Can Claude Code design a PCB?
Yes, when it has electronics tools to work with. On its own, an AI coding agent edits files and runs commands. In Adom Hydrogen, the agent also gets distributor search, component libraries and bridges into KiCad, Altium Designer and Fusion 360, so it can choose parts, build the schematic, place and route the board, and write the firmware. Hydrogen runs Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity and Kimi, and the workflow is the same whichever agent you use.
A design session in Hydrogen
Start with the requirements: input voltage, interfaces, load current, board size and the manufacturing rules you need to meet. Then work in steps and review each one.
- Parts. The agent searches Mouser, DigiKey and JLCPCB through Adom Parts Search, which returns stock, price breaks and exact part numbers. For example: “Find three in-stock 3.3 V regulators for a 7 to 24 V input, compare their datasheet limits, and wait for my choice.”
- Libraries. Hydrogen generates the symbol, footprint and 3D model for each new part, and you can publish them to the Adom Wiki, which already holds more than 20,000 hardware pages.
- Schematic and layout. The agent builds the schematic and board in your EDA tool, places the parts and routes the traces.
- Firmware. The agent writes the firmware and flashes the board from the same window.
Before you order boards, check pin mapping, footprints and ratings against the datasheets, and run ERC and DRC yourself.
Results from a published test
Adom tested AI placement on the ESC G431, a four-layer, 149-part motor controller built around an STM32G431. Its 27 interface pins and contacts stayed locked in place, and each agent placed the other 122 parts through the KiCad Bridge.
- GPT-6 Astra in Codex finished 16 minutes after the prompt, at an API cost of $14.15. It placed every part with no courtyard overlaps, and its ratsnest length, a measure of total connection length, was 1,529 mm against 1,645 mm for the human layout.
- Claude Fable 5.1 took just under two hours, most of it spent building and debugging the placement tools that the Codex run then reused. Its placement also had no overlaps, with a ratsnest length of 1,678 mm.
The report includes the board files, prompts, logs, API costs and screen recordings for both runs, plus a second round on routing.
Where your data goes
Hydrogen runs on your computer, and your design files stay on your disk. Prompts, and any file content the agent reads, go to your AI provider under its terms. Part searches go to the distributors.
To get started, see How do I let Claude control KiCad?, or compare approaches in AI electronics design tools compared.