name: adom-desktop
description: Use when the user wants to send files to their desktop, control KiCad or Fusion 360, send desktop notifications, or troubleshoot the desktop connection. Provides CLI tools for bridging the Docker container to the user's local machine.

Adom Desktop

Bridge between Claude Code (running in an Adom Docker container) and the user's desktop applications via WebSocket.

Install surface: the canonical install page is apps/adom-desktop on the Adom wiki — it hosts the Linux CLI (docker_binary), the Windows installer (.exe), and the four sibling skills (pup, kicad-bridge, fusion-bridge, + this one). The gallia adom-desktop-discovery skill surfaces this page on any related user query. adom-desktop setup_desktop also returns a dynamic installer URL pulled from the latest GitHub release.

First-time setup? If the user hasn't installed the desktop app yet, see the Setup section below to walk them through downloading, installing, and connecting the app.

Quick check if desktop is connected:

adom-desktop ping

Companion skills (installed alongside this one from the wiki):

  • adom-desktop-kicad — KiCad bridge: launch editors, open designs, install libraries, run DRC, window capture + keyboard/click automation (plugins/kicad/SKILL.md)
  • adom-desktop-fusion — Fusion 360 bridge: launch, open designs, STEP/GLB/.lbr import-export, BOM + API queries, Fusion screenshots (plugins/fusion360/SKILL.md)
  • pup — browser automation (Puppeteer-style): open URLs, screenshot, eval JS, multi-session Chrome (gallia/skills/pup/SKILL.md)

How It Works

Claude Code -> adom-desktop <command> -> Relay Server (HTTP :8766) -> WebSocket :8765 -> Adom Desktop App -> KiCad / Fusion 360 / Browser / Shell

The adom-desktop binary is a single Rust CLI that does everything:

  • adom-desktop serve -- Start the relay server (WebSocket :8765 + HTTP API :8766)
  • adom-desktop <command> '<json>' -- Send commands to the desktop app via the running relay

The relay server runs in the Docker container. The Adom Desktop app runs on the user's PC and connects via WebSocket.

Starting the Relay Server

The relay must be running before the desktop app can connect:

adom-desktop serve &

This starts:

  • WebSocket server on 0.0.0.0:8765 (desktop app connects here)
  • HTTP API on 127.0.0.1:8766 (CLI commands go here)

Check if it's running:

curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:8766/health

First-Time Setup (Install & Connect)

You are running on a Docker container. You have NO access to the user's desktop. Guide them step-by-step, ask questions, wait for answers, and verify each step.

Step 1: Check if already connected

adom-desktop ping

If this returns { "status": "connected" }, the desktop is already set up -- skip to "Verify the connection" below. If it errors, continue.

Step 2: Ensure the relay is running

curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:8766/health

If not running: adom-desktop serve &

Step 3: Ask what OS they use

Ask the user: "What operating system is your desktop/laptop? (Windows, Mac, or Linux)"

  • Windows 10/11 -- proceed
  • macOS / Linux -- "Support is coming soon. The desktop app currently only runs on Windows."

Step 4: Install & connect

Run adom-desktop setup_desktop to get the installer_url and server_config fields. Then present both options to the user — the Claude Code prompt (fastest) and the manual steps (if they don't have Claude Code/Desktop):


Option A: Automatic setup via Claude Code (recommended)

If you have Claude Code or Claude Desktop on your laptop, paste this prompt:

Install Adom Desktop and connect it to my cloud container. Download the installer from <installer_url>, run it silently, then write this JSON to %USERPROFILE%\.adom\config.json:

{"servers":[<server_config JSON>]}

Then launch "Adom Desktop" from the Start Menu.

(Replace <installer_url> and <server_config JSON> with the actual values from setup_desktop.)

Option B: Manual setup

  1. Download the installer:
  2. Run it and follow the prompts — the app installs to the Start Menu as "Adom Desktop"
  3. Open Adom Desktop from the Start Menu
  4. Paste this JSON into the text field that says "Paste server JSON to add ..." and press Enter:
    <server_config JSON>
    
  5. The server will appear and auto-connect

Wait for the user to confirm they see a green dot next to the server name before proceeding.

Important: Each container has its own relay server. New containers need a new entry -- old entries from previous containers won't work.

Step 6: Verify the connection

adom-desktop ping
# Expected: { "echo": "pong", "roundTripMs": ..., "status": "connected" }

adom-desktop status
# Expected: one client with the user's hostname and capabilities

adom-desktop notify_user '{"title":"Hello from Docker!","body":"Your desktop is connected."}'

Tell the user what you see. If ping succeeds:

"Your desktop is connected! I can now send files to your machine, open browser windows for visual debugging, control KiCad and Fusion 360, take screenshots of your desktop, and send you notifications."

Step 7: Optional -- Node.js for browser features

Ask: "Would you like to use the visual browser debugging feature? This opens Chrome windows on your desktop that I can control."

  • Yes + Node.js installed -- "Great, the browser bridge auto-installs deps on first use."
  • Yes + no Node.js -- "Download Node.js from https://nodejs.org (LTS), install it, then restart Adom Desktop."
  • No -- skip, they can enable it later

Common connection issues

Symptom Fix
ping returns "No desktop client connected" User hasn't added this container in the desktop app yet
Desktop app shows "disconnected" Check the URL uses wss:// (not ws:// or https://), port is 8765
Relay server not running adom-desktop serve &
Multiple stale connections adom-desktop kick_all -- app auto-reconnects within seconds
Desktop app not installed Download from github.com/adom-inc/adom-desktop/releases

CLI Tool

adom-desktop <command> '<json-args>'

Examples:

adom-desktop ping
adom-desktop status
adom-desktop browser_open_window '{"sessionId":"dart2","url":"https://example.com"}'
adom-desktop browser_eval '{"sessionId":"dart2","expr":"document.title"}'
adom-desktop browser_screenshot '{"sessionId":"dart2"}'
adom-desktop browser_list_windows
adom-desktop browser_close_window '{"sessionId":"dart2"}'
adom-desktop notify_user '{"title":"Hello","body":"From Docker"}'
adom-desktop shell_execute '{"command":"echo hello"}'
adom-desktop pull_file '{"filePaths":["C:\\Users\\john\\Downloads\\image.png"],"saveTo":"/tmp"}'

Output: JSON to stdout. Screenshots save to /tmp/adom-desktop-screenshots/ and return the file path.

Config location: The desktop app stores server config at ~/.adom/config.json (%USERPROFILE%\.adom\config.json). This is separate from the binary — config survives updates and reinstalls.

Available Commands

Get full structured command list with descriptions, args, and prerequisites:

adom-desktop list_commands

Returns categorized JSON with every command, its required/optional args, return values, prerequisites, and workflow notes. Use this when you need to discover available commands or understand what a command expects.

Connection Management

  • ping -- 5s round-trip test. Use BEFORE browser/shell commands to verify the desktop connection is alive.
  • status -- Check who's connected, their capabilities, desktop paths, and app installation status. The desktop.apps object shows:
    • kicad.installed / kicad.version / kicad.bridgeRunning
    • fusion360.installed / fusion360.running / fusion360.bridgeRunning / fusion360.addinInstalled / fusion360.addinConnected
    • browser.bridgeRunning
  • kick_all -- Force-disconnect all WebSocket clients. Active Adom Desktop apps auto-reconnect within seconds.

Programmatic server registration (v1.8.22+)

Three verbs let external apps (Hydrogen Desktop's Docker container, in particular) register their relay server with adom-desktop without the user pasting JSON into the GUI by hand. Mirrors the GUI's Quick Add bar + connect/disconnect buttons.

  • server_add -- Upsert a relay server by name. If a server with that name already exists, the URL (and optionally authToken) is updated rather than creating a duplicate.
    adom-desktop server_add '{"name":"hydrogen-workspace","url":"ws://localhost:8765","autoConnect":true}'
    # → {ok:true, name, url, id, connected:bool, created:bool, _hint}
    
    • name (required) — dedup key. Repeat calls with the same name are idempotent.
    • url (required) — relay WebSocket URL.
    • authToken (optional) — defaults to adom-dev-token-2025.
    • autoConnect (optional, default true) — connect right after upsert. Set false to add the entry without dialling out.
    • Behavior: same URL + already connected → no churn, returns ok. URL changed + autoConnect=true → disconnect old loop + spawn new one. URL changed + autoConnect=false → disconnect old, leave entry registered but not connected.
  • server_remove -- Disconnect (if connected) and delete an entry by name. Returns {ok, removed:bool, wasConnected:bool}. Idempotent (removing a non-existent entry returns ok with removed:false).
    adom-desktop server_remove '{"name":"hydrogen-workspace"}'
    
  • server_list -- Persisted server list with live connection status: {servers:[{name, url, id, autoConnect, enabled, connected:bool, clientCount:0|1, status}]}. status is the fine-grained connected | reconnecting | disconnected state machine value.

Persists to the same ~/.adom/config.json the GUI uses, so entries survive a GUI restart. The ws_client supervisor (runs every 30s inside the GUI) auto-reconnects entries with autoConnect:true on next launch.

HD-style usage:

# At HD container startup
adom-desktop server_add '{"name":"hydrogen-workspace","url":"ws://localhost:8765","autoConnect":true}'

# At HD container shutdown
adom-desktop server_remove '{"name":"hydrogen-workspace"}'

Direct HTTP API for sibling apps (v1.8.25+)

If you're authoring a sibling Tauri app on the same machine (Hydrogen Desktop, or any future "Adom-family" app), you can skip the CLI binary entirely and POST commands straight into the running adom-desktop GUI on 127.0.0.1:47200 (was 127.0.0.1:8770 through v1.8.32 — moved to be a better neighbor to HD on 47080+ and avoid the 8000-range collision risk). The endpoint runs inside the GUI process (loopback-only bind), uses the same dispatcher the WS path uses, and returns the same JSON shape as adom-desktop <verb> — including every _hint field.

Method Path Body Returns
GET /health {"ok":true,"service":"adom-desktop"} cheap probe
GET /status service banner + version + schema + directApi.cliRequired list
POST /command {"app":"<ns>","command":"<verb>","args":{...}} The verb's normal payload (200 OK), or {error, errorCode, _hint} (4xx/5xx)

v1.8.33+ port discovery (sibling apps READ THIS): Don't hardcode 47200. The GUI may have bound to 47200-47209 instead if the default port was taken (zombie socket, dev instance, third-party collision). Discovery protocol:

  1. Read ~/.adom/direct-api-port (Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.adom\direct-api-port) — single-line host:port, written by the GUI at bind time, removed at graceful shutdown
  2. If file missing or its port doesn't /health, scan 127.0.0.1:47200..=47209 for any port answering with {"ok":true,"service":"adom-desktop"}
  3. Validate service == "adom-desktop" to disambiguate from other apps that might bind a port in our range

The CLI does this automatically (see cli/src/direct_probe.rs). For sibling-app Rust code, see skills/DIRECT_API.md for a copy-paste-ready helper.

Per-verb timeouts (v1.8.31+): the direct API's command-timeout is no longer a hardcoded 120s — it mirrors the CLI dispatcher's per-verb table (walk_cloud_tree/search_cloud_files=620s; heavy exports=320s; bridge_install/fusion_start=300s; default=120s). Caller can override via args.timeout (seconds, clamped to 1800).

Example — programmatic server registration without the CLI:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:47200/command \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"app":"desktop","command":"server_add","args":{"name":"hydrogen-workspace","url":"ws://localhost:8765","autoConnect":true}}'
# → identical JSON to `adom-desktop server_add '{...}'`, including the _hint

What's safe to send directly: essentially everything sync (server_*, bridge_list, hd_status, hd_build_status, desktop_list_windows, desktop_screenshot_*, kicad_*, fusion_*, browser_screenshot, notify_user, ...) plus async-dispatching verbs that return a job id in <500 ms (bridge_install, hd_build, desktop_install_kicad, ...).

What requires the CLI fallback: verbs returning a structured errorCode:"cli_required" from this endpoint — currently pull_file, send_files, shell_execute. These use binary streaming or multi-minute approval polling that doesn't fit a single synchronous HTTP request. GET /status returns the full list at runtime so callers can branch defensively.

Full integration guide (loopback trust model, recipes for HD startup/shutdown, retry/backoff patterns, port-discovery code in Rust + TypeScript) lives in skills/DIRECT_API.md in this repo, and as a wiki asset attached to apps/adom-desktop.

Embedded mode — AD bundled inside Hydrogen Desktop (v1.8.42+)

When Hydrogen Desktop (HD) bundles AD, AD enters "embedded mode" at boot. HD owns the system-tray icon (AD's is suppressed), HD owns the Adom Cloud login (HD's session token is handed to AD via Phase 4's existing channels), HD owns auto-updates (AD's wiki-poll is disabled — HD bundles a fresh AD on every HD release), and HD spawns AD hidden (its tray "Open Adom Desktop" surfaces the window on demand). Standalone AD users see zero change — none of the signals fire.

Detection — three-signal cascade (any one triggers embedded mode):

  1. --embedded CLI flag (what HD passes on every spawn)
  2. ADOM_EMBEDDED=1 env var (backup channel)
  3. %LOCALAPPDATA%\Adom Desktop\embedded.json marker file (survives AD restarts; written by HD's installer; deleted by HD's uninstaller)

CLI flags HD passes when spawning AD:

adom-desktop.exe --embedded --start-hidden \
  --relay-url ws://127.0.0.1:8765 --relay-name hydrogen-desktop \
  --session-token <hd's-stored-token>
  • --embedded → enter embedded mode (also writes the marker)
  • --start-hidden → boot with main window invisible
  • --relay-url <url> → upsert this relay via existing server_add dedup; default name hydrogen-desktop
  • --relay-name <name> → override the default name
  • --session-token <tok> → already covered by Phase 4 handoff (env / CLI arg / file)

Docker introspectionadom-desktop desktop_embedded_status returns {embedded, owner, source, pendingRelayUrl, pendingRelayName, startHidden, markerPath, markerExists} so cloud-side callers can branch on whether AD is standalone or HD-managed.

New verbs HD uses to drive AD (all also usable standalone):

Verb Purpose
desktop_window_show Bring AD's main window to foreground
desktop_window_hide Hide AD's main window (app keeps running)
desktop_connect_all Spawn ws_loop for every enabled server
desktop_disconnect_all Drop every live WS connection (entries stay in config)
desktop_shutdown Graceful AD exit (stop bridges then exit)
desktop_embedded_status Introspect current embedded state
desktop_logout Clear AD's ~/.adom/session.json (HD's sign-out propagation)

Stale-marker safety: if the marker file is the only signal AND HD isn't responding on :9001, AD logs a warning, deletes the stale marker, and falls back to standalone. Prevents an orphaned marker from a crashed HD uninstall from permanently hiding AD's tray.

Shell auto-approve defaults to permanent in embedded mode (v1.8.44+). When AD boots embedded, it sets shell_auto_approve to permanent (~100 years). Rationale: HD already has its own user-facing approval surface, so re-prompting through AD's banner would just add friction. The footer banner shows "Auto-approving shell commands — Permanent (embedded-mode default)" instead of a countdown. HD can revoke at any time:

# revoke (also works for the timed grants):
adom-desktop shell_auto_approve '{"duration_secs": 0}'

# re-enable permanent from anywhere (standalone too):
adom-desktop shell_auto_approve '{"permanent": true}'

Standalone AD users are unaffected — they still see the existing "+1hr / +24hr / Revoke" buttons and the persistence file behaves as before.

Bridge ports are dynamic — you never need to know one (v1.8.31+)

KiCad, Fusion, Browser/Puppeteer, and all third-party bridges now bind OS-assigned ephemeral ports (not the legacy 8772/8773/8851 you may remember). The runtime port changes every spawn. Callers never need to know it.

  • The CLI verb namespace (kicad_*, fusion_*, browser_*, plus any third-party <bridge>_*) is the contract. Always go through that.
  • adom-desktop's direct API forwards to whatever port each bridge is on at the moment of the call.
  • bridge_list reports spawn.runtimePort per bridge for debugging — do NOT hardcode it anywhere.
  • Why this changed: HD's bridges also wanted 8772/8773/8851; we used to collide silently. Dynamic ports = clean coexistence.

File Transfer

  • send_files -- Send files from the Docker container to the desktop. Files are base64-encoded in transit.

    • filePaths: array of absolute paths on the server
    • targetApp: "kicad", "fusion360", or "general"
    • destinationFolder: relative subfolder only (e.g. "kicad/symbols", "fusion"). The desktop app controls the base directory. Absolute paths are rejected.
    • Returns destinationPaths[] with the absolute path of every saved file.
  • pull_file -- Pull files from the desktop to the container.

    • filePaths: array of absolute Windows paths on the desktop
    • saveTo: directory on the container to save files (default: /tmp)
    • Streaming since v1.4.3. Each file is transferred as 1 MiB binary WS frames straight to disk on the Docker side, with incremental SHA256 verification. The legacy 30s base64-JSON path is gone — large files (50 MB+ datasheets, 75 MB reference manuals) no longer time out. Per-file timeout is 600s.
    • Returns files: [{name, path, size, sha256, chunks}]. Use sha256 to verify the transfer (the desktop side computes it during streaming and the container side verifies on completion; mismatch deletes the partial file and reports failure). chunks is the count of 1 MiB binary frames received.
    • When at least one but not all files succeed: success is true, errors[] lists the failures alongside files[]. When ALL fail: success is false.

Desktop Notifications

  • notify_user -- Send a desktop notification with optional action buttons.
    • title, body, level (info/warning/error/emergency), actions (array of button labels)

KiCad Tools

KiCad supports multi-version side-by-side installs — KiCad 9 and KiCad 10 (and older versions) can coexist on the same machine. Every kicad_open_* (and install_*, run_drc) command accepts an optional kicadVersion arg (e.g. "9.0" or "10.0"). Omit it to use the newest installed version. The success response includes kicadVersionUsed so you can confirm which install actually ran.

  • kicad_list_versions -- List every installed KiCad version with their paths and which is the default (newest). Run this first if you're unsure what's available.
    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_list_versions
    • Returns: {versions: [{version, base_dir, kicad_exe, default}], default: "10.0", count: 2}
  • kicad_install_symbol -- Send a .kicad_sym file and install it as a library. Args include optional kicadVersion.
  • kicad_install_library -- Install a symbol, footprint, or 3D model library. Each KiCad version has its own sym-lib-table / fp-lib-table — pass kicadVersion to target a specific install (otherwise installs into the newest version's tables).
  • kicad_open_board -- Open a .kicad_pcb file. Args: filePath, optional kicadVersion. Example: adom-desktop kicad_open_board '{"filePath":"C:/foo.kicad_pcb","kicadVersion":"9.0"}'
  • kicad_open_schematic -- Open a .kicad_sch file. Args: filePath, optional kicadVersion.
  • kicad_open_symbol_editor -- Open the Symbol Editor. Optional kicadVersion.
  • kicad_open_footprint_editor -- Open the Footprint Editor. Optional kicadVersion.
  • kicad_open_3d_viewer -- Open the 3D Viewer (works from Footprint Editor or PCB Editor). Optional kicadVersion.
  • kicad_run_drc -- Run Design Rule Check on a board via kicad-cli (headless, ~1-3s, structured JSON). v1.7.12+: prefer kicad_lint_board which wraps DRC + file-format sanity + schematic-parity in one structured response.
  • kicad_run_erc -- v1.7.12+ Run Electrical Rule Check on a schematic via kicad-cli. Mirrors kicad_run_drc for .kicad_sch. Catches unconnected pins, duplicate references, hierarchical-label mismatches, no-driver nets. Headless, ~1-3s.
  • kicad_lint_board -- v1.7.12+ Comprehensive headless pre-flight for a .kicad_pcb via kicad-cli: file existence + magic-byte sniff + DRC with --severity-all + --all-track-errors + --schematic-parity (default on). Returns structured {data:{violations[], summary, fileFormat, schematicParityChecked}, _hint}. Args: filePath, optional schematicParity (default true). USE THIS BEFORE kicad_open_board for any file you didn't just generate — catches DRC errors, parse issues, format-upgrade-needed BEFORE the GUI opens and possibly hangs on a modal dialog.
  • kicad_lint_schematic -- v1.7.12+ Comprehensive headless pre-flight for a .kicad_sch via kicad-cli: file existence + magic-byte sniff + ERC with --severity-all. Same structured shape as kicad_lint_board. USE BEFORE kicad_open_schematic for unfamiliar files.
  • kicad_lint_library -- v1.7.13+ Validate a library file or directory before install. Accepts a single .kicad_sym, .kicad_mod, .pretty directory, or directory containing .kicad_sym files. Parses S-expression structure (no kicad-cli call — sym/fp upgrade has no --dry-run and would rewrite). Returns symbol/footprint inventory + per-file fileVersion + tiered _hint. USE BEFORE kicad_install_library / kicad_install_symbol / kicad_install_footprint to catch malformed files, outdated formats, or wrong-filetype-renamed-with-.kicad_sym surprises in ~100ms.
  • kicad_format_upgrade -- v1.7.13+ Upgrade a KiCad file to the current format via kicad-cli {pcb,sch,sym,fp} upgrade. Auto-detects kind from extension if omitted. MUTATES the file in place (kicad-cli has no --dry-run). Common flow: lint_library reports outdated fileFormatVersions → surface to user → ask permission → call this. After upgrade, ANY OPEN KiCad windows holding this file must be closed + reopened.

KiCad bridge — Phase 2.ac additions (v1.7.14+, via kicad_bridge_call)

Three additions completing the Phase 2.ab loose ends:

  • verify_loaded {kind, expectedName?} — reads the Symbol/Footprint Editor frame title to confirm whether a load succeeded. kind is "symbol" or "footprint". Optional expectedName adds a matchesExpected field comparing the loaded item against your target. Use AFTER select_and_load_* to confirm the symbol/footprint actually loaded (the load itself is "unverified" until you check).

  • get_net_topology {netName} — net-graph traversal: returns every footprint pinning the named net, plus the OTHER nets each of those footprints bridges. {padCount, componentCount, components:[{ref, value, padsOnNet, otherPads:[{padName, netName}]}], bridgedNets}. Use for "trace VCC outward from its source through the components it touches" analyses.

  • select_and_load_{symbol,footprint} {name, useSendInput?: false} — v0.7.0 adds optional useSendInput:true. When true, escalates from wx.PostEvent (default; safe but may not propagate to KiCad's TOOL_DISPATCHER) to real Win32 SendInput with the proven EnterCtrl+Shift+E sequence. SendInput briefly STEALS foreground focus AND requires the Symbol Editor to be the foreground window before keystrokes dispatch — both default and SendInput paths are still "best-effort", so ALWAYS pair with verify_loaded to confirm. If verify_loaded reports hasLoaded:false, fall back to the legacy kicad_open_symbol_editor '{"symbolName":"..."}' path which uses out-of-process PowerShell SendKeys + mouse-click on the search box (proven but heavyweight).

  • kicad_close -- Close all KiCad windows. Args: force (optional bool — skip graceful close, just taskkill)

When to specify kicadVersion:

  • The user asks to open something "in KiCad 9" / "in KiCad 10" / "in the older version" — pass that explicitly.
  • The user is regression-testing across versions (open in 9, screenshot, close, open in 10, screenshot, compare).
  • A library was installed under a specific version's tables and the user wants to use it.

If you pass an invalid kicadVersion, the bridge returns available_versions and a _hint listing what IS installed — surface that to the user.

KiCad reverse bridge (v1.7.5+) — direct in-process control

KiCad v2 Phase 2 introduces a reverse bridge: an HTTP/JSON-RPC server runs inside every KiCad GUI process (kicad.exe project manager, pcbnew.exe PCB+Footprint editors, eeschema.exe Schematic+Symbol editors) once they restart after install. This lets adom-desktop introspect frames + post menu commands directly, bypassing UI screen scraping for everything the bridge supports.

Auto-installation is transparent. The first kicad_* command of every bridge boot auto-deploys two files (adom_bridge.py + usercustomize.py) into %USERPROFILE%\Documents\KiCad\<ver>\3rdparty\Python311\site-packages\ for every installed KiCad version. The response includes a pluginAutoInstall field with full details:

{
  "pluginAutoInstall": {
    "triggered": true,
    "summary": "installed" | "updated" | "already-current" | "partial-failure" | "skipped",
    "payloadVersion": "0.1.0",
    "perVersion": [{"kicadVersion":"10.0", "action":"installed", "userSitePath":"...", "filesWritten":[...], "_hint":"..."}],
    "runningKiCad": [{"exeName":"eeschema.exe","pid":12345}],
    "_hint": "Plugin successfully INSTALLED. KiCad currently running... ask user to restart KiCad..."
  }
}

If installation fails, the _hint field tells you exactly what to report and how to recover. Failure modes: payload_missing (bundle regression), user_site_unavailable (no USERPROFILE), permission_denied (Documents dir uncreatable — likely OneDrive sync), copy_failed (KiCad has the .py locked — ask user to close KiCad), no_kicad_installed (offer desktop_install_kicad), disabled_via_env.

Currently-running KiCad processes don't pick up the bridge until restarted (Python init runs once per process). If pluginAutoInstall.runningKiCad is non-empty AND summary is installed, surface the _hint to the user — they need to close + reopen KiCad to activate the bridge on those instances.

  • kicad_bridge_status -- Enumerate every running KiCad GUI process with the adom_bridge plugin loaded. Reads %TEMP%\adom-kicad-bridge-<exe>.json discovery files + probes each /status.

    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_bridge_status
    • Returns: {plugins: [{exeName, pid, port, version, alive, uptimeMs, requestCount}], summary: {total, alive}, pluginAutoInstall: {...}}
    • If summary.alive=0 after a fresh KiCad launch, check pluginAutoInstall._hint — the install probably failed and you have a specific recovery to offer.
  • kicad_bridge_call -- Generic passthrough: call any RPC method on the bridge for a specific KiCad exe. v1.7.6+ supports multi-instance disambiguation via pid arg.

    • Args: exeName (required: kicad / pcbnew / eeschema / kicad-cli), method (required), params (optional dict), timeout (optional float seconds), pid (optional int — pin to a specific process; otherwise the newest alive instance is picked)
    • Example — open Symbol Editor from running Schematic Editor:
      adom-desktop kicad_bridge_call '{"exeName":"eeschema","method":"wm_command","params":{"frame_index":0,"menu_id":20390}}'
      
    • Methods (v1.7.6):
      • ping{version, exeName, pid, uptimeMs, requestCount}. Health check.
      • list_frames[{frameClass, frameTitle, hwnd, menubarTopCount, menubarTotalItems, isShown}, ...]. Replaces screen scraping.
      • get_menu_ids — full menu walk per frame: [{frameClass, frameTitle, menuItems: [{topMenu, label, id, kind, accelerator, helpString}, ...]}, ...].
      • wm_command — posts a Win32 WM_COMMAND to the target frame via PostMessageW(hwnd, WM_COMMAND, menu_id, 0). Goes through KiCad's TOOL_DISPATCHER. Args: {frame_index, menu_id}.
      • get_board_infopcbnew only. Returns {hasBoard, fileName, trackCount, footprintCount, drawingsCount, netCount, copperLayerCount, boundingBoxMm:{widthMm,heightMm,centerXMm,centerYMm}}. Replaces screenshot-poll for state queries.
      • get_schematic_infoeeschema only. Returns {available, frames:[{frameClass, frameTitle, hwnd, editorKind, fileName, isUnsaved, isUntitled}], frameCount}. Title-based until KiCad 11 ships kipy.
      • get_open_editors — per-process inventory: {available, exeName, pid, editors:[{kind, frameClass, frameTitle, hwnd, isShown}], editorCount}. For cross-process aggregator use the kicad_open_editors verb instead.
      • get_pcb_footprints (v1.7.7+, pcbnew only) — full footprint list with {ref, value, libNickname, itemName, fpid, x_mm, y_mm, rotationDeg, layer, isFlipped, isLocked, padCount, boundingBoxMm} per footprint. Replaces screen-scrape "what's placed where".
      • get_pcb_layers (v1.7.7+, pcbnew only) — layer stackup: {copperLayerCount, totalEnabledLayers, layers:[{id, name, kind, isCopper}]} where kind is one of: copper, mask, silk, paste, courtyard, adhesive, edge, fab, comments, user, margin, other.
      • get_pcb_nets (v1.7.7+, pcbnew only) — net list with usage stats: {netCount, totalTrackLengthMm, nets:[{code, name, padCount, trackLengthMm}]}.
      • get_pcb_design_rules (v1.7.7+, pcbnew only) — DR summary: {trackWidthsMm, viaDimensions:[{diameterMm,drillMm}], minClearanceMm, minThroughHoleMm, minViaDiameterMm}.
      • navigate_symbol (v1.7.7+, eeschema only) — params:{symbolName} or params:{query}. Sets the wx.SearchCtrl value in the Symbol Editor's library panel + posts EVT_TEXT to activate the live filter. NON-destructive — does NOT load the symbol, only filters the visible library tree. Replaces the PowerShell SendKeys path used by kicad_open_symbol_editor when symbolName is passed — substantially more reliable + doesn't steal foreground focus.
      • navigate_footprint (v1.7.7+, pcbnew only) — params:{footprintName} or params:{query}. Same shape as navigate_symbol but for the Footprint Editor.
      • get_pcb_tracks (v1.7.8+, pcbnew only) — every track (segments, arcs, vias) with {type, layer, layerName, widthMm, netCode, netName, lengthMm, startMm, endMm}. Vias show up here too (with no length); call get_pcb_vias for via-specific fields.
      • get_pcb_pads (v1.7.8+, pcbnew only) — every pad across all footprints: {footprintRef, padName, positionMm, sizeMm, drillMm, netCode, netName, attribute}. Position is absolute (post-rotation of parent footprint).
      • get_pcb_vias (v1.7.8+, pcbnew only) — every via: {positionMm, diameterMm, drillMm, viaType, topLayer, topLayerName, bottomLayer, bottomLayerName, netCode, netName}. viaType is "through" / "blind_buried" / "microvia".
      • get_pcb_drawings (v1.7.8+, pcbnew only) — silk text, edge cuts, dimensions, user-drawn shapes: {type, layer, layerName, text?, positionMm?, startMm?, endMm?, centerMm?, radiusMm?}.
      • get_pcb_zones (v1.7.9+, pcbnew only) — copper pour inventory: {zones:[{netCode, netName, layers, layerNames, priority, isFilled, isKeepout, clearanceMm, minWidthMm, polygonVertexCount, boundingBoxMm}]}.
      • get_footprint_connections (v1.7.9+, pcbnew only) — params:{ref}. Net-graph traversal: for a given footprint reference, returns per-pad connectivity. {found, ref, value, padCount, pads:[{padName, netCode, netName, connectedTo:[{ref, padName}]}]}. Each connectedTo list excludes the pad itself.
      • get_drc_markers (v1.7.9+, pcbnew only) — read existing DRC markers from the board: {markerCount, bySeverityCounts, markers:[{severity, severityCode, message, errorText, layer, layerName, positionMm, markerClass}]}. Does NOT trigger DRC — for that use kicad_run_drc; this reads results from the LAST run.
      • export_svg (v1.7.8+, pcbnew only) — multi-layer SVG export via pcbnew.PLOT_CONTROLLER (in-process, NO kicad-cli subprocess). params:{outputDir?, layers?, mirror?, plotFrameRef?, useAuxOrigin?, subtractMaskFromSilk?, drillMarks?, filenamePrefix?}. Default layers is every enabled copper layer plus F.Silkscreen + B.Silkscreen + Edge.Cuts. Output files: <outputDir>/<boardBasename>-<layer>.svg (or <boardBasename>-<prefix>-<layer>.svg if filenamePrefix is passed). Returns {plottedLayerCount, outputDir, files:[{layerId, layerName, filePath, fileSize}]}. Use timeout:30+ on the bridge_call because plotting can take 5-15s.
      • export_pdf (v1.7.8+, pcbnew only) — same shape as export_svg, format=PDF.
      • select_and_load_symbol / select_and_load_footprint (v1.7.9+, EXPERIMENTAL) — filters the library tree (via navigate_*) then attempts to activate the first match. Known to segfault eeschema on large symbol libraries — only safe on small/test libs. Phase 2.ab will fix via keystroke simulation. Until then, the default kicad_open_symbol_editor / kicad_open_footprint_editor paths continue to use the proven PowerShell SendKeys load — they're NOT routed through this method.
  • kicad_install_plugin -- v1.7.6+ Explicitly redeploy the Phase 2 reverse-bridge plugin to every detected KiCad version's USER_SITE. Bypasses the auto-install cache.

    • Args: force (optional bool, default true)
    • When to use: after updating the plugin payload between releases, or to recover from a partial-failure auto-install (read perVersion errorCodes from pluginAutoInstall first).
  • kicad_open_editors -- v1.7.6+ Cross-process editor inventory sourced via the bridge (not screen scraping). Hits each alive plugin's get_open_editors and concatenates.

    • Returns: {editors:[{kind, exeName, pid, frameTitle, hwnd, isShown}], byKind:{schematic_editor:[…], pcb_editor:[…], symbol_editor:[…], footprint_editor:[…], project_manager:[…]}, summary:{totalEditors, probedPlugins, failedPlugins, byKindCounts}}.
    • When to use INSTEAD of kicad_window_info: when you have the bridge available (the data is more structured + cheaper than the screenshot-fallback path).

Phase 3 — three-tier routing for kicad_open_* verbs (v1.7.6+)

The legacy kicad_open_symbol_editor, kicad_open_footprint_editor, and kicad_open_3d_viewer verbs now try the bridge first before falling back to legacy WM_COMMAND-from-outside / icon-click / Alt+keystroke. Their responses include:

  • pathway — which tier won: "plugin" (bridge), "wm_command" (legacy external post), "icon_click" (footprint editor launcher icon), "alt_keystroke" (3D Viewer from PCB Editor).
  • pathwaysTried — ordered list of every tier attempted with success/failure annotations.
  • bridgePid — if pathway was "plugin", which KiCad process handled it.

For Symbol Editor specifically, tier-1 has two sub-paths because Symbol Editor is hosted inside eeschema.exe (not as a standalone process):

  • plugin-eeschema-20390 — preferred when eeschema is already alive; sends menu_id 20390 to its Schematic Editor frame (opens Symbol Editor as a sub-window in the existing process).
  • plugin-kicad-20011 — cold-start path; sends menu_id 20011 to kicad.exe Project Manager (spawns a new eeschema.exe with Symbol Editor as top-level).

Bug fixed in v1.7.6 (caught via Phase 4 menu catalog audit): kicad_open_symbol_editor was sending menu_id 20012 to the project manager, but 20012 is actually PCB Editor in KiCad 10. The correct ID is 20011. The legacy WM_COMMAND-from-outside path silently failed for KiCad 10 users (Symbol Editor never opened, sometimes a PCB Editor window flashed instead). v1.7.6 fixes the constant + adds the bridge tier-1 path that uses the proven eeschema-20390 mechanism whenever possible.

Key menu IDs catalogued (see phase4-results/*.json in the plan repo for the full ~870-item dump):

From frame Action menu_id
Project Manager Open Schematic Editor 20010
Project Manager Open Symbol Editor 20011
Project Manager Open PCB Editor 20012
Project Manager Open Footprint Editor 20013
Schematic Editor Switch to PCB Editor 20150
Schematic Editor Symbol Editor 20390
Schematic Editor ERC 20001
Schematic Editor Annotate Schematic 20139
PCB Editor DRC 20088
PCB Editor 3D Viewer 20563
PCB Editor Footprint Editor 20567
PCB Editor Switch to Schematic 20234

The bridge is a Phase 2 MVP. The legacy kicad_open_* / kicad_window_info / kicad_screenshot_all commands still work and remain the primary path for most flows; the bridge is additive. Phase 2.x will add get_board_info, run_drc, navigate_symbol/footprint, export_svg, and friends — when those land, this section will list them.

KiCad UI Interaction

Commands for detecting KiCad windows/dialogs, taking screenshots, clicking, and sending keyboard input. Essential for handling blocking dialogs and automating multi-window KiCad workflows.

  • kicad_window_info -- Returns all KiCad windows grouped as projectManager, editors[], modalDialogs[] with HWNDs and titles. Uses process-based enumeration (finds all PIDs running from KiCad's bin dir, then enumerates their windows) — catches every KiCad window regardless of title. Check hasModalDialogs to detect blocking save/error prompts.

    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_window_info
    • Returns: {projectManager: {hwnd, title}, editors: [{hwnd, title}], modalDialogs: [{hwnd, title, ownerHwnd}], hasModalDialogs: bool}
  • kicad_screenshot_all -- Screenshots every KiCad window in one call (editors first, then project manager, then dialogs). Uses same process-based enumeration as kicad_window_info. Images downscaled to ≤1568px — use relative coords (0.0-1.0) for clicking, they're scale-independent. READ each screenshot to see what's on screen.

    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_screenshot_all
    • Returns: {screenshots: [{type: "main"|"editor"|"dialog", title, hwnd, savedTo, sizeKB}]}
  • kicad_send_key -- Send a keystroke to a KiCad window. Preferred way to dismiss dialogs: enter to confirm, escape to cancel, tab to cycle buttons. Use click only if tab order doesn't reach the right button.

    • Args: key (required: "enter", "escape", "tab", "space", "f1"-"f12", or single char), hwnd (optional — if omitted, sends to foreground KiCad window)
    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_send_key '{"key": "enter"}' (dismiss dialog)
    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_send_key '{"key": "escape", "hwnd": 12345}' (target specific window)
  • kicad_click -- Click at coordinates within a KiCad window. Relative coords (0.0-1.0) are scale-independent — estimate position as percentage from screenshot. To click a button at pixel (px,py) in an image of size (W,H), use x=px/W, y=py/H.

    • Args: hwnd (required), x (required), y (required), relative (optional bool, default true — 0.0-1.0 range)
    • Example: adom-desktop kicad_click '{"hwnd": 12345, "x": 0.5, "y": 0.8}'

KiCad Dialog Detection Workflow

KiCad has multiple independent windows (project manager, eeschema, pcbnew, footprint editor, symbol editor, 3D viewer). Unlike Fusion which has one main window, KiCad dialogs are owned by specific parent windows.

After any open/install command, check for blocking dialogs:

  1. kicad_window_info → check hasModalDialogs
  2. If true: kicad_screenshot_all → READ each dialog screenshot
  3. Dismiss with kicad_send_key {"key":"enter"} (OK) or {"key":"escape"} (cancel)
  4. For specific button clicks: identify position in screenshot → kicad_click {"hwnd":<dialog_hwnd>, "x":0.5, "y":0.8}

Fusion 360 Tools

Fusion 360 uses a two-tier architecture:

  • External bridge (port 8773, auto-started): handles launch, detection, file opening

  • AdomBridge add-in (port 8774, runs inside Fusion): required for export, design queries, Electronics/EAGLE commands

  • fusion_start -- PREFERRED. First-class Fusion 360 startup. Idempotent — safe to call whether Fusion is running or not. Discovers Fusion360.exe via webdeploy glob (no hardcoded hashes, no "Windows cannot find" GUI dialogs), verifies path exists before spawn, polls the AdomBridge add-in until it's online, and calls fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs to clear the startup picker and any other blocking modals. Auto-dismisses startup dialogs during add-in wait — the "What do you want to design?" picker and "Recovered Documents" dialog are dismissed every 5 seconds while polling, so the add-in becomes responsive within ~10-15s instead of timing out at 60s. Returns {addinReady, mainThreadResponsive, dialogsDismissed[], dialogsRemaining[], dismissHint, pid, resolvedPath, elapsedMs, alreadyRunning}. Has a hard process-detection gate — will never spawn a second Fusion process, so the "Multiple instances are not supported" GUI dialog cannot reach an end user. Use this as the very first call before any other Fusion command.

  • fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs -- First-class blocking-dialog killer. Whenever any fusion_* command returns errorCode: fusion_addin_not_responding (or you see _hint mentioning a blocked add-in), call this FIRST before retrying. Two-layer design: (1) deterministic pattern match against known blockers — "What do you want to design?" picker, error toasts ("New design cannot be created..."), "Multiple instances" warning, crash recovery prompts, save prompts — dismisses each with fusion_send_key escape targeted at the exact hwnd. (2) AI-in-the-loop fallback — for anything the patterns didn't match, auto-screenshots every remaining Fusion dialog and returns the image paths inline in remaining[].screenshotPath, plus an explicit per-hwnd recovery script in _hint that you follow mechanically: Read the screenshot with the Read tool, understand what the dialog says, then fusion_send_key '{"key":"escape","hwnd":<hwnd>}' (or "enter" for OK-only dialogs). Re-call fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs to verify mainThreadResponsive=true, then retry your original command. Fusion updates break pattern matches constantly, so the AI fallback is the critical path, not the deterministic side. If you identify a new recurring pattern, add its title substring to BLOCKING_DIALOG_PATTERNS in cli/src/commands.rs so future sessions handle it automatically.

  • fusion_addin_status -- Non-blocking check of the AdomBridge add-in's busy state. Does NOT touch the Fusion main thread — queries the add-in's /status HTTP endpoint directly (~5ms). Returns {busy, busyCommand, elapsedSeconds, requestId, walkProgress}. Use this to check if a long-running command (walk, search) is in progress from any bridge/session before sending new commands. The CLI's auto-recovery path calls this before attempting dialog dismissal — if the add-in is just busy (not dialog-blocked), it returns main_thread_busy immediately instead of mashing Escape into a working Fusion.

    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_addin_status '{}'
    • When idle: {"busy": false}
    • During a walk: {"busy": true, "busyCommand": "walk_cloud_tree", "elapsedSeconds": 42.3, "walkProgress": {"foldersVisited": 15, "filesFound": 87, "currentFolder": "Molecules/XRP", "queueSize": 8}}

Launching apps (generic)

Two generic CLI commands exist for launching any Windows executable safely — they verify the target exists BEFORE handing it to the OS, so you never trigger a "Windows cannot find" GUI dialog:

  • adom-desktop find_exe '{"name":"..."}' -- Resolve an exe by absolute path, glob (e.g. C:/.../webdeploy/production/*/Fusion360.exe returns newest), bare name (searches PATH + Start Menu .lnk targets). Returns {path, source}. Does NOT launch.
  • adom-desktop launch '{"path":"...", "args":[...], "cwd":"...", "detached":true}' -- Same resolution rules as find_exe, then spawns. Fails in terminal (exit 1) with a clear error if the path doesn't exist. Always prefer this over raw start.

For Fusion specifically, use fusion_start — it wraps launch plus the full startup-picker / add-in-readiness dance.

  • fusion_import_step -- Import a STEP/STL/IGES file into Fusion 360
  • fusion_open_lbr -- Open an EAGLE .lbr library file
  • fusion_open_electronics -- Check if the Electronics workspace is active
  • fusion_electron_run -- Execute any EAGLE command via Electron.run. Returns rich state: activeWorkspace, activeDocument, commandType, _hint, and fusionOperations (diff of Fusion's internal operation log showing what actually fired). Avoid blocking commands — see list below. Full EAGLE command reference: skills/eagle-commands.md — popular/safe commands split from blocking/modal ones, with layer reference and chaining syntax.
  • fusion_execute_text_command -- Low-level app.executeTextCommand() access. Returns the command result plus workspace context.
  • fusion_board_info -- Get structured board data from the open PCB layout. Returns: component placements (name, package, x, y, rotation), net names, copper traces, layer setup, board thickness, DRC violations. Much richer than a screenshot — gives exact coordinates and connectivity. Requires a .brd board open in PCB Editor.

fusion_electron_run — EAGLE Command Execution

Executes EAGLE commands inside Fusion 360's Electronics workspace. Works in Schematic Editor, PCB Editor (Board Layout), and Electronics Library contexts.

How it works: Sends the command string via Fusion's Electron.run text command. EAGLE's Electron.run is fire-and-forget — it never returns output or throws on invalid commands. To compensate, the handler snapshots Fusion's internal operation log (Diagnostics.RecentOperations) before and after execution, returning a diff showing what actually fired.

Usage:

# Basic command
adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "WINDOW FIT"}'

# Multiple commands in sequence (use semicolons)
adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "DISPLAY NONE; DISPLAY 1 16 17 18 20 21"}'

# Navigate in library editor
adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "EDIT SOIC8.pac"}'
adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "EDIT RESISTOR.sym"}'
adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "EDIT MYDEVICE.dev"}'

Response fields:

  • activeWorkspace — Current workspace (Schematic Editor, PCB Editor, Electronics Library)
  • activeDocument — Name of the open document
  • commandType — Detected type: view_control, layer_control, edit, design_rule, etc.
  • editorType — For EDIT commands: package, symbol, device
  • fusionOperations — Array of Fusion operations that fired (diff of internal log)
  • hint — Human-readable description of what happened
  • rawResult — Raw return from Electron.run (usually empty)

EAGLE Command Reference — Safe for automation:

Command Context Description
View / Navigation
WINDOW FIT Any Zoom to fit all content
WINDOW (x1 y1 x2 y2) Any Zoom to specific area (coordinates in current units)
DISPLAY ALL Any Show all layers
DISPLAY NONE Any Hide all layers
DISPLAY 1 16 17 18 20 21 Board Show specific layers by number
Grid
GRID MM 0.1 Any Set grid to 0.1mm
GRID MIL 25 Any Set grid to 25mil
GRID INCH 0.05 Any Set grid to 0.05 inch
Board Layout
RATSNEST Board Recalculate airwires (unrouted connections)
RIPUP Board Remove all routed traces
RIPUP * Board Remove all traces (same as RIPUP with no selection)
ROUTE Board Start auto-router
DRC Board Run design rule check
BOARD Schematic Switch to paired board layout
SCHEMATIC Board Switch to paired schematic
Schematic
VALUE value Schematic Set component value
NAME name Any Rename selected element
SMASH Any Detach name/value labels from components
Library Editor
EDIT name.pac Library Open a package (footprint) for editing
EDIT name.sym Library Open a symbol for editing
EDIT name.dev Library Open a deviceset for editing
EXPORT SCRIPT 'path.scr' Library Export entire library as EAGLE script
Scripting / Settings
SET CONFIRM YES Any Suppress confirmation dialogs
SET CONFIRM OFF Any Re-enable confirmation dialogs
SCRIPT 'path.scr' Any Run batch commands from a .scr script file

EAGLE Layer Numbers (commonly used):

Layer Name What it shows
1 Top Top copper
16 Bottom Bottom copper
17 Pads Through-hole pads
18 Vias Via holes
19 Unrouted Airwires (ratsnest)
20 Dimension Board outline (required for 3D)
21 tPlace Top silkscreen
22 bPlace Bottom silkscreen
25 tNames Top component names
27 tValues Top component values
29 tStop Top solder mask
31 tCream Top stencil/paste
51 tDocu Top documentation

Blocking commands — AVOID from automation:

Command Why it blocks
WRITE Opens Save As dialog — use fusion_save_lbr or fusion_close_document instead
ADD Opens component picker dialog
SHOW name Opens interactive highlight mode
SET (no params) Opens settings dialog
GRID (no params) Opens grid settings dialog
EDIT new.sym Opens "Create new?" confirmation if symbol doesn't exist
CHANGE Opens interactive change mode
MOVE Opens interactive move mode

Tips:

  • Always run WINDOW FIT after opening a file or switching views
  • Use DISPLAY NONE then DISPLAY <layers> to show only specific layers
  • Combine commands with ; — e.g., SET CONFIRM YES; RIPUP *; RATSNEST
  • For board screenshots: DISPLAY NONE; DISPLAY 1 16 17 18 20 21; WINDOW FIT
  • Use fusion_board_info instead of EAGLE commands when you need structured data
  • fusion_export_lbr -- Export the open Electronics library as an EAGLE .scr script (note: does NOT include 3D package references — those are cloud-linked only)
  • fusion_save_lbr -- Save the open Electronics library as a .flbr file

EAGLE Libraries with 3D Packages

Fusion 360's .lbr format supports package3d elements that link footprints to 3D models. Key facts:

  • 3D models are cloud-hosted — each package3d has a wip_urn (e.g., urn:adsk.wipprod:fs.file:vf.xxxxx) pointing to a Fusion cloud document. You cannot embed STEP files directly in .lbr XML.
  • Creating 3D packages requires the Fusion UI — use Package3DCreateCmd in Electronics Library Editor, which opens a new Design workspace where you model/import the 3D shape, then save to link it.
  • EXPORT SCRIPT strips 3D references — the .scr export only contains 2D data (symbols, footprints, devicesets). To preserve 3D links, keep the .lbr XML format.
  • Fusion's built-in examples have 3D packages — 34 of 37 libraries in the EAGLE examples directory (e.g., Connector_USB.lbr, Resistor.lbr, Capacitor.lbr) include package3d references.
  • Example libraries location: %LOCALAPPDATA%/Autodesk/webdeploy/production/<hash>/Applications/Electron/LibEagle/examples/libraries/examples/

To open a built-in example library for reference:

# Find the examples directory first
adom-desktop fusion_execute_text_command '{"command": "Python.RunScript C:/tmp/find_eagle_libs.py"}'
# Then open one
adom-desktop fusion_open_lbr '{"filePath": "<path>/Connector_USB.lbr"}'
  • fusion_open_schematic -- Open a .sch schematic in Fusion's Schematic Editor. Args: filePath.
  • fusion_open_board -- Open a .brd board layout in Fusion's Board Layout editor. Args: filePath.
  • fusion_show_3d_board -- Switch to 3D PCB board view (must have a .brd open). Board MUST have an outline on layer 20 (Dimension) or 3D generation fails. Auto-zooms to fit after switching.
  • fusion_show_2d_board -- Switch back to 2D board layout from 3D PCB view. EAGLE commands via fusion_electron_run only work in 2D.
  • fusion_close_document -- Close a document without save dialog. Args: name (optional, defaults to active doc), save (optional, default false). Essential for automation — avoids modal save dialog that blocks Fusion.
  • fusion_document_info -- List ALL open documents/tabs with name, type, and active status, plus detailed cloud info for the active document. Returns openDocuments array (every tab) and active doc details (cloud project, folder, file ID, version, save status). Lightweight — uses only in-memory data, no cloud API calls. Use this instead of fusion_walk_cloud_tree when you just need to know what's open.
  • fusion_activate_document -- Switch to a specific open document tab. Args: name (substring match, case-insensitive), documentType ("Electronics", "PCB", "FusionDesign", "Drawing"). Essential for automation — switch between schematic, board, and library tabs without user interaction. If no match found, returns the list of open documents so you can refine.
  • fusion_close -- Close Fusion 360. Always call this when done with Fusion 360 commands to clean up.
  • fusion_dismiss_recovery -- Dismiss recovery document dialogs (both "Recovered Documents" list and "Open recovery document instead?" prompts). Also relocates recovery files to ~/.adom/recovery/fusion/ for safekeeping.
  • fusion_relocate_recovery -- Proactively move Fusion crash recovery files to ~/.adom/recovery/fusion/<timestamp>/ without dismissing any dialogs. Call this before launching Fusion to prevent recovery dialogs from appearing. Files are preserved (not deleted) so the user can manually restore them if needed.
  • fusion_close_all_documents -- Close all open documents. Args: saveChanges (default: false). Use before force-killing Fusion to prevent recovery files.

Fusion 360 UI Interaction

Commands for interacting with Fusion 360's UI — detecting dialogs, taking screenshots, clicking, and sending keyboard input. Essential for handling blocking dialogs and automating CEF-based UI elements.

  • fusion_window_info -- Returns the Fusion main window HWND, title, rect, and a list of all Qt dialog windows (recovery dialogs, wizards, file pickers). Essential for detecting blocking dialogs before/after operations.

    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_window_info
    • Returns: {hwnd, title, rect, dialogs: [{hwnd, title, className, rect}]}
  • fusion_screenshot_fusion -- Captures the Fusion main window or a specific dialog by HWND. Uses PrintWindow (works without bringing to foreground). Saves WebP to C:/tmp/adom-desktop-screenshots/ (falls back to PNG if WebP unavailable). Downscaled to ≤1568px — use relative coords (0.0-1.0) for clicking, they're scale-independent. DPI-aware.

    • Args: hwnd (optional — dialog HWND to screenshot instead of main window)
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_screenshot_fusion (main window)
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_screenshot_fusion '{"hwnd": 12345}' (specific dialog)
  • fusion_screenshot_all -- Screenshots the main Fusion window and lists all dialog windows with their HWNDs. Use fusion_screenshot_fusion {"hwnd": ...} to capture each dialog.

    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_screenshot_all
  • fusion_click_fusion -- Click at coordinates within the Fusion window or a specific dialog. x/y are relative (0.0-1.0) by default. Set "relative": false for pixel offsets. Uses SendInput for CEF dialog compatibility. Prefer fusion_send_key for dialogs — enter/escape/tab covers most cases.

    • Args: x (required), y (required), relative (optional, default true), hwnd (optional — target a specific dialog HWND instead of main window)
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_click_fusion '{"x": 0.5, "y": 0.7}' (main window)
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_click_fusion '{"hwnd": 12345, "x": 0.75, "y": 0.85}' (dialog button)
  • fusion_send_key -- Send keyboard input to Fusion or a specific dialog via SendInput. Preferred way to dismiss dialogs: enter to confirm, escape to cancel, tab to cycle buttons. Use click only if tab order doesn't reach the right button.

    • Args: key (required), hwnd (optional — target a specific dialog HWND)
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_send_key '{"key": "escape"}' (dismiss CEF dialog)
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_send_key '{"key": "enter", "hwnd": 12345}' (confirm dialog)

Fusion 360 Workflow Guide

Opening Electronics Projects
  1. Open the .fprj file: adom-desktop fusion_open_cloud_file '{"projectName":"Main","fileName":"DRV8411A","fileExtension":"fprj","folderPath":"Molecules/XRP/DRV8411A"}'
  2. Do NOT try to open .fbrd or .fsch directly — they fail or show a "Select Electronics Design File" dialog
  3. Enter the board editor: adom-desktop fusion_show_2d_board
  4. Enter the schematic editor: After step 3, use adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command":"EDIT .sch"}'
  5. Switch back to board: adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command":"EDIT .brd"}'
Auto-Screenshot on Open Commands

Open commands automatically screenshot Fusion and return the images in the response. The following commands include postOpenScreenshot in their data field:

  • fusion_open_cloud_file, fusion_open_schematic, fusion_open_board, fusion_show_3d_board, fusion_show_2d_board

The response data.postOpenScreenshot contains:

  • screenshots[] — array of {type, savedTo, sizeKB, title?, hwnd?}. Type is "main_window" or "dialog".
  • message — human-readable instruction to READ each screenshot and check for blocking dialogs
  • dialogBlockingtrue if a modal dialog was detected

After receiving the response, you MUST:

  1. READ each screenshot file using the Read tool to visually inspect what Fusion shows
  2. Look for blocking dialogs in the screenshots:
    • "What to design?" wizard → dismiss with fusion_send_key {"key": "escape"}
    • "PCB out of date" banner → click Update or X
    • "Recovered Documents" → fusion_dismiss_recovery
    • "Save changes?" → fusion_send_key {"key": "escape"}
    • Any other modal → identify and dismiss
  3. Screenshot again after dismissing to confirm it's clear

Screenshots are saved as WebP (lossless, ~20-40KB each, downscaled to ≤1568px) for token efficiency. Both the main Fusion window AND all Qt dialog windows are captured separately.

Why this matters: Fusion shows Qt dialogs and CEF overlays that are invisible to the API. The success: true response from an open command does NOT mean the UI is ready — a dialog may be blocking all further operations. The API cannot detect these. Only a screenshot can.

Detecting and Handling Blocking Dialogs
  • The auto-screenshot captures dialog windows separately (look for type: "dialog" entries in postOpenScreenshot.screenshots[])
  • Common blocking dialogs: "What do you want to design?", "Recovered Documents", "Open recovery document instead?", "Select Electronics Design File"
  • Dismiss recovery dialogs: adom-desktop fusion_dismiss_recovery
  • Dismiss CEF dialogs (inside main window): adom-desktop fusion_send_key '{"key": "escape"}' or fusion_click_fusion
  • Dismiss "What do you want to design?" wizard: adom-desktop fusion_send_key '{"key": "escape"}'
  • For manual screenshot of specific dialogs: adom-desktop desktop_screenshot_window '{"hwnd": <DIALOG_HWND>}'
Preventing Recovery Documents
  • Recovery files are at: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Autodesk Fusion 360\<USER_ID>\CrashRecovery\
  • Before force-killing Fusion, close all documents: adom-desktop fusion_close_all_documents '{"saveChanges": false}'
  • Best practice: Call adom-desktop fusion_relocate_recovery before launching Fusion. This moves recovery files to ~/.adom/recovery/fusion/<timestamp>/ — preserving them for the user while preventing modal dialogs.
  • The fusion_start command also auto-relocates recovery files before starting Fusion.
  • The fusion_dismiss_recovery command handles both "Recovered Documents" list and "Open recovery document instead?" prompts, and also relocates files.
EAGLE Export Limitations
  • Supported: EXPORT IMAGE, EXPORT NETLIST, EXPORT PARTLIST
  • NOT supported (fail silently): EXPORT DXF, EXPORT SVG, EXPORT DRILL
  • Always verify export output: the updated fusion_electron_run now checks if the output file was created
  • Use fusion_export_bom and fusion_export_cpl for manufacturing data (these use the add-in's XML parser, not EAGLE export)
  • Use fusion_export_gerbers for Gerber files — produces a ZIP with all gerber layers (GTL, GBL, GTS, GBS, GTP, GBP, GTO, GBO, GKO, XLN). Auto-detects 2-layer vs 4-layer boards.
3D Model Exports
  • From the 3D view (activate the .f3d document): fusion_export_step, fusion_export_stl, fusion_export_3mf, fusion_export_f3d, fusion_export_usdz, fusion_export_iges, fusion_export_sat
  • Switch to 3D view: fusion_show_3d_board or activate the .f3d document
  • STEP — Industry-standard CAD interchange (SolidWorks, CATIA, Creo). Highest geometric fidelity.
  • IGES — Legacy CAD interchange. Use STEP for modern workflows.
  • SAT — ACIS solid model format. Used by SolidWorks, SpaceClaim.
  • STL — Mesh format for 3D printing and visualization. Options: refinement "low"/"medium"/"high".
  • 3MF — Modern 3D printing with color/material support and multi-body.
  • F3D — Native Fusion 360 archive. Preserves parametric features, sketches, timeline, component refs. Best for archival.
  • USDZBest for digital twins and GLB conversion. Preserves full component hierarchy (Board, copper layers, soldermask, Packages), PBR materials, and named nodes. Each component becomes a toggleable node in GLB viewers. Also viewable directly on iOS/macOS (Apple Quick Look / AR).
    • Digital twin pipeline: fusion_export_usdz → pull_file → blender --background --python-expr "import bpy; bpy.ops.wm.usd_import(filepath='board.usdz'); bpy.ops.export_scene.gltf(filepath='board.glb')"
  • FBX — Not available in current Fusion builds via the API. The command exists but fails clearly. Use fusion_export_usdz instead.
  • DXF/DWG/OBJ/SKP — Not available via the Fusion API (dialog-only). Commands exist but return clear errors with alternatives.
3D Viewport Captures
  • fusion_take_screenshot — Capture the Fusion viewport at any resolution without opening a dialog. Uses Fusion's render API (saveAsImageFile).
    • Args: outputPath (required), width (default 1920), height (default 1080), orientation (optional)
    • Orientations: home, front, back, top, bottom, left, right
    • Example: Capture all 6 standard views for use as product images/icons:
      for orient in home front back top bottom left right; do
        adom-desktop fusion_take_screenshot "{\"outputPath\": \"C:/tmp/3d-${orient}.png\", \"width\": 1920, \"height\": 1080, \"orientation\": \"${orient}\"}"
      done
      
Electronics Source File Export (fusion_export_source)
  • fusion_export_source — Export the active electronics document as .fsch, .fbrd, or .flbr source file.

    • Args: outputPath (required — full path with extension)
    • The extension determines the format: .fsch (schematic), .fbrd (board), .flbr (library)
    • Validates extension, creates output directory, verifies file was created, returns file size
  • Full workflow to export both board and schematic from a cloud project:

    # Step 1: Open the .fprj (NOT .fbrd/.fsch directly — those fail)
    adom-desktop fusion_open_cloud_file '{"projectName":"Main", "fileName":"MyDesign", "fileExtension":"fprj", "folderPath":"Molecules/MyDesign"}'
    
    # Step 2: Screenshot to check for blocking dialogs (always do this after open)
    adom-desktop fusion_screenshot_fusion
    
    # Step 3: Enter board view (MUST be Board Layout workspace, not 3D)
    adom-desktop fusion_show_2d_board
    
    # Step 4: Export .fbrd (board first — it's already in board view)
    adom-desktop fusion_export_source '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/exports/MyDesign.fbrd"}'
    
    # Step 5: Switch to schematic (EDIT .s1 = first schematic sheet)
    adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "EDIT .s1"}'
    
    # Step 6: Export .fsch
    adom-desktop fusion_export_source '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/exports/MyDesign.fsch"}'
    
    # Step 7: Pull files to Docker
    adom-desktop pull_file '{"filePaths":["C:/tmp/exports/MyDesign.fbrd","C:/tmp/exports/MyDesign.fsch"], "saveTo":"/tmp/exports"}'
    
  • Critical gotchas:

    • You MUST open the .fprj first — opening .fbrd/.fsch directly fails or triggers blocking dialogs
    • You MUST call fusion_show_2d_board before exporting .fbrd (the Electronics Design overview won't work)
    • Always export .fbrd FIRST (from board view), then switch to schematic for .fsch
    • If export fails with "file not found", the wrong workspace is active — screenshot to verify
    • After fusion_open_cloud_file, always screenshot to check for "Select Electronics Design File" dialog
    • WRITE command is blocked — it opens a blocking save dialog. Use fusion_export_source instead
  • Note: WRITE is blocked — it opens a "Version Description" dialog on cloud docs even with a path argument (tested 2026-04-10). Use fusion_save_to_cloud to save to cloud, fusion_export_source for Fusion-format, or fusion_export_eagle_source for plain EAGLE format.

Plain EAGLE Source Export (fusion_export_eagle_source)
  • fusion_export_eagle_source — Export the active electronics document as plain EAGLE XML .sch or .brd.

    • Args: outputPath (required — full path ending in .sch or .brd)
    • Internally: exports .fsch/.fbrd via Document.CopyToDesktop, then extracts the EAGLE XML from the ZIP container, cleans up the temp file.
    • The output is valid EAGLE XML (<?xml><eagle version="9.7.0">...) parseable by standalone EAGLE, KiCad import, or any XML tool.
    • Same workflow/prerequisites as fusion_export_source — just use .sch/.brd extensions instead of .fsch/.fbrd.
    # Board (.brd) — must be in PCB Editor / Board Layout
    adom-desktop fusion_show_2d_board
    adom-desktop fusion_export_eagle_source '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/exports/MyDesign.brd"}'
    
    # Schematic (.sch) — must be in Schematic Editor
    adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "EDIT .s1"}'
    adom-desktop fusion_export_eagle_source '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/exports/MyDesign.sch"}'
    
Dialog Dismissal (fusion_close_window)
  • fusion_close_window — Close a specific Fusion dialog by sending WM_CLOSE (equivalent to clicking X).
    • Args: hwnd (required — from fusion_window_info or fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs remaining[])
    • Works on dialogs that Escape doesn't close — e.g. "Recovered Documents"
    • Does NOT force-kill — the dialog can still intercept WM_CLOSE
Electronics Import (Round-Trip)
  • fusion_import_electronics — Import Fusion-native .fsch, .fbrd, or .flbr files as new local documents
    • Uses Document.newDesignFromLocal under the hood
    • Auto-screenshots after import (catches blocking dialogs)
    • Args: filePath (required Windows path to .fsch, .fbrd, or .flbr)
    • After import, use fusion_save_to_cloud to persist to Fusion cloud
    • .fsch import works standalone — creates a new schematic project
    • .fbrd import may fail — boards have external references to schematics/libraries. Error: "New design cannot be created from a local file containing external references"
    • .flbr import works standalone — creates a new library project
    • For legacy EAGLE files: use fusion_open_schematic (.sch), fusion_open_board (.brd), fusion_open_lbr (.lbr)
Library Round-Trip Workflow

Export and re-import Fusion electronics libraries:

# 1. Open library from cloud
adom-desktop fusion_open_cloud_file '{"projectName":"Main","fileName":"Adom Common Components","folderPath":"Molecules/Libraries"}'

# 2. Export as .flbr (Fusion-native binary) and .scr (EAGLE script text)
adom-desktop fusion_save_lbr '{"outputPath":"C:/tmp/library.flbr"}'
adom-desktop fusion_export_lbr '{"outputPath":"C:/tmp/library.scr"}'
adom-desktop fusion_close_document

# 3. Re-import the .flbr
adom-desktop fusion_import_electronics '{"filePath":"C:/tmp/library.flbr"}'

# 4. Verify symbols survived round-trip
adom-desktop fusion_export_lbr '{"outputPath":"C:/tmp/library-verify.scr"}'

# 5. Save to cloud with new name
adom-desktop fusion_save_to_cloud '{"name":"Library-copy"}'
Demo Projects

171+ electronics molecules are exported in the adom-desktop-demo repo (separate from adom-desktop).
Three reference boards with full export formats:

Board Cloud Path Layers Components Files
DRV8411A Main / Molecules / XRP / DRV8411A 4 29 27
DRV8323SR Main / Molecules / Experiments / MotorControl / DRV8323SR 2 43 27
VL53L8BreakoutMolecule Main / Molecules / XRP / TimeOfFlightVL53L8 / VL53L8BreakoutMolecule 2 30 27

Each folder contains: .fsch, .fbrd, bom.csv, cpl.csv, gerbers.zip, 6 board images, 7 3D renders (home/front/back/top/bottom/left/right), STEP, IGES, SAT, STL, 3MF, F3D, USDZ, board screenshot, 3D board screenshot.

Cloud Document Management

Manage Fusion 360 cloud documents (hub projects, files, versions). Required for 3D package workflows since EAGLE library 3D models are stored as cloud documents.

  • fusion_save_to_cloud -- Save the active Fusion document to the cloud. Args: name (required), projectName (optional, defaults to active project), folderPath (optional), description (optional). Returns: fileId, versionNumber, wipUrn (if cloud-hosted).
  • fusion_list_cloud_projects -- List all cloud projects in the user's hub. Returns array of {name, id} per hub.
  • fusion_list_cloud_files -- List files in a cloud project/folder. Args: projectName (optional), folderPath (optional). Returns: files array with {name, id, versionNumber, fileExtension, dateModified} and subfolders array.
  • fusion_create_cloud_folder -- Create a folder in a cloud project. Args: folderName (required), projectName (optional), parentPath (optional). Returns folderId. Idempotent — returns existing folder if it already exists.
  • fusion_check_recovery -- Check if a cloud file has a recovery document from a previous crash. Args: fileName (required), projectName (optional), folderPath (optional). Returns hasRecovery: true/false. Use this BEFORE opening files to avoid the blocking "Open recovery document instead?" dialog. If recovery exists, call fusion_open_cloud_file with recovery: "open" (restore unsaved work) or recovery: "discard" (delete recovery, open cloud version).
  • fusion_open_cloud_file -- Open a cloud file in Fusion by name. If a recovery document exists and no recovery arg is given, the command STOPS and reports the recovery instead of opening — you must decide whether to preserve or discard unsaved work. Args: fileName (required), projectName (optional), folderPath (optional), recovery ("open" = restore unsaved work, "discard" = delete recovery and open cloud version).
  • fusion_export_cloud_file -- Export the active Fusion document to a local file for transfer back to Docker. Args: outputPath (required), format (optional, default "step"). The exported file can then be pulled back to Docker via pull_file.
  • fusion_delete_cloud_file -- Delete a cloud file by name. Args: fileName (required), projectName (optional), folderPath (optional). File must not be open in Fusion — close it first with fusion_close_document.
  • fusion_walk_cloud_tree -- Long-running. BFS walk of a cloud folder tree. Returns a flat list of all files and folders. Runs entirely on the Fusion main thread — blocks all other add-in commands until done (check progress with fusion_addin_status).
    • Args: projectName (optional), folderPath (optional, starting folder), maxDepth (default 10), maxFolders (default 500), extensions (optional list, e.g. ["f3d","fprj"]), nameContains (optional substring filter), includeFiles (default true)
    • Returns: {project, rootFolder, folders[], files[], stats: {foldersVisited, foldersSkipped, filesFound, maxDepthReached, truncated}}
    • Per-folder timeout (30s): If a single folder's cloud API calls take >30s (common for large projects), the folder is skipped and counted in foldersSkipped. This prevents indefinite hangs.
    • Progress tracking: While running, fusion_addin_status returns walkProgress with {foldersVisited, filesFound, currentFolder, queueSize} — poll this every 1–10s to monitor progress (see "Live folder progress streaming" below).
    • Non-blocking alternative: Use fusion_search_cloud_files for targeted searches, or fusion_list_cloud_files for single-folder listings (these are faster but don't recurse).
    • Example: adom-desktop fusion_walk_cloud_tree '{"projectName":"Main","folderPath":"Molecules","nameContains":"DRV","extensions":["fprj"]}'

Live folder progress streaming with watch

For long walks, use the built-in watch wrapper. It spawns the inner search command on a worker thread, polls fusion_addin_status internally, and emits one JSON event per line to stdout as the walker visits each folder. No manual polling loop needed.

adom-desktop watch '{"command":"fusion_walk_cloud_tree","args":{"projectName":"Main","folderPath":"Molecules","nameContains":"BQ25792"}}'

Output is one JSON object per line, three event types:

{"event":"started","command":"fusion_walk_cloud_tree","args":{...},"interval":2,"_hint":"streaming progress events follow, one per line, ending with 'complete' or 'error'"}
{"event":"progress","busyCommand":"walk_cloud_tree","elapsedSeconds":15.0,"foldersVisited":14,"queueSize":50,"filesFound":0,"currentFolder":"Molecules/Sensing"}
{"event":"progress","busyCommand":"walk_cloud_tree","elapsedSeconds":23.4,"foldersVisited":22,"queueSize":108,"filesFound":0,"currentFolder":"Molecules/Examples"}
{"event":"progress","busyCommand":"walk_cloud_tree","elapsedSeconds":31.8,"foldersVisited":30,"queueSize":100,"filesFound":0,"currentFolder":"Molecules/RAPID NAME TAGS/Connor Wood"}
... (one per real change in walkProgress, deduped) ...
{"event":"complete","result":{"folders":[...],"files":[...],"stats":{"foldersVisited":169,"filesFound":12,"truncated":false}}}

Read stdout line-by-line. Stop when you see event:complete or event:error. The full final result is in the complete event's result field.

Optional interval arg (default 2s, clamped to [1, 30]):

adom-desktop watch '{"command":"fusion_walk_cloud_tree","args":{...},"interval":1}'

For Claude Code consumers: pipe watch directly into the Monitor tool. Each JSON line becomes a real-time event notification in the chat — you (and the user) see folder names appear one-by-one as the walker visits them. No bash loop, no disown, no subprocess gymnastics. Verified live in 1.3.16 on a 169-folder walk that returned all 12 BQ25792 cloud files cleanly.

Watchable commands (whitelist): fusion_walk_cloud_tree, fusion_search_cloud_files. Other commands return success:false with a _hint listing the watchable set.

When NOT to use watch: short single-folder operations (fusion_list_cloud_files, fusion_open_cloud_file) — those return in <2s and don't need streaming. The watch wrapper is purely for the long BFS commands.

  • fusion_search_cloud_files -- Long-running. Recursive substring search on file names across cloud folders. v1.0.2+ of the add-in adds: per-folder timeout, doEvents() every 50 files, per-file try/except, iterative BFS, and a stale-lock watchdog — Fusion stays responsive throughout (no "Not Responding" freeze).
    • Args (no hard upper caps in v1.0.2+): query (required, substring, case-insensitive), projectName (optional, defaults to active), folderPath (optional starting subfolder — narrow with this), recursive (default false), maxDepth (default 2), maxFolders (default 10), maxResults (default 20), folderTimeout (default 30s), searchTimeout (default 120s), timeout (HTTP envelope, default 620s).
    • Before calling: if the user knows roughly where the file is (e.g. customer-named folder), ask them. Naming a subfolder cuts 5-40 min searches down to ~10s.
    • Why slow: Autodesk's free Fusion 360 Python API has no indexed file-search endpoint. We walk the Data API one folder at a time — each = one HTTP round-trip to Autodesk. This is an Autodesk API limitation, not adom-desktop's. When telling the user the search is taking a while, attribute it to Autodesk / Fusion 360, not to adom-desktop's bridge. Autodesk's PAID Autodesk Platform Services (APS, formerly Forge) Data Management API has indexed search; teams with APS credentials can fork the bridge at plugins/fusion360/addin/AdomBridge/ to add an aps_search verb and PR it back to https://wiki-ufypy5dpx93o.adom.cloud/apps/adom-desktop — the community benefits.
    • Interpreting results (critical for no-false-negatives): the response contains searchComplete (bool), foldersSkipped, filesSkipped, truncated, folderLimitReached, searchTimedOut. searchComplete:true ONLY when all five are clean — that's the confidence flag. If searchComplete:false, the search hit a cap before exhausting the scope; do NOT tell the user "file not found" — re-run with broader caps OR narrower folderPath.
    • Case sensitivity: fully case-insensitive both directions (query and file names lowercased). Substring match, not whole-word — "cosm" matches COSMIIC, COSMOCOIL, etc.
    • Cost feedback in response: costAnalysis: {elapsedSeconds, foldersPerSecond, estimatedSecondsPer100Folders} so the AI can budget the next search realistically.
    • Real numbers from a live test: searching Main/Molecules recursively (173 folders deep, max 8 depth) for "cosmiic" returned in 168 s with searchComplete:true, totalFound:3. Fusion stayed main_thread:responsive throughout.
    • Pair with watch for streaming progress updates: see below.

Export formats for fusion_export_cloud_file:

Format Extension Use case
step .step Industry-standard CAD interchange (default)
stl .stl 3D printing, mesh-based
f3d .f3d Fusion 360 native archive (preserves all features)
iges .iges Legacy CAD interchange
sat .sat ACIS solid modeling kernel format
smt .smt Parasolid format

Also supported for import via fusion_import_step: STEP (.step/.stp), STL (.stl), IGES (.iges/.igs), SAT (.sat), SMT (.smt), OBJ (.obj), F3D (.f3d).

Round-trip: Docker → Fusion Cloud → Docker

# === Docker to Fusion Cloud ===
# 1. Send file from Docker to Windows desktop
adom-desktop send_files '{"files": [{"path": "/home/user/component.step"}]}'
# 2. Import into Fusion
adom-desktop fusion_import_step '{"filePath": "C:/Users/john/Downloads/component.step"}'
# 3. Save to cloud (gets a wip_urn for 3D library linking)
adom-desktop fusion_save_to_cloud '{"name": "my-component", "projectName": "Personal"}'

# === Fusion Cloud to Docker ===
# 1. Find and open the cloud file
adom-desktop fusion_walk_cloud_tree '{"projectName": "Personal", "nameContains": "my-component"}'
adom-desktop fusion_open_cloud_file '{"fileName": "my-component", "projectName": "Personal"}'
# 2. Export to local filesystem
adom-desktop fusion_export_cloud_file '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/export/my-component.step", "format": "step"}'
# 3. Pull back to Docker
adom-desktop pull_file '{"path": "C:/tmp/export/my-component.step"}'

# === Cloud management ===
adom-desktop fusion_list_cloud_projects '{}'
adom-desktop fusion_create_cloud_folder '{"folderName": "Electronics", "projectName": "Main"}'
adom-desktop fusion_list_cloud_files '{"projectName": "Main", "folderPath": "Electronics"}'
adom-desktop fusion_delete_cloud_file '{"fileName": "old-file", "projectName": "Main"}'

Manufacturing Exports (Gerbers, BOM, CPL)

Export manufacturing files from an open PCB board — everything needed to fabricate boards and assemble components via Adom's PCBA service. All manufacturing commands require a .brd board open in PCB Editor (use fusion_open_board or fusion_show_2d_board).

Recommended workflow order: detect_layersset_design_rules → DRC → export_gerbersexport_bomexport_cplpull_file all back to Docker.

Every manufacturing command returns structured JSON with:

  • message — AI-oriented summary explaining what was produced and why it matters
  • nextSteps[] — ordered list of what to run next in the manufacturing pipeline
  • hint — tips for interpreting results or recovering from issues
  • data — structured metadata (paths, counts, layer info) for programmatic use

Decision guide — which command to run:

  • Don't know the layer count? → Run fusion_detect_layers first
  • Need to check if the board meets fab specs? → Run fusion_set_design_rules then DRC
  • Ready to generate fab files? → Run fusion_export_gerbers, then fusion_export_bom, then fusion_export_cpl
  • Need visual review before export? → Run fusion_export_board_image with preset assembly_top or fabrication
  • Something failed? → Check data.hint and data.recoverySteps in the error response

Commands:

  • fusion_detect_layers -- Detect if the open board is 2-layer or 4-layer. Uses ULP script (primary) and CAM comparison (fallback). Returns layerCount, copperLayers[], method (how it was detected), and nextSteps[]. Run this first — all other manufacturing commands auto-detect layers too, but running this explicitly gives you the data before committing to exports.

  • fusion_set_design_rules -- Apply Adom's JLCPCB-derived design rules (.edru XML files) to the open board. Auto-detects 2-layer vs 4-layer and loads the appropriate rule set. Returns description (human-readable rule summary), edruFile, and nextSteps[].

    • action: "apply" (default) loads rules into the board; "export" saves current board rules to a file; "show" displays rule capabilities without modifying anything
    • layers: "auto" (default), "2", or "4" — force a specific rule set
    • After applying: run fusion_electron_run '{"command": "DRC"}' to check for violations. DRC markers appear in the board editor.
  • fusion_apply_instapcb_rules -- Convenience wrapper that applies the bundled Adom InstaPCB design rule sets without needing a local .edru file. Args: layers ("2" or "4"). Sends the bundled .edru from Docker to Windows automatically and loads it via the EAGLE drc load command. Use this instead of fusion_set_design_rules when you just want Adom's standard 2-layer or 4-layer InstaPCB rules.

  • fusion_load_design_rules -- Generic loader for ANY custom .edru file by path. Args: filePath. Use this for third-party fab vendor rules (JLCPCB, PCBWay, OSHPark, etc.) that the user has on disk.

  • fusion_export_gerbers -- Export Gerber (RS-274X) + Excellon drill files as a ZIP. Auto-detects 2-layer vs 4-layer and selects the correct JLCPCB-compatible CAM job. Returns zipPath, zipSizeKB, files[] (list of gerber files in the ZIP with sizes), layerCount, and nextSteps[].

    • outputDir: directory for the output ZIP (default: C:/tmp/adom-gerbers/)
    • boardName: prefix for the ZIP filename (default: from active document name)
    • layers: "auto" (default), "2", or "4" — force CAM job selection
    • Output ZIP contains: GTL, GBL (copper), GTS, GBS (solder mask), GTP, GBP (paste), GTO, GBO (silkscreen), GKO (outline), XLN (drill). 4-layer boards also get G1, G2 (inner copper).
  • fusion_export_bom -- Export Bill of Materials as CSV. Groups identical parts by value+package with quantity counts. Returns componentCount, uniquePartCount, and nextSteps[].

    • outputPath: (default: C:/tmp/adom-bom.csv)
    • grouped: true (default) groups by value+package; false lists every component individually
    • Output columns: Comment, Designator, Footprint, Quantity, Library — compatible with JLCPCB, PCBWay, Mouser, Digi-Key.
  • fusion_export_cpl -- Export Component Placement List (pick-and-place) as CSV. Returns totalPlacements, topCount, bottomCount, and nextSteps[].

    • outputPath: (default: C:/tmp/adom-cpl.csv)
    • side: "all" (default), "top", or "bottom" — filter for single-sided assembly
    • Output columns: Designator, Mid X, Mid Y, Layer, Rotation — coordinates in mm.
  • fusion_export_board_image -- Export PNG image of the board with layer presets. Returns fileSize, preset, and nextSteps[].

    • outputPath: (default: C:/tmp/adom-board.png)
    • dpi: resolution (default: 300, max: 600)
    • preset: layer preset name (see table below)
    • layers: custom layer numbers as int array — overrides preset
    • monochrome: true for black & white
    • listPresets: set true to get available presets instead of exporting

Layer presets for fusion_export_board_image:

Preset Layers Description
all All Every layer visible
top_copper 1, 17, 18 Top copper + pads + vias
bottom_copper 16, 17, 18 Bottom copper + pads + vias
top_silkscreen 21, 25 Top silkscreen + component names
bottom_silkscreen 22, 26 Bottom silkscreen + component names
top_soldermask 29 Top solder mask openings
bottom_soldermask 30 Bottom solder mask openings
top_paste 31 Top paste/stencil openings
bottom_paste 32 Bottom paste/stencil openings
board_outline 20 Board outline (dimension layer)
drill 44, 45, 17, 18 Drill holes + vias
assembly_top 1, 17, 18, 20, 21, 25, 51 Top assembly — copper + silk + outline
assembly_bottom 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 26, 52 Bottom assembly — copper + silk + outline
fabrication 1, 16, 17–20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 29, 30, 51 Full fabrication view

Adom InstapcbPCB manufacturing capabilities (used by fusion_set_design_rules):

Parameter Metric Imperial
Layers 1, 2, 4, 6
Min trace width 0.08mm 3 mil
Min trace spacing 0.08mm 3 mil
Min via drill 0.2mm 8 mil
Min silkscreen text 0.1mm 4 mil
Board edge clearance 0.05mm 2 mil
Board thickness 1.6mm 63 mil
Copper weight 0.5 oz (17.5 μm)
Solder mask Green
Surface finish HASL / ENIG
Turnaround 4 hours (fab + assembly)

Manufacturing workflow — Fusion to Adom PCBA:

# 1. Open the board
adom-desktop fusion_open_board '{"filePath": "C:/projects/myboard.brd"}'

# 2. Detect layer count (auto-selects 2-layer or 4-layer rules/CAM)
adom-desktop fusion_detect_layers

# 3. Apply Adom design rules for the detected layer count + run DRC
adom-desktop fusion_set_design_rules '{"action": "apply"}'
adom-desktop fusion_electron_run '{"command": "DRC"}'

# 4. Export manufacturing files (gerbers auto-select correct CAM job)
adom-desktop fusion_export_gerbers '{"outputDir": "C:/tmp/mfg"}'
adom-desktop fusion_export_bom '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/mfg/bom.csv"}'
adom-desktop fusion_export_cpl '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/mfg/cpl.csv"}'

# 5. Export board images for review
adom-desktop fusion_export_board_image '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/mfg/top-copper.png", "preset": "top_copper"}'
adom-desktop fusion_export_board_image '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/mfg/assembly-top.png", "preset": "assembly_top"}'
adom-desktop fusion_export_board_image '{"outputPath": "C:/tmp/mfg/board-outline.png", "preset": "board_outline"}'

# 6. Pull files back to Docker for Adom PCBA ordering
adom-desktop pull_file '{"path": "C:/tmp/mfg/bom.csv"}'
adom-desktop pull_file '{"path": "C:/tmp/mfg/cpl.csv"}'

Desktop Tools

  • desktop_open_folder -- Open a file or folder in Windows Explorer. If given a file path, Explorer opens with the file highlighted (selected). Args: path (file or folder path).
  • desktop_open_url -- Open a URL in the user's NATIVE OS BROWSER — i.e. the real Edge / Chrome / Firefox / Brave they use every day, with their saved logins, history, bookmarks, and extensions. This is NOT pup, NOT Chrome for Testing — it's the browser the human actually uses. Hand it off when the user needs to interact with a logged-in account themselves.
    • Args: url (required string), browser (optional: "default" (Windows-registered default — could be Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Brave; whatever they set), "chrome", "edge", "firefox", "brave").
    • Examples:
      • adom-desktop desktop_open_url '{"url":"https://claude.ai/"}' -- opens in user's default native browser, already signed in
      • adom-desktop desktop_open_url '{"url":"https://docs.example.com","browser":"edge"}' -- force native Edge
    • Returns {ok, browser, url, exePath?}. Allowed schemes: http, https, mailto, ftp, ftps. Other schemes refused.

desktop_open_url vs browser_open_window — two completely different browsers

desktop_open_url browser_open_window
What browser Native OS browser the user uses daily — Microsoft Edge / Google Chrome / Mozilla Firefox / Brave (whichever they've set as Windows default, or the one you name explicitly) Puppeteer-controlled Chrome for Testing — a separate Chromium build that pup launches
Profile / data The user's real profile: saved logins, history, bookmarks, extensions, autofill Isolated profile under plugins/puppeteer/profiles/<sessionId>/ — empty, no saved logins
Who interacts with the page The HUMAN. Claude hands the URL off and is done. CLAUDE drives it programmatically — screenshots, clicks, eval, recording. The human just watches.
Use when A login is required (claude.ai, GitHub, internal tools, banking) — the human's existing session must be reused Automation, scraping, screenshot capture, video recording, headful UI testing
Can Claude control it after launch? No — once handed off, Claude can't see or drive it Yes — every browser_* verb (screenshot, eval, navigate, record, etc.)

Decision rule: human-in-the-loop login flow → desktop_open_url. AI-driven automation → browser_open_window.

⚠️ Common footgun — localhost / file:// URLs from Docker AIs

If you're running this CLI from a remote Docker container (galliaApril, dartv4, etc.), browser_open_window / browser_open_tab / browser_navigate will load the URL inside the USER's local pup — NOT inside your container. So a URL like http://localhost:8080/foo.html resolves to the user's machine, not your container's service.

v1.7.10+ detects this. When you pass a URL whose host is localhost, 127.0.0.1, 0.0.0.0, ::1, or scheme is file://, the response includes a _hint field explaining the issue and suggesting the public-slug URL pattern (https://<user>-<repo>-<suffix>.adom.cloud/proxy/<port>/<path>). The call still proceeds — rare legitimate cases exist where the user actually does have something running on their localhost.

Recipe — load something from inside your container into pup:

# 1. Start your service inside the container (e.g. a local HTML viewer):
python3 -m http.server 8786 --bind 0.0.0.0 &

# 2. Ask your USER for the container's adom.cloud slug suffix
#    (look at their browser URL when they open hydrogen or claude.ai/code).
#    Slug looks like: john-galliaapril-8v0y8o3547h2

# 3. Open the public URL — NOT localhost:
adom-desktop browser_open_window '{
  "sessionId":"demo",
  "url":"https://john-galliaapril-8v0y8o3547h2.adom.cloud/proxy/8786/foo.html"
}'

If you don't have the suffix handy, just ask the user. Or if the file you wanted to show pup is one your container already wrote to disk, push it to a public location (wiki asset, S3) and load from there.

  • desktop_bring_to_front -- Bring a window to the foreground by HWND or title substring. Uses keybd_event + AttachThreadInput to bypass Windows foreground lock. Preserves maximized state.
    • Args: hwnd (int) OR titleContains (string, case-insensitive). One required.
    • Example: adom-desktop desktop_bring_to_front '{"titleContains": "Fusion"}'
  • desktop_set_window_state -- Change a window's show state without bringing it to the foreground (or both, if combined with desktop_bring_to_front). Args: hwnd (int) OR titleContains (string), plus state (one of "maximize", "minimize", "restore", "show", "hide"). Use to ensure Fusion or KiCad windows are maximized for screenshots, or to hide noisy background windows during demos.
    • Example: adom-desktop desktop_set_window_state '{"hwnd":133560,"state":"maximize"}'
  • desktop_revoke_approvals -- Revoke all shell auto-approve permissions and deny pending approvals. The next shell command will show the approval dialog.
    • Example: adom-desktop desktop_revoke_approvals
  • desktop_caption -- Show a global caption overlay that stays visible above ALL windows (KiCad, Fusion, Chrome). Native Win32 overlay — not a browser DOM element. Click-through: mouse events pass to windows below. Captured by screen recordings (browser getDisplayMedia, OBS, Game Bar).
    • Show: adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"text":"Step 1: Opening the board","position":"top","size":"large","duration":3000}'
    • Custom position: adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"text":"Look here","x":0.3,"y":0.2,"size":"large","duration":0}'
    • Hide: adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"action":"hide"}'
    • Multiple simultaneous captions (use id to keep them independent):
      adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"text":"Step 1: Opening board","id":"step","position":"center","size":"large","duration":0}'
      adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"text":"REC ●","id":"status","position":"bottom-left","size":"medium","duration":0}'
      
    • Replace only the step caption (status stays):
      adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"text":"Step 2: Routing","id":"step","position":"center","size":"large","duration":0}'
      
    • Hide just the step caption: adom-desktop desktop_caption '{"action":"hide","id":"step"}'
    • Args:
      • text (string) — caption text
      • id (string, optional) — identifies this caption. Captions with the same id replace each other; different ids coexist simultaneously. Default "_default" — so bare calls without id still replace each other for backward compat.
      • position — preset: "top", "bottom" (default), "center", "top-left", "top-right", "bottom-left", "bottom-right"
      • x (float 0.0–1.0) — normalized screen X, overrides position horizontal. 0.0 = left edge, 1.0 = right edge. Centers the caption box on this point.
      • y (float 0.0–1.0) — normalized screen Y, overrides position vertical. 0.0 = top edge, 1.0 = bottom edge.
      • size — preset: "large" (72px), "medium" (32px, default), "small" (20px)
      • fontSize (int) — custom font size in px (8–400). Overrides size preset when provided.
      • duration (ms) — auto-dismiss timer. Default 4000. 0 = stay until explicitly hidden.
      • action"hide" to dismiss a caption (with id: hides only that caption; without id: hides all captions), "force-clear" to EnumWindows and destroy ALL caption windows regardless of id (nuclear option — use at top of demo scripts for guaranteed clean slate)
    • Captions with the same id replace each other instantly (previous destroyed, no fade overlap). Captions with different ids coexist — multiple captions can be visible simultaneously.

Desktop Screenshots

Take screenshots of the user's desktop or individual windows. All screenshots use lossless PNG.

Always save screenshots to project-content/screenshots/.

Naming convention: desktop-<descriptive-name>-YYYY-MM-DD-HhMMam/pm.png

Workflow: Call desktop_list_windows first to get HWNDs, then desktop_screenshot_window with the HWND.

  • desktop_list_windows -- List all visible windows (returns HWND, title, class name, position/size)
  • desktop_screenshot_window -- Capture a specific window by HWND
  • desktop_screenshot_screen -- Capture the entire desktop (all monitors)

Browser Automation (Puppeteer)

Multi-session Puppeteer -- each session gets its own Chrome window. Auto-starts on first command. Always pass sessionId on every command.

Two levels of granularity: window (one Chromium window per session, own taskbar icon) and tab (many tabs per session, one taskbar icon). Use windows when isolation matters, tabs when showing many related views (10 alignment previews, etc.) to avoid flooding the taskbar.

Window-level commands (one session = one Chrome window):

  • browser_rescan -- (v1.5.1+) Recover orphaned Chrome windows whose CDP socket dropped. Walks every known profile (in-memory + on-disk session files), reconnects via the persisted DevToolsActivePort, then walks every page and rebuilds session entries by parsing the (session: X) tag injected into each page's title at launch. Idempotent. Args: adoptOrphans? (default false; when true, pages without a tag get attached under a generated sessionId — useful when Chrome has tabs the bridge has never seen).
    • When you need this: any time browser_navigate / browser_eval / browser_screenshot errors with errorCode: "session_disconnected" (the bridge knows about your sessionId but its CDP socket dropped) or errorCode: "session_not_found" (after a bridge restart that rebuilt from disk but couldn't reach the live Chrome). The 30s health check now auto-attempts reconnect, so most transient blips recover before you notice — but browser_rescan is the explicit recovery primitive.
    • Returns: {ok, rescanned, profilesReconnected, profilesUnreachable, reattached, orphansAdopted, liveSessions, disconnectedSessions, _hint}.
  • browser_open_window -- Open a Chrome window. Args: sessionId (required), profile (required), url (required), freshProfile (optional), strictPermissions (optional, default false), downloadPath (optional, default %USERPROFILE%\Downloads).
    • Full-capability default (v1.6.3+): every pup session opens with the capabilities chip-fetcher-style flows actually need:
      • Scripted downloads enabled. Page.setDownloadBehavior is called with behavior: 'allow' and downloadPath: %USERPROFILE%\Downloads (override via the downloadPath arg). Re-applied on every main-frame navigation as a safety belt. This unblocks the silent-download-failure scenario: before v1.6.3, JS-triggered downloads (clicks on <a download>, fetch().then(blob → save), vendor "Download Symbol" buttons that do window.location = url) could be silently dropped by Chrome — no error, no UI, no file. chip-fetcher debugged this for hours before the fix.
      • Clipboard read/write granted. Paste-into-vendor-form flows work without permission prompts.
      • Notifications + geolocation + MIDI denied. Chrome doesn't pop up permission dialogs under automation.
      • The response includes defaultPermissionsApplied: true, defaultPermissions: ["clipboard-read=granted", "clipboard-write=granted", "notifications=denied", "geolocation=denied", "midi=denied"], downloadsEnabled: true, downloadPath: <resolved abs path>. The path is what desktop_watch_files polls by default — the two ends meet without configuration.
    • Opt-out: pass strictPermissions: true to keep Chromium's defaults in place. Rarely needed — only when driving an untrusted site you're auditing. With strict mode, scripted downloads may be silently dropped, clipboard prompts fire, etc.
    • History note: v1.4.12 used Browser.grantPermissions(['automaticDownloads', 'notifications', 'clipboardReadWrite']) — but Chrome 146 rejects automaticDownloads as an unknown permission name, taking the whole grant down. v1.6.3 fixes by using Browser.setPermission per-permission (per-permission failure tolerance) AND by realizing Page.setDownloadBehavior is the actual mechanism for unblocking scripted downloads, not a permission grant.
  • browser_close_window -- Close a session's Chrome window (closes ALL tabs in that session). Args: sessionId
  • browser_list_windows -- List all open sessions with URL, title, tabCount, active status

Tab-level commands (manage tabs within a session's window):

  • browser_open_tab -- Add a tab to an existing session. Returns {tabId, url, title, active}. Args: sessionId, url
  • browser_switch_tab -- Make a specific tab the active one (calls bringToFront). Args: sessionId, tabId
  • browser_close_tab -- Close a specific tab. Leaves other tabs + session intact. Args: sessionId, tabId
  • browser_list_tabs -- List all tabs in a session: {tabs:[{tabId,url,title,active,errorCount,opener,openerTabId}], activeTabId, count}. Args: sessionId. Auto-tracks popup tabs since v1.4.7 — tabs the page spawned via window.open() / target="_blank" / form-submit-with-target=_blank appear here automatically with opener:"popup" and openerTabId pointing at the tab that triggered them. Tabs Claude opened via browser_open_window/browser_open_tab have opener:"user".

Tab-aware operations (all accept optional tabId; omit = use active tab):

  • browser_navigate -- Navigate to a new URL. Args: sessionId, url, tabId?

  • browser_screenshot -- Capture screenshot, auto-resized to <=1568px. Args: sessionId, maxWidth, fullPage, tabId?

  • browser_eval -- Evaluate JS in the page context. Args: sessionId, expr, tabId?

  • browser_input_dispatch -- Trusted click / type / key / move via Chromium's CDP-backed Input.dispatchMouseEvent / Input.dispatchKeyEvent. Events have isTrusted: true, so they pass framework click-handler gates (React/Vue/Svelte) and most vendor anti-automation checks that browser_eval-side dispatchEvent(new MouseEvent(...)) silently fails on. Args: sessionId?, tabId?, type (click|move|type|key), plus per-type fields:

    • click: either selector (uses bounding rect — preferred when DOM is stable) OR {x, y} viewport coords. Optional button (left/right/middle), clickCount (1 or 2 for double-click), delay, firstMatch (default false; see below).
    • move: {x, y} plus optional steps for human-like trajectory.
    • type: text to type; pass optional selector to focus that element first; optional delay between keystrokes.
    • key: a Puppeteer KeyInput name (Enter, Escape, Tab, ArrowUp, F1, etc).
    • Smart selector pick (v1.4.8+, modal-scoped in v1.4.9+, plausibility-filtered in v1.4.10+): when a selector matches multiple elements (a class like button.wg-button--primary often does — cookie X buttons + duplicate hidden copies + the actual submit), the bridge picks intelligently:
      1. If a plausible modal/dialog is open<dialog open>, [aria-modal="true"], [role="dialog"], OR a fixed/absolute element with z-index ≥100 covering >25% of the viewport — AND it contains at least one visible interactive element with text — restrict the candidate set to elements inside that modal first. Tiebreak by largest visual area inside it. The page behind a modal is visually inert; clicking elements behind it is almost never what the caller intended. The "plausibility filter" added in v1.4.10 prevents empty overlay containers (Vue-Toastification toast wrappers, notification mount points, full-screen ad scrims) from being mistaken for the real modal — a common false-positive on Vue/React apps that mount toast portals at body level.
      2. Otherwise filter to visible elements with non-empty text and tiebreak by largest visual area.
      3. Fall back to visible-only, then document-order first as last resort.
    • Response includes matchedCount, chosenIndex, clickedRect:{x,y,w,h}, clickedText, insideModal, modalDetected, modalRoot:{tag,id,cls,z,role,ariaModal}|null (v1.4.10+ — which DOM node won the modal-detection heuristic, for diagnosing false-positives), and pickStrategy (only-match | first-match | modal-scoped-largest | visible-text-largest | visible-text-largest-no-modal-match | visible-largest | fallback-first-document-order). Always sanity-check the response — if clickedText doesn't look right, inspect modalRoot to see whether modal detection latched onto the intended overlay or got fooled by a sibling, then refine the selector OR pass firstMatch:true to skip the smart pick OR fall back to {x, y} coords.
    • Use this whenever a click "lands but does nothing" — most vendor "Generate Datasheet" / "Download" / "Submit" buttons gate on event.isTrusted. After clicking, follow up with browser_list_tabs (popups auto-track) to grab any new tab the click spawned.
  • browser_fetch_url -- Fetch an arbitrary URL with the session's cookies and return raw bytes. Bypasses Chrome's PDF Viewer wrapper — critical for grabbing PDF binaries from popup tabs where in-page fetch(location.href) returns the viewer HTML wrapper (~200 KB stub) instead of the actual PDF (multi-MB). Also handles ZIPs, CAD bundles, anything served as a binary content-type.

    • Args: sessionId?, tabId? (picks cookie context — defaults to active tab), url (required), method? (default GET), headers? (object; Cookie auto-included from session), body? (raw string).
    • saveTo writes on the DOCKER container's filesystem (the CLI handles the write after receiving bytes from the bridge). Pass an absolute path. Parent dirs are created. Returns savedTo with the canonical absolute path (verified to exist on disk) plus savedToFilesystem:"container".
    • desktopSaveTo writes on the WINDOWS desktop's filesystem (the bridge writes directly via fs.writeFileSync). Pass an absolute Windows path (e.g. C:\\Users\\you\\Downloads\\foo.pdf). Returns desktopSavedTo with the resolved absolute path. Use this when the user wants the file local on the desktop (e.g. dropping a CAD bundle into Downloads).
    • Without saveTo or desktopSaveTo, returns bodyBase64 in the response — caller decides what to do.
    • Returns: {ok, bytes, contentType, status, sessionId, tabId, bodyBase64?, savedTo?, savedToFilesystem?, desktopSavedTo?, desktopSaveError?}.
    • CRITICAL READ-THE-RESPONSE rule: when you pass saveTo, the response's savedTo is the actual filesystem path the file was written to. v1.4.8 had a bug where the bridge would respond savedTo:"/tmp/foo.pdf" but the file existed nowhere; v1.4.9 fixes this — savedTo always reflects a real on-disk path.
    • Recipe — popup PDF capture (the right pattern):
      # After browser_input_dispatch click that spawns a PDF popup, READ THE URL
      # FROM browser_list_tabs (don't eval against the popup's tabId — popups
      # auto-close fast and eval-after-close errors with a structured hint).
      LIST=$(adom-desktop browser_list_tabs '{"sessionId":"chip-fetcher"}')
      POPUP_URL=$(printf '%s' "$LIST" | jq -r '.tabs[] | select(.opener=="popup") | .url' | head -1)
      POPUP_TAB=$(printf '%s' "$LIST" | jq -r '.tabs[] | select(.opener=="popup") | .tabId' | head -1)
      
      adom-desktop browser_fetch_url "{
        \"sessionId\":\"chip-fetcher\",
        \"tabId\":\"$POPUP_TAB\",
        \"url\":\"$POPUP_URL\",
        \"saveTo\":\"/tmp/datasheet.pdf\"
      }"
      # → {ok:true, savedTo:"/tmp/datasheet.pdf" (exists), savedToFilesystem:"container",
      #    bytes:3798336, contentType:"application/pdf", status:200}
      
  • Per-call auto-recovery (v1.6.1+): every tab-aware verb (browser_navigate / eval / screenshot / input_dispatch / errors / reload / fetch_url) now silently reconnects or relaunches before surfacing any session error. The Docker container should NEVER see "Session closed" / "detached Frame" / "session_disconnected" again unless recovery is genuinely impossible. The recovery ladder:

    1. Live session → return immediately.
    2. Session is _lostBrowser (CDP socket dropped after sleep/wake / network blip / puppeteer hiccup): try attemptReconnectProfile() which checks (a) the on-disk session file's recorded cdpPort, (b) the profile dir's DevToolsActivePort, and (c) scans running Chrome processes for a --remote-debugging-port=N matching this profile dir (this catches the canonical sleep/wake symptom — Chrome alive, CDP serving, but the bridge has no on-disk record). If reconnect succeeds, walk pages and re-attach by parsing the (session: X) tag from titles.
    3. Reconnect failed: kill any orphan Chrome processes for this profile, clean the profile lock files (lockfile on Windows, SingletonLock / SingletonSocket / SingletonCookie on POSIX, plus stale DevToolsActivePort), then relaunch via launchSession with the last-known URL from the session file. The sessionId is preserved — the caller gets a transparent recovery.
    4. Total failure (no profile name, no last-known URL, can't launch) → only THEN does the structured session_not_found / session_disconnected error fire.

    When recovery happens, the response includes _recovered: true and _recoveryReason: "reconnect-no-page" | "relaunch" so callers can log / metric the recovery rate.

  • Stale sessionId detection (v1.5.1+): when auto-recovery (above) genuinely cannot fix the problem (no profile known, no last-known URL, Chrome won't relaunch — rare), a structured error fires. Two error codes you might see:

    • session_not_found — the bridge has no record of this sessionId. Recipe: check liveSessions for the right name, or browser_open_window if you want to start fresh.
    • session_disconnected — the bridge has the session in memory (and on disk) but auto-recovery couldn't reach its Chrome. Recipe: call browser_rescan to force a manual recovery pass, or browser_open_window with explicit URL to relaunch.
  • browser_rescan (v1.5.1+, enhanced v1.6.1+) — explicit recovery primitive. v1.6.1 adds a running-process scan: walks all Chrome processes whose --user-data-dir is under the puppeteer profiles dir, even if the bridge has no in-memory or on-disk record of them. This is what fixed the chipsmith-after-sleep scenario where the bridge had been restarted while Chrome was alive — neither in-memory state nor session files referenced the live Chrome, but the process list did.

  • Stale tabId detection (v1.4.10): every tab-aware verb (browser_navigate, browser_screenshot, browser_eval, browser_input_dispatch, browser_errors, browser_reload, browser_close_tab, browser_fetch_url) returns a structured error when you pass a tabId that no longer exists:

    {
      "ok": false,
      "errorCode": "tab_not_found",
      "error": "Tab \"tab-3\" not found in session \"chip-fetcher\".",
      "currentTabs": ["tab-1", "tab-2"],
      "lastKnownUrl": "https://wago.priintcloud.com/datasheets/2601-3105/en/...",
      "opener": "popup",
      "openerTabId": "tab-1",
      "closedMsAgo": 1842,
      "_hint": "This tab closed 2s ago at URL https://... Call browser_fetch_url with that URL (and the opener tabId \"tab-1\" for cookies) to get its bytes — do NOT try to eval against the closed tabId."
    }
    
    • lastKnownUrl + opener + openerTabId + closedMsAgo are populated when the bogus tabId matches a tab that closed in the last few seconds (kept in a 20-entry per-session ring buffer). Critical for popup PDF workflows where the viewer auto-closes after rendering — you can browser_fetch_url directly against lastKnownUrl instead of having to re-trigger the spawning click.
    • Important regression note: v1.4.9 documented this error but the CLI was silently stripping tabId from browser_navigate / browser_screenshot / browser_eval / browser_errors / browser_reload calls before forwarding to the bridge — so the bridge always saw "no tabId" and fell back to the active tab. v1.4.10 fixes the CLI to forward tabId so the structured error actually fires. If you're still seeing silent fallback, your CLI is < v1.4.10 (adom-desktop --version to check).
  • browser_errors -- Collected console/page errors. Args: sessionId, clear (default true), tabId?

  • browser_reload -- Reload the page. Args: sessionId, tabId?

Other:

  • browser_status -- All sessions with URLs, tab counts, and error counts
  • browser_close -- Close ALL sessions
  • browser_wait -- Wait for content to settle. Args: ms

Credential vault — silent HTTP Basic Auth (v1.4.4+)

When pup navigates to a host that issues an HTTP Basic Auth challenge (every *.componentsearchengine.com subdomain that wraps NXP / Mouser / TI / etc CAD bundles, several vendor design + doc portals), Chrome shows a NATIVE auth dialog that lives outside the page DOM. browser_eval can't dismiss it. Without the credential vault, the user has to type the same email + password every navigation — chip-fetcher hits this 5–10 times per chip.

The vault stores credentials in the OS keychain (Windows DPAPI / macOS Keychain / Linux libsecret) and applies them via page.authenticate() BEFORE the navigation, so the dialog never appears. Passwords never leave the keychaincredential_list returns host + username only.

  • credential_set -- Store creds for a host pattern. Encrypted at rest by the user's session key.
    • Args: host (glob: "*.componentsearchengine.com" or exact "nxp.componentsearchengine.com"), username, password
    • Returns: {ok, host, username} (no password)
  • credential_list -- List stored entries.
    • Returns: {credentials: [{host, username, addedAt, updatedAt}]}
    • Passwords are never returned by this verb.
  • credential_delete -- Remove a credential entry. Drops the password from the keychain and the entry from the index.
    • Args: host (must match the pattern used at credential_set time, exactly)

Host matching: simple glob. *.example.com matches any subdomain; exact strings match exactly. Best-match wins (longest non-glob suffix beats shorter glob), so a nxp.componentsearchengine.com entry would override a *.componentsearchengine.com entry for that exact host.

Recipe — chip-fetcher / CSE flow:

# 1. One-time setup (ask user for their CSE creds, then store)
adom-desktop credential_set '{
  "host":"*.componentsearchengine.com",
  "username":"[email protected]",
  "password":"<paste>"
}'
# → {ok:true, host:"*.componentsearchengine.com", username:"[email protected]"}

# 2. Navigate freely — no popup
adom-desktop browser_open_window '{
  "sessionId":"chip-fetcher",
  "profile":"chip-fetcher",
  "url":"https://nxp.componentsearchengine.com/preview_newDesign.php?..."
}'
adom-desktop browser_eval '{"sessionId":"chip-fetcher","expr":"document.title"}'
# → "SamacSys Part Preview" (NOT "Sign in")

# 3. Audit — passwords are never returned
adom-desktop credential_list
# → {credentials:[{host:"*.componentsearchengine.com", username:"[email protected]", ...}]}

# 4. Remove
adom-desktop credential_delete '{"host":"*.componentsearchengine.com"}'

Hooks fire BEFORE every page.goto in three places: browser_open_window's first nav, browser_open_tab, browser_navigate. The credential lookup is O(N) over stored entries which is fine for typical N (single digits).

If a host has no stored creds, navigation proceeds normally — the user will see Chrome's native dialog as before. There's no fallback prompt; the next step is for you to ask the user for the credential, then credential_set it.

Example — show 10 alignment previews in ONE Chrome window:

adom-desktop browser_open_window '{"sessionId":"align","profile":"align","url":"http://127.0.0.1:8901/"}'
for port in 8902 8903 8904 8905 8906 8907 8908 8909 8910; do
  adom-desktop browser_open_tab "{\"sessionId\":\"align\",\"url\":\"http://127.0.0.1:$port/\"}"
done
adom-desktop browser_list_tabs '{"sessionId":"align"}'     # see all 10
adom-desktop browser_screenshot '{"sessionId":"align","tabId":"tab-3"}'
adom-desktop browser_eval '{"sessionId":"align","tabId":"tab-5","expr":"document.getElementById(\"meta-seat-z\").textContent"}'
  • browser_alert_window -- Flash the Windows taskbar orange. Always call after updating a pup window. Args: sessionId
  • browser_focus_window -- Tab-only. Calls Puppeteer's page.bringToFront() — activates the session's tab WITHIN its Chrome window, but does NOT raise the OS window above other apps on the desktop. Args: sessionId. For OS-level foreground use browser_raise_os_window (below).
  • browser_raise_os_window -- Real OS foreground raise. Brings the Chrome window hosting this pup session above all other desktop apps. Use this BEFORE recording, screenshots, animations, or any flow where Chrome being occluded would matter — when Chrome is in the background, document.hidden=true and Chrome throttles requestAnimationFrame to ~1 Hz, breaking cinematic camera orbits, CSS animations, video element auto-play, fps counters, etc. Internally: focuses the tab inside Chrome, then EnumWindows-finds the OS window by title containing (session: <sessionId>), restores it from minimized if needed, and runs the foreground-lock bypass (AttachThreadInput + keybd_event phantom-key trick). Args: sessionId. Returns: {sessionId, hwnd, title, raised, error?}.
    # Typical recording prep
    adom-desktop browser_open_window '{"sessionId":"demo","profile":"demo","url":"…"}'
    adom-desktop browser_raise_os_window '{"sessionId":"demo"}'   # ← page now actually visible
    adom-desktop desktop_record_start '{"reason":"…"}'
    
  • browser_lower_os_window -- OS-level minimize. Sends the Chrome window for this session to the back / minimized so the user gets their desktop back after Claude finishes a long pup-driven flow. Args: sessionId. Returns: {sessionId, hwnd, lowered, error?}.

Screen Recording

CRITICAL — pick the right verb. Claude frequently mistakes "record a pup" / "record this Chrome window" / "record the page" for desktop recording. They are NOT the same. Picking wrong gives a black/wrong-content .webm because the pup window may not be in the OS foreground when the desktop recorder snaps frames.

Decision tree (read this BEFORE you reach for any record command)

User said... Use
"record a pup" / "record this pup window" / "record the tab" / "record the page" / "record this Chrome window I just opened" browser_record_start — tab-scoped via CDP, captures the pup tab regardless of foreground state, ~50 fps actual at 30 fps target, single .webm
"record my screen" / "record what I'm doing" (and Hydrogen is available, which is most of the time) Hydrogen's built-in: recording start --share screen — same getDisplayMedia pipeline but already wired into Hydrogen with native UI. Prefer this for casual "record my screen" asks.
"record everything on screen including KiCad / Fusion / OS dialogs / multiple apps switching" desktop_record_start with confirmDesktopNotTabRecording: true (required arg — see below)
"record a pup tab AND give me a parallel desktop video at the same time" (e.g. ralph-loop screenshot tests with simultaneous narration) Both at once: browser_record_start on the tab AND desktop_record_start on the desktop. Adom-desktop's desktop recorder exists for this case — Hydrogen's recorder can't run while it's busy doing tab capture, so adom-desktop fills that gap.

Why this matters

  • Wrong verb → wrong content. desktop_record_* captures whatever is on the user's monitor at frame time. If the pup window is occluded behind your IDE / Slack / their email client, the resulting clip shows YOUR app, not the pup tab. Even with browser_raise_os_window first, the user's natural alt-tab activity covers the pup window within seconds.
  • Hydrogen already has desktop recording. Most "record my screen" asks should just be Hydrogen's recorder. Adom-desktop's desktop_record_* is mostly redundant — it shines exactly when Hydrogen is busy capturing a tab and you need a parallel desktop angle.

The guardrail

desktop_record_start REQUIRES confirmDesktopNotTabRecording: true. Without it, the call returns errorCode: desktop_record_needs_confirmation with a long error string explaining the alternatives (browser_record_start, Hydrogen, or pass the confirm). This is intentional friction — re-read the error and confirm you really want full-desktop, not pup-tab.

Output summary

Mode Commands HUD on screen Concurrent? Output
Tab (one pup tab's viewport) browser_record_* NO (the user already sees the tab) YES (one per tab) Single finished .webm (real-time playback, ~50fps actual)
Desktop (full screen) desktop_record_* YES — always-on-top control panel with reason + manual stop No (one at a time) Single finished .webm

Desktop recording (HUD)

The recorder is a visible Chrome window in the bottom-right corner showing recording status, the stated reason, and a manual Stop button. The HUD persists across multiple short clips (a "session"); only desktop_recorder_close (or 5 min idle) dismisses it.

Two REQUIRED args on desktop_record_start:

  • reason — string, why you're recording (renders in HUD title + sidecar .json)
  • confirmDesktopNotTabRecording: true — boolean acknowledgement that you understand this captures the WHOLE desktop, NOT a pup tab. The bridge rejects calls without this with errorCode: desktop_record_needs_confirmation and a hint pointing at browser_record_start (for pup tab) or Hydrogen (for casual screen recording).
# Start a desktop clip (HUD opens with reason; recording begins).
# Note: confirmDesktopNotTabRecording: true is REQUIRED — without it the
# bridge rejects with errorCode: desktop_record_needs_confirmation.
adom-desktop desktop_record_start '{
  "reason":"Parallel desktop angle alongside Hydrogen ralph-loop tab capture",
  "confirmDesktopNotTabRecording": true,
  "monitor":"primary",
  "fps":30,
  "audio":false
}'
# → { "ok":true, "recordingId":"rec-1", "filePath":"…\\rec-desktop-….webm", … }

# … drive KiCad/Fusion/etc …

# Stop this clip — HUD stays open, ready for next clip
adom-desktop desktop_record_stop '{"recordingId":"rec-1"}'
# → { "ok":true, "filePath":"…\\rec-desktop-….webm", "sizeKB":4231, "durationMs":18432 }

# (Optional) Record more clips in the same session — reason persists, but
# confirmDesktopNotTabRecording must be passed every time.
adom-desktop desktop_record_start '{
  "reason":"Parallel desktop angle alongside Hydrogen ralph-loop tab capture",
  "confirmDesktopNotTabRecording": true
}'
# … etc …

# When done: close the HUD
adom-desktop desktop_recorder_close
# → { "ok":true, "sessionSummary":{"clipCount":3, "totalSizeKB":12390, "reason":"…", "clips":[…]} }

# Pull each WebM to Docker (already a finished video — no muxing needed)
adom-desktop pull_file '{"filePaths":["C:\\…\\rec-desktop-….webm"], "saveTo":"/tmp"}'
ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=codec_name,duration -of default=nw=1 /tmp/rec-desktop-….webm
# → codec_name=vp9, duration=18.432

Other commands:

  • desktop_recorder_open '{"reason":"…"}' — open the HUD without starting a clip (so the user knows ahead of time you're about to record)
  • desktop_record_status{hudOpen, reason, currentRecording, clipsThisSession}
  • desktop_record_list — completed .webm files with sidecar metadata (incl. reason)
  • desktop_list_monitors — primary monitor info (v1.1: full multi-monitor enumeration)

The user can click Stop in the HUD at any time — that converges through the same code path as your desktop_record_stop call. Don't fight it; if the user stops manually, treat the clip as complete and react accordingly.

Tab recording (real-time video, no HUD, concurrent)

For smooth video — narrated demos, motion-heavy scenes, animations, anything the user will watch end-to-end — use browser_record_start/stop NOT a browser_screenshot loop. The screenshot loop maxes out around 3 fps and reads as choppy.

Mechanism: CDP Page.startScreencast (Chrome's native compositor-driven JPEG-frame stream) with Page.screencastFrameAck per-frame backpressure. Each frame is written to disk with a wall-clock timestamp, then ffmpeg muxes into a single VP9 .webm using the concat demuxer with per-frame durations so playback matches real wall time. Tab-scoped at the protocol level (the CDP session is bound to a specific Page target — no cross-tab/cross-Chrome leakage).

FPS expectations. Chrome's compositor pushes a frame each time the page paints. everyNthFrame is computed from the requested fps (e.g. 30 fps → every 2nd paint frame). On rAF-animated pages with the tab foregrounded, expect actual fps to meet or exceed the target — measured 49.7 fps actual at 30 fps target on a 2.5K viewport. On occluded windows Chrome paint-throttles, so always raise the OS window first.

Why not MediaRecorder + getDisplayMedia? Tested — Chrome 146 crashes when getDisplayMedia({preferCurrentTab:true}) is called via Puppeteer (known upstream bug, puppeteer #13478). Page.startScreencast is Chrome's other native video pipeline; it's stable and produces equivalent output (compositor frames as JPEGs).

Output is a single finished .webm file — no tar, no concat staging exposed to callers, no Docker-side mux. Just pull_file.

Raise the OS window first. Chrome paint-throttles occluded windows, so calling browser_record_start on a backgrounded tab produces stutters. Always:

adom-desktop browser_raise_os_window '{"sessionId":"align"}'   # surface pup tab to OS foreground
adom-desktop browser_record_start '{"sessionId":"align","fps":30}'

Anti-throttle launch flags (already baked into pup). Pup spawns Chrome with four flags that suppress most of Chrome's background throttling so recordings don't collapse to ~1 fps when the user alt-tabs to another app:

  • --disable-renderer-backgrounding
  • --disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows
  • --disable-background-timer-throttling
  • --disable-features=CalculateNativeWinOcclusion

Verified: with all four flags, browser_record_start on a window completely covered by Notepad still produces 29.65 fps actual at 30 fps target.

Caveat: pup sessions launched in a bridge version older than v1.3.32 don't have these flags. Chrome launch flags apply only at process spawn — they cannot be added retroactively. If fpsActual reports ≤1 even with browser_raise_os_window first, the session's Chrome was launched with an old flag set. Fix: close + reopen the session (browser_close '{"sessionId":"<id>"}' then browser_open_window) so it spawns a fresh Chrome with the current flags. The kicadVersionUsed-style proof: there's no per-session "flags" reporter yet, so the reliable test is the recording fps itself.

Multiple recordings on different tabs run in parallel — each tab has its own capture loop.

# Record three tabs in parallel
for TAB in tab-1 tab-2 tab-3; do
  adom-desktop browser_record_start "{\"sessionId\":\"align\",\"tabId\":\"$TAB\",\"fps\":30}"
done

# … drive each tab through its scenario …

# Stop and pull each (already a finished webm — no muxing step on Docker)
for REC_ID in rec-tab-1 rec-tab-2 rec-tab-3; do
  STOP=$(adom-desktop browser_record_stop "{\"sessionId\":\"align\",\"recordingId\":\"$REC_ID\"}")
  WEBM=$(printf '%s' "$STOP" | jq -r '.output | fromjson | .filePath')
  adom-desktop pull_file "{\"filePaths\":[\"$WEBM\"],\"saveTo\":\"/tmp\"}"
done

Args: sessionId (required), tabId (optional — defaults to active tab), fps (default 30; note the actual ceiling is ~10-15 fps), quality (default 85, 1-100 JPEG quality), maxDurationMs (default 600000).

Returns from browser_record_stop: {recordingId, sessionId, tabId, filePath, sizeKB, durationMs, frameCount, fpsTarget, fpsActual, stopReason}.

Other commands:

  • browser_record_status '{"sessionId":"align"}' — list active tab recordings with live frameCount, fpsTarget, fpsActual, durationMs, sizeBytesApprox
  • browser_record_list — completed .webm files on disk with sidecar metadata
  • Tab close auto-stops any recording for that tab (mux fires, file finalizes, you don't have to call browser_record_stop first)

Notes & gotchas:

  • The desktop HUD itself is captured by the desktop recording (it's a visible window). Same as Hydrogen — accepted cost for the visible-status UX. The window is small + bottom-right.
  • ffmpeg is required on Windows for tab recording (the mux step). Install via winget install Gyan.FFmpeg. Bridge logs the detection result at startup.
  • maxDurationMs defaults to 600000 (10 min) for safety; raise it for longer recordings.
  • On bridge shutdown (graceful), active recordings are drained — the mux runs and you get a valid .webm.
  • The mux file (<rec>.webm) is produced by ffmpeg and has a valid format=duration. The frames staging dir (<rec>.frames/) is deleted after a successful mux.

Filesystem primitives — desktop_list_files / desktop_watch_files / desktop_pull_glob (v1.5.0+)

These are the canonical "wait for a download" primitives. They replace the shell_execute + PowerShell-poll-Downloads pattern that earlier callers (chip-fetcher, similar tools) had to use. No shell, no user approval prompt, no parsing of dir output. They run pure Rust on the desktop side, so they're fast, predictable, and never trip over PowerShell quoting.

The pattern they replace looks like this:

# OLD — DON'T do this for new code:
$before = (Get-Date).ToFileTime()
# … click download …
while (-not (Get-ChildItem ~/Downloads -Filter ul_*.zip | Where { $_.LastWriteTime.ToFileTime() -gt $before })) {
  Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
}
$file = Get-ChildItem ~/Downloads -Filter ul_*.zip | Sort LastWriteTime -Desc | Select -First 1

becomes one call:

# NEW — single primitive, no shell:
adom-desktop desktop_watch_files '{
  "path": "%USERPROFILE%\\Downloads",
  "glob": "ul_*.zip",
  "timeoutMs": 60000
}'
# → {ok:true, file:{path,name,size,mtime}, elapsedMs} on success
# → {ok:false, error:"timeout", elapsedMs, _hint, ...} on timeout

desktop_list_files — one-shot directory listing

Lists files in a directory (non-recursive) matching a shell-glob, optionally filtered to those modified after a given timestamp.

  • Args: path (Windows abs path; ~ / %USERPROFILE% / %APPDATA% / %LOCALAPPDATA% / %TEMP% are expanded), glob (default *; shell-style with * and ?; case-insensitive on Windows), modifiedSince (optional unix-seconds OR ISO-8601 string).
  • Returns: {ok, path, glob, files: [{path, name, size, mtime}, ...] sorted newest-first, count}.
  • Does NOT recurse. Lists one directory only.

desktop_watch_files — block until a match arrives

Polls the directory every pollMs (default 1000) until at least one file matches the glob with mtime > since, or timeoutMs (default 60000, max 600000 = 10 min) elapses.

  • Args: same as desktop_list_files plus since (defaults to now — without an explicit value, only NEW files report), timeoutMs, pollMs.
  • Returns on match: {ok:true, file:{path,name,size,mtime}, elapsedMs}.
  • Returns on timeout: {ok:false, error:"timeout", elapsedMs, _hint, path, glob}.
  • The since-defaults-to-now behavior matches the canonical "click then watch" flow. If you might miss the file by starting the watch slightly late (e.g. fast small downloads), record $(date +%s) BEFORE the click and pass it as since.

desktop_pull_glob — one-shot orchestrator (recommended for download flows)

Composes desktop_list_files (or desktop_watch_files if wait:true) with the existing streaming pull_file mechanism. The whole "wait for a download then pull it" flow in one call:

BEFORE=$(date +%s)
# … trigger the download click via browser_input_dispatch …
adom-desktop desktop_pull_glob "{
  \"path\": \"%USERPROFILE%\\\\Downloads\",
  \"glob\": \"ul_*.zip\",
  \"since\": $BEFORE,
  \"wait\": true,
  \"timeoutMs\": 60000,
  \"saveTo\": \"/tmp/cse-out\"
}"
# → {ok:true, files:[{name,path,size,sha256,chunks}, ...], errors:[], matchedCount}
  • When wait:true: blocks via desktop_watch_files until at least one match appears, then re-lists the directory and pulls everything matching (so a .crdownload + final .zip written in the same poll tick both come along).
  • When wait:false (default): just lists what's there now and pulls those.
  • Pulls use the existing pull_file streaming pipeline — sha256-verified, ~1MB chunks, resumes the same way pull_file does.

Glob semantics

  • * matches any run of non-separator chars (within a single filename — these primitives don't recurse).
  • ? matches a single non-separator char.
  • Case-insensitive on Windows (matches the filesystem); case-sensitive on macOS/Linux.
  • Examples: ul_*.zip, LIB_*.zip, *.pdf, datasheet_*.pdf, *.step, *.STEP (same on Windows).

Path expansion

  • ~ and ~/foo → home dir (Linux/macOS convention; works on Windows too).
  • %USERPROFILE% → home dir (Windows; also works cross-platform).
  • %APPDATA% → Windows roaming app data (dirs::config_dir() on others).
  • %LOCALAPPDATA% → Windows local app data (dirs::data_local_dir() on others).
  • %TEMP% → Windows TEMP env var; /tmp on Linux/macOS.
  • Expansion is case-insensitive: %userprofile% works the same as %USERPROFILE%.
  • Forward slashes (/) and back slashes (\) both work in the path string.

Time format for since / modifiedSince

  • Number: unix seconds (e.g. 1746483600). Floats accepted.
  • String of digits: same (e.g. "1746483600").
  • ISO-8601 / RFC-3339 string: e.g. "2026-05-04T22:30:00Z" or with offset "2026-05-04T15:30:00-07:00".
  • Files with mtime <= since are filtered out (strict >).

Hydrogen Desktop (hd_*) — proxy + build/lifecycle for the sibling Tauri app

When the user has Hydrogen Desktop running (a sibling Tauri v2 app at C:\Github\hydrogen-desktop, HTTP control API on 127.0.0.1:9001), 19 built-in hd_* verbs reach into it. These are NOT a separate bridge process — adom-desktop proxies HTTP calls directly to HD's :9001 endpoint and writes/reads its build state from %TEMP%.

Inspect + drive a running HD (v1.8.15+)

Verb What
hd_status GET /health — alive? Returns {ok:false, error:"HD not running"} cleanly when port 9001 is refused.
hd_eval '{"js":"..."}' POST /eval — run JS in HD's main webview
hd_iframe_eval '{"js":"...","contextIndex":0}' POST /iframe-eval — run JS inside HD's embedded code-server iframe via CDP
hd_log '{"tail":30}' Tail %APPDATA%\hydrogen-desktop\hydrogen-desktop.log (reads disk — works EVEN when HD is down)
hd_open_url '{"url":"...","browser":"chrome","profileDir":"Default"}' POST /open-in-profile — open URL in a specific browser profile
hd_browser_profiles GET /browser-profiles — enumerate browsers + their profiles (gaia accounts surfaced)
hd_screenshot Find HD window, capture lossless PNG via PrintWindow
hd_reload_vscode POST /reload-vscode — reload the embedded VS Code iframe
hd_container_exec '{"command":"..."}' POST /container-exec — run a shell inside HD's Docker container

Build + lifecycle suite (v1.8.16+)

The relay's shell_execute has a 30s timeout; HD's pnpm build + cargo build exceed that, so we split the build into async-spawn verbs + sync poll/tail verbs:

# Stop HD if running, then do a frontend-only rebuild, watch progress, relaunch
adom-desktop hd_stop
adom-desktop hd_build_frontend '{"show":false}'      # returns {ok, pid, logPath} immediately
OFFSET=0
while true; do
  RESP=$(adom-desktop hd_build_tail "{\"offset\":$OFFSET}")
  echo "$RESP" | jq -r '.lines[]'
  DONE=$(echo "$RESP" | jq -r '.done')
  OFFSET=$(echo "$RESP" | jq -r '.newOffset')
  [[ "$DONE" == "true" ]] && break
  sleep 3
done
adom-desktop hd_build_status      # confirm succeeded:true
adom-desktop hd_launch            # start the new debug binary

Or the polling variant if streaming isn't needed:

adom-desktop hd_build_rust                            # just `cargo build` in src-tauri/
until adom-desktop hd_build_status | grep -q '"building": false'; do sleep 5; done
adom-desktop hd_build_status | jq '{succeeded, failureReason, lastLines}'
adom-desktop hd_launch
Verb What
hd_build '{"show":false}' Full async build: git pull + pnpm build + cargo build. Returns instantly with {pid, logPath}. Final log line is BUILD_OK or BUILD_FAILED: <step>.
hd_build_frontend Just pnpm build (root)
hd_build_rust Just cargo build (src-tauri/)
hd_build_status Sync state probe — {building, succeeded, failed, lastLines, logPath, pid, pidAlive, failureReason}. Hint changes per state.
hd_build_log Full log dump
hd_build_tail '{"offset":N}' Incremental stream — {lines, newOffset, totalBytes, done, succeeded, _hint}. Pass newOffset back for the next chunk.
hd_launch Start target/debug/hydrogen-desktop.exe detached. Refuses with structured {reason} when: build_in_progress, build_failed, already_running, or binary_missing.
hd_stop taskkill /F /IM hydrogen-desktop.exe. {wasRunning} distinguishes killed vs no-op.
hd_restart Stop + launch in one call. Same guards as launch (skip already_running).

The show: true arg on any build verb opens a visible PowerShell console window so the user can watch the build scroll. Default show: false runs hidden.

Auto-close (v1.8.23+). Visible build windows auto-close 30 seconds after the final BUILD_OK / BUILD_FAILED line — long enough for the user to read the last error, short enough that build-after-build sessions don't accumulate orphan windows. The window prints a clear green/red "auto-closes in 30 seconds" banner before sleeping. Override with lingerSecs:

  • '{"show":true, "lingerSecs":60}' — give yourself 60s instead of 30
  • '{"show":true, "lingerSecs":0}' — close immediately, no grace period
  • '{"show":true, "lingerSecs":3600}' — keep open for an hour (cap)
    The response includes the applied lingerSecs so you can confirm what landed. Hidden builds (show:false) ignore lingerSecs entirely — no window to linger.

Don't call hd_launch until hd_build_status shows succeeded: true — the guard refuses with reason: "build_failed" if you do, and the _hint tells the AI exactly what to do (hd_build_log to see errors, fix, rebuild). Same for hd_restart.

Shell — shell_execute (escape hatch only)

  • shell_execute -- Run a shell command on the desktop. The CLI handles approval polling internally — it returns the final {success, output, error, exitCode} once the user clicks Allow on the desktop dialog. You do not need to poll, retry, or call get_deferred_result yourself. The CLI emits HINT: lines to stderr while waiting (every 15s) so an AI Monitor sees progress.
  • shell_kill_all -- Kill all running shell commands and deny pending approvals.

v1.7.16 fix. Earlier versions (v1.7.15 specifically) had a regression where the CLI's approval-wait loop re-sent the command every 1s instead of polling for the deferred result; that produced an infinite "Another shell command is already waiting for approval" loop because each retry created a fresh approval the user could never out-click. v1.7.16 fixes it. If you see that error string with a >= 1.7.16 CLI, the bug is back — file an issue. If you see it with < 1.7.16, upgrade the CLI: adom-wiki asset get apps/adom-desktop docker_binary -o /usr/local/bin/adom-desktop.

Deprecated for download polling. As of v1.5.0, use desktop_watch_files / desktop_pull_glob for waiting on download arrivals — those don't require user approval, don't go through PowerShell quoting, and are O(directory entries) rather than spawning a process every second. shell_execute itself stays as an escape hatch for genuinely shell-only operations (multi-step ad-hoc admin tasks, chained pipelines, etc.).

Use where python / C:\Python3xx\python.exe for Python -- avoid python which may not be on PATH.

Detecting App Installation

After connecting, always run adom-desktop status to check what's installed. The desktop.apps object tells you exactly what the user has:

adom-desktop status
# Look at the desktop.apps field in the response

Handling "not installed" errors

When a command returns errorCode: "node_not_found", errorCode: "kicad_not_installed", or errorCode: "fusion_not_installed", guide the user through installation:

Picking the right native browser + profile (v1.7.1+):

When you need to open a URL in the user's NATIVE browser AND it matters which account is signed in (work Google Workspace vs personal Gmail vs media YouTube channel etc.), desktop_open_url alone isn't enough — you need to target a specific profile. The flow:

# 1. Discover what's installed + which profiles are configured.
adom-desktop desktop_list_browsers '{}'
# → {
#     "default": "chrome",
#     "browsers": [
#       { "name": "chrome", "displayName": "Google Chrome", "version": "146...",
#         "exePath": "C:\\Program Files\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe",
#         "profiles": [
#           { "id": "Default",   "name": "John (work)",  "gaia": "[email protected]",      "isDefault": true },
#           { "id": "Profile 1", "name": "Personal",     "gaia": "[email protected]" },
#           { "id": "Profile 2", "name": "Adom Media",   "gaia": "[email protected]" }
#         ] },
#       { "name": "edge", "profiles": [...] },
#       { "name": "firefox", "profiles": [{"id":"default-release","name":"default","isDefault":true}] }
#     ]
#   }

# 2. Match the URL's context to the right profile, then open it there.
# E.g. opening a Google Doc shared by your work team → use the work profile:
adom-desktop desktop_open_url '{
  "url":"https://docs.google.com/document/d/...",
  "browser":"chrome",
  "profile":"Default"
}'
# Or YouTube channel management for the media account:
adom-desktop desktop_open_url '{
  "url":"https://studio.youtube.com",
  "browser":"chrome",
  "profile":"Profile 2"
}'

Profile-picking heuristics for Docker Claude:

  • Workspace / @adom.inc URLs → match profile.gaia.endsWith("@adom.inc") and not the media@ one → typically Default.
  • Personal Gmail / Drive / etc. → match profile.gaia === "[email protected]" (or whatever the user's personal address resolves to).
  • YouTube Studio / channel-specific work → match the media account profile.
  • Random scratch / experiments → use the user's Edge profile, where they keep miscellaneous accounts (per the user's stated preference).
  • No clear match → fall back to browser:"default" (no profile flag) and let the user pick.

profile is optional. Omit it to open in whichever profile the browser was last using (legacy v1.6.x behavior). Profile flag is silently ignored when browser:"default" (no clean way to inject through the OS URL handler — name the browser explicitly to use it).

Node.js not installed (the puppeteer bridge can't auto-spawn):

v1.7.0+ — any browser_* command returning errorCode:"node_not_found" means Node isn't on the desktop machine. Trigger the unattended winget install:

adom-desktop desktop_install_node '{}'
# → runs `winget install --id OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS --silent ...` (Windows only).
# → ~1-2 min; downloads + installs the Node.js LTS line (well-tested with puppeteer).
# → returns {ok:true, exitCode:0, _hint:"Retry the original browser_* command"} on success.
# → on failure: {ok:false, errorCode:"winget_unavailable" | "winget_install_failed", _hint}.

After install, just retry the original browser_* command — the bridge picks up the new node.exe via the registry App Paths lookup (which winget writes), no Adom Desktop restart needed. v1.7.0+ also pre-fetches Node + Chrome for Testing on first launch after install (background task on AUTOSTART_VERSION 11), so most users will never see node_not_found to begin with.

If desktop_install_node returns errorCode:"winget_unavailable" (older Windows or managed corporate device), fall back to manual:

Node.js LTS is required for browser automation. winget isn't available on this machine — download Node.js LTS from https://nodejs.org/ and run the installer. Let me know when it's done and I'll retry.

v1.7.0+ Node detection. The bridge looks for node.exe in:

  • System PATH (via where node on Windows, which node elsewhere)
  • Windows registry App Paths (catches winget, MSIX, custom-dir installs)
  • Standard install dirs: C:\Program Files\nodejs\, C:\Program Files (x86)\nodejs\, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\nodejs\
  • Per-user version managers: nvm-windows (%APPDATA%\nvm\), volta (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Volta\bin\), fnm (%FNM_DIR%)
  • macOS Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin)

If detection still misses an install on a user's machine, get the actual node.exe path from the user — that's a real bug to file.

KiCad not installed:

KiCad not installed:

v1.6.0+ — try the unattended winget install FIRST before asking the user to download manually:

adom-desktop desktop_install_kicad '{}'
# → runs `winget install --id KiCad.KiCad --silent ...` (Windows only).
# → 2-5 minutes; downloads ~700 MB then installs.
# → returns {ok:true, exitCode:0, _hint:"Run kicad_list_versions to verify"} on success.
# → on failure (no winget / network failure / corporate-managed device):
#   {ok:false, errorCode:"winget_unavailable" | "winget_install_failed", _hint, ...}

If desktop_install_kicad fails with errorCode:"winget_unavailable", fall back to manual:

KiCad isn't installed and winget isn't available. Download from https://www.kicad.org/download/ — it's free and open source, install the latest stable (9.x or 10.x).
Let me know when the install is done and I'll verify the connection.

After EITHER path, have them restart Adom Desktop OR call kicad_list_versions again — the kicad bridge caches detection results, so a fresh scan may be needed to pick up freshly-installed binaries.

v1.6.0+ — improved KiCad detection. The bridge now scans for KiCad in:

  • C:\Program Files\KiCad\<version>\ (the standard location)
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\KiCad\<version>\ (32-bit edge cases)
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\KiCad\<version>\ (winget per-user installs)
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\KiCad\<version>\ (rare manual installs)
  • Windows registry: HKLM\SOFTWARE\KiCad\<version>\InstallationPath and the WOW6432Node mirror
  • HKCU mirrors of the above for per-user installs
  • macOS: /Applications/KiCad/ and /Applications/ directly

If detection still misses an install on a user's machine, that's a real bug to file — get the actual install path from the user and we'll add it to the scan list.

Fusion 360 not installed:

Fusion 360 isn't installed on your desktop. Would you like to install it?
Download from: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360
It's free for personal/hobby use (requires an Autodesk account).
Let me know when the install is done and I'll verify the connection.

After install, have them restart Adom Desktop, then run adom-desktop status to verify.

Handling "not running" errors

When errorCode: "fusion_not_running", launch it programmatically with the first-class startup command:

adom-desktop fusion_start
# On Windows: discovers exe via %LOCALAPPDATA% env var webdeploy glob.
# On Docker: delegates to the bridge on the connected desktop via relay.
# ~15-30s typical. Auto-dismisses startup dialogs.
# Returns {"addinReady": true, "pickerDismissed": true|false, ...}

KiCad doesn't need to be running for most commands (the bridge launches it on demand).

Handling "add-in not installed" errors

When Fusion is running but addinInstalled: false or addinConnected: false:

The AdomBridge add-in needs to be installed in Fusion 360. I can install it for you — this lets me control Fusion remotely.

The add-in auto-installs when the Fusion bridge starts and Fusion is detected.

Handling fusion_addin_not_responding errors

When errorCode: "fusion_addin_not_responding", Fusion is running but the AdomBridge add-in isn't answering. Call fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs FIRST — a modal dialog is the most common cause. If that doesn't help, try fusion_start to restart Fusion cleanly. Last resort: user enables add-in manually via UTILITIES > ADD-INS > AdomBridge > Run on Startup + Run.

Handling main_thread_busy errors

When errorCode: "main_thread_busy", the Fusion add-in's main thread is occupied by a long-running command (typically walk_cloud_tree or search_cloud_files). This applies across all bridges/sessions — even if you didn't start the walk, another session might have.

Do NOT:

  • Retry the failed command — it will block behind the same lock
  • Call fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs — there's no dialog to dismiss, and sending Escape will interrupt the active walk
  • Force-kill Fusion — the walk will complete on its own

Do:

  • Wait for the walk/search to finish. If you started it, you should be using adom-desktop watch (see "Live folder progress streaming with watch" above) which streams live progress automatically. If another session started it, poll fusion_addin_status every 2–5s to check progress.
  • Use commands that don't need the main thread while waiting:
    • fusion_addin_status — check busy state and walk progress
    • fusion_window_info — get window HWND, title, dialogs
    • fusion_screenshot_fusion — capture what Fusion looks like
    • fusion_click_fusion — click in the Fusion window
    • fusion_send_key — send keyboard input
    • fusion_close_window — close a specific dialog by HWND

The response includes progress info:

{
  "errorCode": "main_thread_busy",
  "busyCommand": "walk_cloud_tree",
  "elapsedSeconds": 42.3,
  "walkProgress": {
    "foldersVisited": 15,
    "filesFound": 87,
    "currentFolder": "Molecules/XRP",
    "queueSize": 8
  },
  "_hint": "Add-in is busy with a long-running command. Do NOT retry..."
}

Stalled walk detection: If fusion_addin_status returns busy: true but walkProgress is missing and mainThreadStalled: true, a modal dialog is blocking the event loop — the walk was dispatched but never started. Call fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs, then the walk auto-resumes.

Auto-recovery (_autoRecovery field)

When a fusion_* command fails with "not responding" / "not connected", the CLI automatically:

  1. Calls fusion_dismiss_blocking_dialogs to clear any modal
  2. If successful, retries the original command
  3. Attaches _autoRecovery: {action, dismissed[]} to the retry result

If you see _autoRecovery in a response, the command already succeeded after auto-dismissal — no manual intervention needed. The field is informational.

Troubleshooting

Check connection status

Use status to see connected clients. A healthy connection shows one client from the user's hostname with a recent lastPong timestamp.

Stale connections causing timeouts

Use kick_all to reset -- active Adom Desktop apps reconnect within seconds.

No desktop client connected

  1. Confirm the Adom Desktop app is running on the user's PC
  2. Confirm it's pointed at the correct WebSocket URL
  3. Check if port 8765 is exposed and reachable

Relay not running

curl -sf http://127.0.0.1:8766/health
# If fails: adom-desktop serve &

Shell commands on Windows

shell_execute runs in cmd.exe. Prefer writing scripts via send_files then executing them. Use the full Python path.

Building from Source

cd cli && cargo build --release
# Binary at: cli/target/release/adom-desktop

Repo

github.com/adom-inc/adom-desktop