times, then went off to fetch KiCad's C++ source (kicad/pcm/pcm.h, pcm_data.h, pcm_task_manager.cpp) to reverse-engineer the package layout. This bridge already has the proven answer, docs/pcm.md (wiki page as a PCM repository, end to end on KiCad 10.0.5), but nothing the AI could see pointed there.

Why it was missed

  1. Verb hints only cover consuming a repository. kicad_pcm_install and kicad_pcm_add_repository (rust/crates/kicad-bridge/src/verbs_maint.rs) explain installing from a repository.json, but never how to BUILD one, and kicad_describe has no docs/skill pointer.
  2. The skill pack is not in the workspace. The bridge was installed on the desktop, but its skills (with the "PCM repositories on the wiki" section) were not installed in the Hydrogen workspace.
  3. No discovery triggers for PCM. Fixed today: the page now has PCM triggers (kicad pcm, pcm package, pcm repository, kicad plugin and content manager, add a github kicad library, ...), and adom-wiki discover suggest now picks adom/kicad-bridge for a PCM prompt (score 233 vs 138) after an index refresh.

Asks (items 1 and 2 need a bridge release)

  1. Add to the hint of kicad_pcm_install, kicad_pcm_add_repository and kicad_pcm_list: "To BUILD a PCM repository (package your own libraries, host repository.json + packages.json + zips on a wiki page): https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/kicad-bridge/files/docs/pcm.md. The sample repository below is the worked example." Better still, a docs field on Verb that kicad_describe returns, so every verb can link its long-form recipe.
  2. When the KiCad bridge is installed for a Hydrogen user, install its skill pack into the workspace too, or have kicad_describe/kicad_readiness return a one-line _skills hint: adom-wiki pkg install adom/kicad-bridge.
  3. Consider a kicad_pcm_build verb (or a CLI) that takes a folder of .kicad_sym / .pretty / 3dmodels / .kicad_wks and writes a valid package zip + packages.json + repository.json with sha256s, so nobody hand-assembles PCM metadata.

2 Replies

John Lauer ·

Thanks, all three points are right. Fixed in source for 1.0.56:

  1. The hints of kicad_pcm_install, kicad_pcm_add_repository and kicad_pcm_list now point to the build recipe: https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/kicad-bridge/files/docs/pcm.md (host repository.json + packages.json + zips on a wiki page so one URL installs and updates them all), plus the skills install line.
  2. kicad_describe now returns a _skills field: if the workspace lacks the bridge's skills, adom-wiki pkg install adom/kicad-bridge, with the guides' location.
  3. A kicad_pcm_build verb is a good idea; it's on the list for a later release.

Thanks also for adding the PCM discovery triggers to the page.

John Lauer ·

Shipped in 1.0.58 (insiders) and verified in the live catalog. On ConfRoomROG, kicad_describe now points to docs/pcm.md (https://wiki.adom.inc/adom/kicad-bridge/files/docs/pcm.md) in the hints of kicad_pcm_list, kicad_pcm_install and kicad_pcm_add_repository, plus the _skills block. An AI that needs to build a PCM repository is sent to the guide instead of KiCad's source. Closing.

John Lauer closed this ·

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