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altium-designer-mcp

CI codecov

Let an AI build your Altium libraries — it does the engineering, this tool writes the files.

An MCP server that gives AI assistants (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Antigravity, VS Code Copilot — any MCP client) file I/O and primitive-placement tools for Altium Designer .PcbLib (footprint) and .SchLib (symbol) libraries — so the AI can create and maintain any component, not just pre-programmed packages.

The Problem

Building Altium component libraries by hand is slow and repetitive — every footprint means looking up IPC-7351B pad sizes, courtyards, and silkscreen, then placing each primitive by hand. AI assistants are excellent at exactly that reasoning, but they cannot write Altium's binary .PcbLib/.SchLib files — an undocumented OLE compound format that is easy to corrupt, and Altium silently refuses to open a malformed file.

Approach Problem
Draw every footprint by hand in Altium Slow and repetitive; the AI can't touch the file
Ask an AI to emit the binary file directly It produces a corrupt file Altium won't open
Pre-programmed footprint generators Only the package types someone coded in advance

The Core Idea

The AI handles the intelligence. The tool handles file I/O.

Responsibility Owner
IPC-7351B calculations AI
Package layout decisions AI
Style choices AI
Datasheet interpretation AI
Reading/writing Altium files This tool
Primitive placement This tool
STEP model attachment This tool

This means the AI can create any footprint — not just pre-programmed package types. See docs/VISION.md for the full architectural rationale.

Who Is This For?

Anyone who builds or maintains Altium component libraries and uses an MCP-capable AI assistant. The AI does the engineering (datasheet → dimensions → style); this server lets it read and write the actual .PcbLib / .SchLib files.

If you… Then…
Use Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Antigravity, VS Code + Copilot — any MCP client — and design in Altium ✅ This is for you
Want pre-baked generators for a fixed set of packages ❌ Not this — the point is any component
Don't use Altium ❌ Not applicable

Quick Start

Client Setup — verified configuration for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Google Antigravity, Cursor, VS Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, Windsurf, Cline, Roo Code, Kiro, JetBrains, Zed, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Continue, Goose, OpenCode and any other stdio MCP client, plus troubleshooting — on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Using the server — what to ask for once it is connected: example workflows, prompts and tips, identical for every client.

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  AI-ASSISTED COMPONENT CREATION                                             │
│                                                                             │
│  Engineer                    AI                         MCP Server          │
│    │                         │                              │               │
│    │  "Create 0603 resistor" │                              │               │
│    ├────────────────────────►│                              │               │
│    │                         │                              │               │
│    │                         │  AI reasons about:           │               │
│    │                         │  • IPC-7351B pad sizes       │               │
│    │                         │  • Courtyard margins         │               │
│    │                         │  • Silkscreen/symbol style   │               │
│    │                         │                              │               │
│    │                         │  write_pcblib(primitives)    │               │
│    │                         ├─────────────────────────────►│               │
│    │                         │                              │ Writes        │
│    │                         │                              │ .PcbLib +     │
│    │                         │  write_schlib(symbol)        │ .SchLib files │
│    │                         ├─────────────────────────────►│               │
│    │                         │◄─────────────────────────────┤               │
│    │                         │  { status: "success" }       │               │
│    │                         │                              │               │
│    │  "Done! Footprint       │                              │               │
│    │   and symbol created"   │                              │               │
│    │◄────────────────────────┤                              │               │
│                                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

MCP Tools

The server exposes 34 tools, working on both .PcbLib (footprints) and .SchLib (symbols). Every tool's full parameters and examples live in docs/TOOLS.md — this is the categorised overview.

Read & write

Tool Purpose
read_pcblib Read footprints from a .PcbLib.
write_pcblib Write footprints to a .PcbLib.
read_schlib Read symbols from a .SchLib.
write_schlib Write symbols to a .SchLib.

Inspect & visualise

Tool Purpose
list_components List component names (paginated).
get_component Get one component's full data.
search_components Search across libraries by regex/glob.
component_exists Check whether components exist.
render_footprint ASCII-art preview of a footprint.
render_symbol ASCII-art preview of a symbol.
extract_style Extract styling from an existing library.

Compare

Tool Purpose
diff_libraries Compare two library files.
compare_components Diff two specific components.

Edit in place

Tool Purpose
update_component Update a component, preserving its position.
update_pad Update one pad's properties.
update_primitive Update one primitive (track/arc/text/fill/region).
batch_update Batch updates across all components.
reorder_components Reorder components in a library.
manage_schlib_parameters List/get/set/remove SchLib parameters.
manage_schlib_footprints Manage footprint links in SchLib symbols.

Manage components

Tool Purpose
delete_component Delete one or more components.
copy_component Duplicate a component within a library.
rename_component Rename a component (atomic).
copy_component_cross_library Copy a component to another library.
bulk_rename Pattern-based multi-rename.

Library operations

Tool Purpose
merge_libraries Merge multiple libraries into one.
write_libpkg Write a .LibPkg project grouping libraries for IntLib compilation.
export_library Export to JSON/CSV.
import_library Import from JSON (inverse of export).
validate_library Validate for common issues.
repair_library Remove orphaned data.
extract_step_model Extract embedded STEP 3D models.

Backups & safety

Tool Purpose
list_backups List automatic backups.
restore_backup Restore from a backup.

Primitive Types

Footprint Primitives (PcbLib)

Primitive Description
Pad SMD or through-hole pad with designator, position, size, shape, layer (see Pad Shapes below)
Via Vertical interconnect with layer span, hole size, and thermal relief
Track Line segment on any layer (silkscreen, assembly, etc.)
Arc Arc or circle on any layer
Region Filled polygon (courtyard, copper pour)
Text Text string with font, size, position, layer
Fill Filled rectangle on any layer
ComponentBody 3D model reference (embedded STEP models)

Pad Shapes and Pin 1 Indicator

The shape property on pads controls the copper shape. Use this to indicate pin 1:

Shape Value Usage
Rectangle "rectangle" Pin 1 indicator — use for the first pad to distinguish it visually
Rounded Rectangle "rounded_rectangle" Default for SMD pads (most common)
Round "round" or "circle" Circular pads, default for through-hole (both values are equivalent)
Oval "oval" Oblong pads for constrained spaces
Octagonal "octagonal" Eight-sided pads (chamfered corners)

Example — marking pin 1 with a rectangular pad:

{
    "pads": [
        { "designator": "1", "x": -0.75, "y": 0, "width": 0.9, "height": 0.95, "shape": "rectangle" },
        { "designator": "2", "x": 0.75, "y": 0, "width": 0.9, "height": 0.95, "shape": "rounded_rectangle" }
    ]
}

This follows the IPC-7351 convention where pin 1 has a distinct shape (typically rectangular or square corners) while other pads use rounded corners.

Symbol Primitives (SchLib)

Primitive Description
Pin Component pin with name, designator, electrical type, orientation
Rectangle Filled or unfilled rectangle (component body)
RoundRect Rounded rectangle with corner radii
Line Single line segment
Polyline Multiple connected line segments
Polygon Filled polygon with border and fill colours
Arc Arc or circle
Pie Filled circular sector (arc geometry plus fill)
Image Embedded or linked raster picture with a bounding box
Ellipse Ellipse or circle (filled or unfilled)
EllipticalArc Elliptical arc segment with fractional radii
Bezier Cubic Bezier curve (4 control points)
Label Text string (RECORD=4) — the only free text on a symbol
IeeeSymbol IEEE symbol glyph (RECORD=3): a dot, a clock, an active-low input, …
TextFrame Bordered multi-line text box (word-wrap, alignment)
Parameter Component parameter (Value, Part Number, etc.)
FootprintModel Reference to a footprint in a PcbLib

Standard Altium Layers

Common layers for footprints (each has a Bottom equivalent):

Layer Usage
Top Layer Copper pads (SMD)
Bottom Layer Bottom copper pads
Multi-Layer Through-hole pads (all copper layers)
Top Overlay Silkscreen
Top Paste Solder paste stencil
Top Solder Solder mask openings
Top Assembly Assembly outline (documentation)
Top Courtyard Courtyard boundary (IPC-7351)
Top 3D Body 3D model outline

Additional layers supported:

Layer Usage
Mid-Layer 1–30 Internal copper layers
Internal Plane 1–16 Power/ground planes
Mechanical 1–32 User-defined mechanical layers
Drill Guide Drill hole markers
Drill Drawing Drill chart/table
Keep-Out Layer Routing exclusion zones

A layer may be named as Altium spells it (Top Overlay, Mechanical 13) or in camel case (TopOverlay, Mechanical13), in any case; every tool accepts the same spellings.

Installation

Prebuilt binaries for Linux (x86_64), macOS (aarch64) and Windows (x86_64) are on the Releases page — each archive bundles a setup README plus docs/CLIENT_SETUP.md, which wires the server into every MCP client we know of.

Claude Desktop users need no archive at all: install the one-click extension altium-designer-mcp.mcpb from the same page (older builds: the identical altium-designer-mcp.dxt) via Settings → Extensions → Advanced settings → Install Extension… — see CLIENT_SETUP.md § Claude Desktop.

In a container — for a Linux box, a NAS or a CI job that generates libraries into a mounted folder (Altium itself never needs to be inside): the repository's Dockerfile produces the same --locked release build as the published binaries.

docker build -t altium-designer-mcp .
docker run -i --rm -v /path/to/libraries:/libraries altium-designer-mcp

The mounted /libraries folder is the container's whole allow-list. In a client's configuration that is "command": "docker" with "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-v", "/path/to/libraries:/libraries", "altium-designer-mcp"].

To build from source instead, see CONTRIBUTING.md § Development Setup; an optimised binary comes from cargo build --release and lands at target/release/altium-designer-mcp.

Verifying a downloaded release

Released archives are built by GitHub Actions and carry a signed SLSA build provenance attestation, so a download can be traced back to the workflow run and commit that produced it:

gh attestation verify <archive> --repo embedded-society/altium-designer-mcp
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS.txt

The binaries are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper warn on first run (on macOS, right-click → Open). The attestation is the stronger check. See docs/RELEASING.md for how releases are produced.

Command-Line Usage

altium-designer-mcp [OPTIONS] [CONFIG_FILE]
Option Description
CONFIG_FILE Path to configuration file (optional, uses default location if omitted)
--allow <DIR>... Grant access to library folders directly (repeatable). Adds to the config file's allowed_paths, and works with no config file at all — the other settings then take their defaults
-v, --verbose Increase logging verbosity (-v info, -vv debug, -vvv trace)
-q, --quiet Decrease logging verbosity (only show errors)
-h, --help Print help information
-V, --version Print version information

Connecting an AI client

Every MCP client needs the same two absolute paths — the binary and your config file — and differs only in where they are written. The standard block most clients read:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "altium": {
            "command": "/usr/local/bin/altium-designer-mcp",
            "args": ["/home/you/.altium-designer-mcp/config.json"]
        }
    }
}

Where that goes for Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Cline, Zed, JetBrains, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI and the rest — and what to do when a client cannot see the server — is in docs/CLIENT_SETUP.md. Use absolute paths: clients do not search PATH or expand ~ for you.

Configuration

The server reads one JSON file — or none: altium-designer-mcp --allow <DIR> grants folders on the command line and runs on defaults for everything else, which is how the Claude Desktop extension starts it. Configuration file location:

  • Linux/macOS: ~/.altium-designer-mcp/config.json
  • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.altium-designer-mcp\config.json
{
    "allowed_paths": [
        "/path/to/your/altium/libraries",
        "/another/library/path"
    ],
    "logging": {
        "level": "warn"
    }
}

Configuration Options

Option Description
allowed_paths Array of directory paths where library files can be accessed; --allow adds to it (default when neither grants anything: the current working directory)
logging.level Log level: trace, debug, info, warn, error (default: warn)
logging.audit_log_path Path to an append-only JSON-lines audit log of destructive operations (default: null — no audit log is written)
rate_limit.max_burst Maximum burst of mutating operations before throttling; read-only tools are never rate limited (default: 120)
rate_limit.refill_per_sec Token-bucket refill rate for mutating operations, in tokens per second (default: 30.0)

STEP Model Integration

STEP models are attached, not generated. The tool links existing STEP files to footprints.

{
    "step_model": {
        "filepath": "./3d-models/0603.step",
        "x_offset": 0,
        "y_offset": 0,
        "z_offset": 0,
        "rotation": 0
    }
}

Embedded vs External Models

Altium supports two ways to reference 3D models:

Type Storage Portability
Embedded STEP data stored inside the .PcbLib file Fully portable — the model travels with the library
External File path reference to a .step file on disk Not portable — requires the file to exist at the referenced path

When copying or merging components between libraries:

  • Embedded models travel with the component — copy_component_cross_library and merge_libraries both copy the referenced model streams into the target (a model shared by several footprints is copied once), so the bodies still resolve after the move.
  • External model references: copy_component_cross_library removes them with a warning by default, since a path relative to the source library rarely resolves elsewhere — pass preserve_external_paths=true to keep them. merge_libraries carries them unchanged.

Embedding a model in the source library is the reliable way to keep 3D data through any copy.

Extracting Embedded Models

Use extract_step_model to extract embedded STEP data from a library:

{
    "name": "extract_step_model",
    "arguments": {
        "filepath": "./MyLibrary.PcbLib",
        "output_path": "./extracted_model.step"
    }
}

For parametric 3D model generation, a dedicated mechanical MCP server is planned as a future project.

Automatic Backups

Before any destructive operation (delete, update, merge, batch update), the server automatically creates a timestamped backup of the target file. Backups use the format:

MyLibrary.PcbLib.20260125_143022.bak

Backup retention: Only the 5 most recent backups per file are kept. Older backups are automatically removed to prevent unbounded disk usage.

Operations that create backups:

  • delete_component
  • update_component
  • update_pad
  • update_primitive
  • rename_component
  • copy_component
  • copy_component_cross_library (target file)
  • merge_libraries (target file)
  • reorder_components
  • batch_update
  • bulk_rename
  • repair_library
  • manage_schlib_parameters
  • manage_schlib_footprints
  • write_pcblib / write_schlib (when overwriting)
  • import_library (when overwriting)
  • restore_backup (the current file, before the chosen backup replaces it)

Managing backups: Use list_backups to view available backups and restore_backup to recover from a previous version.

Dry-run support: These operations support dry_run=true to preview changes without modifying files:

  • delete_component — preview which components would be deleted
  • update_component — preview component replacement changes
  • update_pad / update_primitive — preview property changes
  • bulk_rename — preview name changes
  • repair_library — preview orphaned references to remove
  • batch_update — preview library-wide updates
  • copy_component / rename_component / merge_libraries

Notes

Long Component Names

Component names longer than 31 characters are supported. The OLE Compound File format limits storage names to 31 characters, so longer names are automatically truncated internally while the full name is preserved in component parameters. This is handled transparently — you can use any length component name and it will be preserved on read/write roundtrips.

Privacy Policy

altium-designer-mcp is a local tool and collects nothing.

  • Data collection: none. The server has no network access, no telemetry and no analytics; it never contacts any service, including this project's.
  • Usage and storage: it reads and writes only the library files inside the folders you grant (allowed_paths or --allow), plus the timestamped .bak copies it makes beside them before a change. The optional audit log (logging.audit_log_path) is a local file you choose, holding tool names, file names and outcomes — never library contents.
  • Third-party sharing: none. Nothing leaves your machine.
  • Data retention: the files and backups stay until you delete them; backups are capped at the five most recent per library.
  • Contact: matejg03@gmail.com, or a GitHub issue for anything that need not be private.

Documentation

For… Read
Wiring the server into your AI client docs/CLIENT_SETUP.md — one section per client
What to ask for once it is connected docs/USAGE.md — workflows, prompts, tips
Telling the AI how to use it well docs/AGENT_GUIDE.md (paste into a project brief), docs/AI_WORKFLOW.md
Every tool, parameter and example docs/TOOLS.md; error messages in docs/errors.md
Why it is built this way docs/VISION.md, docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
The file formats, byte by byte docs/PCBLIB_FORMAT.md, docs/SCHLIB_FORMAT.md
Security model and threat analysis docs/SECURITY.md (reporting: SECURITY.md)
How releases are built and verified docs/RELEASING.md

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Development

cargo test

Write-path tests generate their own data programmatically; reader tests parse the committed Altium-authored golden fixtures (see Sample Files). Temporary files are created in .tmp/ (git-ignored) and automatically cleaned up.

The full build, formatting, and lint commands are canonical in CONTRIBUTING.md § Development Setup.

Licence

Copyright (C) 2026 The Embedded Society https://github.com/embedded-society/altium-designer-mcp.

GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENCE.

Links

Sample Files

Altium-authored sample libraries are committed under scripts/samples/ as golden fixtures: the reader tests (tests/samples_pcblib.rs, tests/samples_schlib.rs) parse them in CI as ground truth. The PowerShell/DelphiScript tooling that (re)generates them needs a real Altium installation and is manual-only.

See scripts/README.md for details on the sample files and the on-site tooling.

Prior Art & Acknowledgements

This project stands on the shoulders of several excellent open-source efforts, and we're grateful for each:

  • AltiumSharp (MIT) — the most complete open Altium reader/writer. Used as the authoritative reference (its DTOs, binary serialisation code, and golden TestData) for verifying our binary format against ground truth.
  • pyAltiumLib — an independent Python reader, used as our CI readability oracle (tests/integration/) to check that generated files actually parse.
  • python-altium — early Altium format documentation.
  • coffeenmusic/altium-mcp (MIT) — an MCP server that drives the live Altium application. It's the complement to this project (we generate and edit library files offline; it controls a running session). We adapted its RunScript launch + file-based bridge pattern for our on-site Altium automation (scripts/altium/).