KiCad - the KiCad Bridge
Public Made by Adomby adom
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.
Parked: window-anchored progress captions for library and PCM imports (KiCad has no reachable native status surface outside pcbnew)
Parked idea (John, 2026-09-03: "not right now, but save it as a possible todo").
Want: gentle, non-modal status inside KiCad while the bridge does long work, above all large multi-part library and PCM imports ("Installing Adom Basic Parts: 84 of 138 symbols"), the way the Fusion bridge shows its add-in palette.
What KiCad offers, measured against the six windows. The infobar (the coloured strip at the top of an editor canvas) exists in every frame, including the 3D viewer, but the bridge can only write to it through KiCad's in-process Python, which lives in the PCB half only:
| window | infobar | writable by the bridge |
|---|---|---|
| PCB Editor | yes | yes (in-process pcbnew Python) |
| Footprint Editor | yes | yes (same process) |
| 3D viewer | yes | yes (hosted by the PCB side) |
| Schematic Editor | yes | no (eeschema has no scripting) |
| Symbol Editor | yes | no (same) |
The Symbol Editor is the window a user watches during a symbol import, so the native path misses the main case, and KiCad 9/10 deprecate in-process scripting anyway (the IPC API cannot draw UI). Decision: no PCB-only infobar version.
The uniform alternative, if this is ever picked up: ab captions anchored to the KiCad window instead of the screen. desktop_caption takes x/y fractions; the bridge can place a medium caption along the top edge of the front KiCad window, one caption id per window, updated as the import proceeds, hidden from the bridge's status loop when that window drops behind another app. Works in all six windows, no plugin, survives the scripting deprecation. First wiring point: kicad_install_symbol / kicad_install_footprint / kicad_pcm_install progress.
Not scheduled. Reopen or comment when it becomes worth doing.