By Adom Industries · Updated

How do I let Claude control KiCad?

Install Adom Hydrogen. Its KiCad Bridge connects your AI agent to the KiCad already on your desktop, so a request like “run DRC on this board and explain each violation” runs in your own KiCad and the report comes back to the conversation. Hydrogen works with Claude, Codex, Antigravity and Kimi, so you can use the agent you already pay for.

Set it up

  1. Install KiCad if you don’t have it. Hydrogen uses your existing installation and project files.
  2. Download Hydrogen for Windows 11 or an Apple Silicon Mac and run the installer. It installs for your user account, with no admin prompt.
  3. Sign in with your Adom account. Hydrogen sets up its workspace in a few minutes.
  4. Open your AI agent in Hydrogen and sign in with your account for that provider.

Try a first task

Open a copy of a project and ask:

Run KiCad’s design rule check on this board. List each violation with its location and explain the likely cause before changing anything.

Compare the agent’s summary with the DRC report in KiCad. Once that works, ask for changes one step at a time.

What the KiCad Bridge can do

The bridge drives KiCad in the background, so the agent works without taking over your screen. It can open the schematic, symbol, footprint and PCB editors, run DRC and exports through kicad-cli, read and move footprints during placement, run the Freerouting autorouter, and install component libraries from the Adom Wiki. It can also screen-record KiCad while it works. The KiCad Bridge page lists every command.

All of Adom’s EDA bridges are open source. Altium Designer and Fusion 360 have their own: see the Altium Bridge and the Fusion Bridge.

Next steps