Agent-native EDA · v1.0 specification complete

Electronics design,
agent-native from the ground up.

KiNecta is a complete electronics design suite — schematic capture, PCB layout, SPICE simulation — with an embedded AI engineer that reads, checks, and edits the live design through a documented API. Every machine-made edit is a single reviewable, undoable transaction. No magic, no surprises: honest pass/fail at every gate.

Download KiNecta See the 90-second workflow

macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon first-class
Linux x86_64 / arm64
Windows 10/11 x64

ldo-regulator.kinpcb — KiNecta Board Editor API on · /tmp/kinecta/api.sock

The review gate: agent edits arrive as itemized diffs and apply only on approval — one transaction, one undo step.

kinecta agent — MCP session

Why it's different

Three hard principles, engineered in — not bolted on

Agent actions are transactions

Every machine-made edit is a single undo step, inspectable before and after, and never silently merged with your concurrent edits. Reject a proposal and the document stays byte-identical.

The document is the source of truth

The API operates on the same live document you see — there is no separate machine view. What the agent reads is what you drew; what the agent writes, you watch land on canvas.

Checks are first-class

ERC, DRC, and simulation are callable commands with machine-readable results — not just dialogs. The agent must pass the same gates you do, and it may never claim success while a check fails.

The reference workflow

“Design a 5 V → 3.3 V LDO regulator board.” One sentence, seven gates.

This is the acceptance workflow KiNecta is built to support end-to-end. Each step is reviewable and undoable, with honest pass/fail reporting at every gate.

01
Plan the circuit
The agent proposes a topology — regulator, input/output capacitors, indicator LED — and states every value with units: V, A, Ω, mm.
02
Select parts from real libraries
search_parts over your installed libraries (223 official symbol libraries at v1.0) plus optional distributor data — MPN, LCSC/Mouser/Digi-Key ids carried through.
03
Place symbols, wire pins
place_symbol and wire_pins resolve to exact pin positions (the ±3.81 mm pin-math case is a shipped regression test). Annotation assigns R1, C1, U1… automatically.
04
Run ERC
46 configurable electrical checks plus the 12×12 pin-conflict matrix. Violations carry item UUIDs and positions; the agent fixes what it can and reports what it can't.
05
Push to the board
Footprints land with courtyard collision preview; placement, rotation, and side are all agent-addressable commands.
06
Route power nets
route_net drives the same push-and-shove engine you use interactively — orthogonal by default, DRC-aware, with measured length reported back.
07
DRC, then verify in simulation
Design rules across 27 test groups — then a DC load sweep in ngspice with an assertion: VOUT ∈ [3.23, 3.37] V. Measured 3.297–3.301 V. Passed.

The suite

Everything a hardware team needs — desktop-first, no cloud dependency

Schematic capture

Hierarchical multi-sheet projects, buses with proper entries, local/global/hierarchical/directive labels, power ports, multi-unit symbols with group annotation, and a normative junction rule — connectivity is computed, never guessed.

PCB layout

Up to 32 copper layers with a physical stackup (prepreg/core, ε_r, loss tangent, copper finish). Interactive push-and-shove routing, zones with thermal reliefs, length tuning with live readouts, net classes, and diff-pair controls.

Simulation, built in

ngspice via its shared-library interface: operating point, DC, AC, transient, and noise analyses run in the background with cancel and streaming status. Assertions (min/max/range/rms/average) give agents — and CI — an honest gate.

The embedded AI engineer

An optional agent process speaking MCP over stdio — drive it from the built-in panel or any MCP-capable host. Bring Anthropic, OpenAI, or a local model (Ollama, MLX). API keys live in your OS keychain, never in files.

Checks as commands

46 ERC checks and 27 DRC test groups ship in the box, severities configurable per project. Custom constraints live in version-controlled .kindrc rule files using a documented DSL — clearance, creepage, impedance-adjacent length/skew, and more.

Headless CLI for CI

kinecta-cli exports SVG/PDF/Gerbers/drill/BOM/netlist/STEP, runs ERC and DRC with exit codes 0/1/2, and upgrades old files — no GUI linkage required. The same engine powers ExportArtifacts for agents.

Agent system

An engineer that shows its work

The agent loop is plan → act → observe, ≤32 turns, every tool call answered with structured JSON — errors verbatim. After any mutation batch it runs the relevant gate before declaring success. It can't fake a green light, and you can always ask to see the diff.

Review-gated by default. Destructive tools propose itemized diffs — references, nets, rule deltas — applied only on Accept. Rejected proposals leave the document untouched.
Provider-agnostic. Anthropic, OpenAI, or any OpenAI-compatible local endpoint. Your keys, your choice, your keychain.
Any MCP client. The embedded panel is just one client among equals — script the same tools from a CLI, CI, or a third-party assistant.
Offline-resilient. No editor running? Session and parts tools still work. No model configured? The tool surface remains callable for scripted pipelines.

tools · MCP surface (excerpt)

# read
get_project · get_schematic · get_netlist · get_board
# mutate — review-gated
place_symbol {library, symbol, reference?, x?, y? /* mm */}
wire_pins    {connections: [{from: "U1:3", to: "C2:1"}]}
place_footprint · route_net · refill_zones
# verify — honest gates
run_erc · run_drc
run_spice {analysis: "dc", params, signals}
assert_results {vector, assertion: "range", value: [3.23, 3.37]}
# deliver
export_artifacts {kind: "gerbers" | "bom" | "step", output_dir}

Interoperable by design

Your designs belong to you — in formats you can read

Open s-expression documents with byte-stable round-trips. Every item carries a UUID; unknown fields survive rewrite. Import never silently drops: anything unmappable lands in a mapping report you can audit.

.kinproproject (JSON)

.kinschschematic sheet

.kinpcbboard layout

.kinsymdirsymbol library

.kinfplibdirfootprint library

Ecosystem	Formats	Read	Write
KiCad Tier 1	.kicad_sch · .kicad_pcb · .kicad_sym · .kicad_pro · v5–v9	Lossless	Compatibility mode
Altium Designer Tier 2	.SchDoc · .PcbDoc	v1.x	—
Autodesk EAGLE / Fusion 360 Tier 2	.sch · .brd (XML ≥6 + binary ≤5)	v1.x	—
EasyEDA / EasyEDA Pro Tier 2	.json · .epro · .zip — incl. LCSC part linkage	v1.x	—
OrCAD · LTspice · gEDA · Zuken · DipTrace · Proteus · Fritzing Tier 3	.dsn · .asc · SPICE netlists → sim-ready schematics	Later	—
Fabrication	Gerber X2 · Excellon · ODB++ / IPC-2581 (view)	Viewer	Gerbers · drill · STEP · POS

Import fidelity is verified per format: connectivity parity (net count and net→pin membership) on public designs, geometry spot-checks within 1 mil, and a drop list that only contains audited report entries.

KiNecta Exchange

Share — or sell — your designs and firmware. Keep 98.5%.

A marketplace built for hardware: board projects, symbol and footprint libraries, reference designs, and the firmware that brings them to life. Publish free or set your price; buyers get instant, entitlement-gated downloads.

1.5% fee. That's it. Applied to the item price, before any taxes or VAT, deducted from the seller payout — shown transparently on every order.
Straight from the suite. Export artifacts from KiNecta and list them in minutes.
Licenses made explicit. Every listing states its license before checkout.

Browse the Exchange Become a seller

Payout math, in the open

Item price: $12.00
KiNecta fee (1.5%, pre-tax): −$0.18
Seller receives: $11.82

Taxes/VAT, where applicable, are added at checkout and never change the fee.

Get started

Download KiNecta

Version 1.0 beta · signed & notarized builds · no telemetry, no account required to design.

macOS

14+ · Apple Silicon (universal)

KiNecta-1.0.dmg Developer ID signed, notarized. No media/location/screen entitlements — a permission prompt is a bug.

Linux

x86_64 · arm64 · Wayland + X11

tarball / package XDG-compliant paths; config under ~/.config/kinecta/.

Windows

Windows 10/11 x64

installer Settings under %APPDATA%\kinecta\; named-pipe API.

Prefer the terminal?

Everything is scriptable — exports, checks, upgrades — CI-friendly with no GUI.

# ERC in CI: exit 0 pass · 1 violations · 2 error
kinecta-cli sch erc power.kinsch
kinecta-cli pcb export gerbers --out fab/ board.kinpcb

Pricing

Public beta pricing

Simple tiers, no seat-spying, cancel anytime. Beta pricing is locked for early adopters.

Free

$0/forever

Schematic capture + PCB layout
Full ERC/DRC catalogs + custom rules
223 official symbol libraries
KiCad read/write compatibility
Headless CLI & CI
Local agent with your own model keys
Buy & sell on the Exchange

Download

Pro

$19/month

Everything in Free
ngspice simulation + assertions
Advanced constraint DSL packs
Exchange seller analytics & payouts
Priority bug-response lane

Start Pro

Team

$49/user·month

Everything in Pro
KiNecta Cloud beta — private Git hosting for designs & firmware, with render services
Shared team libraries & rule presets
Centralized billing
Support SLA

Talk to us

Prices in USD, exclusive of applicable taxes/VAT. Education and open-hardware maintainers: contact us for free Pro.

Privacy

A permission prompt is a bug

Opt-in crash reporting only. No analytics, no installer telemetry. Network egress is allow-listed: your model provider, explicit library downloads, opt-in update checks — nothing else. Secrets live in the OS keychain, never in dotfiles or environment dumps.

No analytics by default
No installer telemetry
Egress allow-list, user-configured
API keys in the OS keychain
Documents stay on your disk

FAQ

Questions engineers ask

Which platforms does KiNecta run on?

macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon is the first-class target; Linux (x86_64/arm64, Wayland and X11) and Windows 10/11 x64 follow in the 1.x line. All behavior is platform-neutral by specification — parallel installs of different major.minor versions coexist.

Can I bring my existing designs?

Yes. KiCad projects load losslessly (v5 through v9, upgraded in memory) and round-trip via compatibility-mode writes. Altium, EAGLE/Fusion 360, and EasyEDA imports ship in the 1.x line; OrCAD, LTspice, and more follow. Every import produces a mapping report — nothing is silently dropped.

Does the AI agent require the cloud?

No. The agent speaks to any provider you configure: Anthropic, OpenAI, or an OpenAI-compatible local endpoint such as Ollama or an MLX server. The editor itself is fully usable with the agent process switched off entirely.

What happens when the agent makes a mistake?

Its edits arrive as proposals with itemized diffs and apply only when you accept them. Accepted or interactive, every action is one transaction = one undo step — rejecting a proposal leaves the file byte-identical. The agent is also forbidden from reporting success while ERC/DRC/simulation checks fail.

Is there really no telemetry?

Correct: crash reporting is opt-in, there is no analytics pipeline, and the installer reports nothing. The binary requests no media, accessibility, screen-capture, or location entitlements.

What does the Exchange charge?

A 1.5% fee on the item price — computed before any taxes or VAT and deducted from the seller's payout, itemized on every order. Sharing designs for free costs nothing.

Can I use KiNecta in CI?

Yes — kinecta-cli runs exports, ERC, and DRC headlessly with deterministic output paths and conventional exit codes (0 pass, 1 violations found, 2 error), the same engines the GUI uses.

Design with an engineer who never gets tired.

Download the beta, open the Exchange, and ship hardware faster.

Download KiNecta Open the Exchange

Electronics design,agent-native from the ground up.