What is kicad_mcp CLAUDE.md?

A set of project instructions for a server that indexes KiCad component symbol libraries and makes them searchable through the Model Context Protocol. It documents the indexer, SQLite database, server, commands, and tests.

Use it when developing, installing, indexing, testing, or running the KiCad component-library search server.

It explains how the two-part system works and which commands are needed to build the component database, run searches, and verify changes.

How skeptomai/kicad_mcp configures Claude Code

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to skeptomai/kicad_mcp. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/master/CLAUDE.md

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/skeptomai/kicad_mcp

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/claude-md/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/instructions/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/claude-md)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/claude-md/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/instructions/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/claude-md"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/instructions/skeptomai/kicad_mcp/claude-md.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 946 This file is loaded in full into every session.

When invoked 946 The same file — it is already loaded in full.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00946	$0.00946
Opus 5.5	$0.00378	$0.00378
Sonnet 5.5	$0.00189	$0.00189
Haiku 4.5	$0.00095	$0.00095

Measured 2mo ago against content hash 278d760b330b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

kicad_mcp CLAUDE.md scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2mo ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

CLAUDE.md · 152 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 152 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

KiCad MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that provides searchable access to local KiCad component symbol libraries.

Architecture

Two separate tools:

Indexer (kicad-index) - Parses .kicad_sym files into SQLite database. Run once or when libraries change.
MCP Server (kicad-mcp) - Serves queries from the database. Runs as long-lived MCP process.

Project Structure

kicad_mcp/
├── src/kicad_mcp/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── models.py      # Component dataclass
│   ├── parser.py      # S-expression parser for .kicad_sym
│   ├── database.py    # SQLite storage and queries
│   ├── indexer.py     # CLI to build database
│   └── server.py      # MCP server implementation
├── tests/
├── pyproject.toml
└── CLAUDE.md

Commands

# Install
pip install -e .

# Build the component database (run first)
kicad-index                      # Index default locations
kicad-index /path/to/symbols     # Index specific directory
kicad-index --stats              # Show database stats

# Run the MCP server
kicad-mcp

# Run tests
pytest

Database Location

Default: ~/.local/share/kicad-mcp/components.db

Dependencies

sexpdata - Parse KiCad s-expression format
mcp - Anthropic's MCP Python SDK
sqlite3 - Local database (stdlib)

KiCad Library Locations

System libraries: /usr/share/kicad/symbols/
User libraries: ~/.local/share/kicad/9.0/symbols/

KiCad Symbol Format

Files are .kicad_sym using s-expression (lisp-like) syntax:

(kicad_symbol_lib (version 20241209)
  (symbol "ComponentName"
    (property "Reference" "R")
    (property "Value" "Resistor")
    (property "Description" "Basic resistor")
    (property "ki_keywords" "resistor r element")
    (property "Datasheet" "~")
    (property "Footprint" "")
    ...
  )
)

Key properties to extract:

Reference - Designator prefix (R, C, U, etc.)
Value - Component value/name
Description - Human-readable description
ki_keywords - Space-separated search keywords
Datasheet - URL to datasheet
Footprint - Associated footprint

Read the full file on GitHub · 152 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

2mo ago First seen · 152 lines · 946 tokens per session scan A 278d760b330b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

kicad_mcp CLAUDE.md is an instructions file published in the GitHub repository skeptomai/kicad_mcp (0 stars, last pushed 11mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 946 tokens to every session, about $0.0038 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

Hardware and IoT

kicad_mcp CLAUDE.md next to 6 instructions from other repositories
Mod	Type	Stars	Last push	Licence	Scan	Tokens	Works with
kicad_mcp CLAUDE.mdskeptomai/kicad_mcp	Instructions file	0	11mo ago	MIT	A	946	Claude Code
vscode buildNext.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode	Instructions file	195k	yesterday	MIT	A	9,719	GitHub Copilot
next.js AGENTS.mdvercel/next.js	Instructions file	143k	yesterday	MIT	A	7,461	Codex, OpenCode
langchain AGENTS.mdlangchain-ai/langchain	Instructions file	149k	yesterday	MIT	A	4,680	Codex, OpenCode
vscode oss-third-party-notices.instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode	Instructions file	195k	yesterday	MIT	A	5,516	GitHub Copilot
vscode copilot-instructions.mdmicrosoft/vscode	Instructions file	195k	yesterday	MIT	A	3,093	GitHub Copilot
deepseek-harness AGENTS.mddeepseek-ai/deepseek-harness	Instructions file	274k	2d ago	MIT	A	4,313	Codex, OpenCode

kicad_mcp: Instructions file for Claude Code