KiCad Schematics MCP server

MCP-KiCad

Design electronic schematics by talking to Claude. This is an MCP server that lets a language model draw real KiCad schematics — placing parts, wiring nets, adding power symbols and running KiCad's own electrical rules check — and hand you a .kicad_sch file you can open, edit and manufacture from.

Léeme en español

An LM2596 step-down converter. Nobody drew this by hand: it was compiled from a text description, and it passes ERC.

What it actually does

You ask for a circuit in plain language. Claude writes a short declarative description of it and calls one tool, compile_schematic, which turns that description into a finished schematic file.

You: Build me a 555 astable running at about 1 Hz, 5 V supply.

Claude: [looks up the real pin names of the NE555, writes the design, compiles it]

Done — 7 components, ERC clean. Here's the preview.

The result opens in KiCad like any other schematic. It is not a picture: it is a real file with a real netlist, ready for PCB layout.

What makes the output usable

Generating something is easy; generating a schematic a human would accept is not. Every compiled schematic is checked before you see it, and the compiler refuses to emit anything that fails:

If a connection cannot be drawn cleanly, it degrades to a net label rather than producing a wire that lies. The schematic is never silently wrong.

A net crossing itself is not one of those cases: it is one net either way, so the wire is cut at the crossing and given a junction rather than being thrown away. Only a genuine conflict with another net costs you a wire.

What it does not do

• No PCB work. No board layout, no copper routing, no Gerbers. Schematics only, on purpose — a PCB from a bad schematic is worthless.
• No component invention. It uses KiCad's installed symbol libraries, and findpart / importpart bring in what is missing from external KiCad libraries — verified before installation. If a part exists nowhere, it says so instead of drawing one.
• Not a simulator. It draws what you describe; it does not tell you whether your circuit is a good idea.

Requirements

Installation

Option A — one click (recommended)

Download mcp-kicad.mcpb from Releases and double-click it. Claude Desktop installs it as an extension: no JSON to edit, no paths to type. The bundle carries the Windows, macOS and Linux builds, so the same file works everywhere.

Then skip straight to Checking that it works.

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.