1.4.1

• Fixes the update to 1.4.0, which stopped with "kicad-mcp.patch failed"; press Update again
• Updating (#105): updating from 1.3.x stopped while applying the KiCad tools' fixes ("git apply … kicad-mcp.patch failed"), because files the previous version had added were left in the way. The installer now removes them first. If an update failed for you, just press Update again (or pull, close KiCad, and run install.ps1 -Update); you get everything in 1.4.0 too.

1.4.0

• Better routing round fine-pitch chips and GND pours, documents as PDF, and eight problem reports fixed
• PowerLab router: every pin of a fine-pitch row (QFN, LQFP, TSSOP) now fans out toward its other pads, so fewer joins are lost at the chip; tracks no longer jog where a fan-out turns or hook past a pad. After routing, the router mends GND pours its tracks cut into pieces by moving all the joins that close a piece at once, and never trades one pour for another.
• Documents as PDF (#102, #103): ask Claude for a report, parts list or notes as a PDF and it writes it to documents\ in your project; the panel shows it in the chat and prints the PDF next to it with Edge, like the design review. For a Word file, open the PDF in Word.
• claude.ai connectors (#97, #101): the panel's runs no longer see your claude.ai connectors, which they weren't allowed to use; calls to them only failed with a permission error.
• Bill of materials (#98): Claude makes BOMs with the kicad tool, so the quantity column (${QUANTITY}) is no longer blocked as a shell variable.
• Model shown under replies (#93): the line names the model that answered (e.g. Opus 5.5) first; the small model Claude Code uses itself for side jobs is named separately as its helper.
• Large schematic batches (#91): batch_add_and_connect and the other batch schematic tools get 10 minutes instead of 30 s, so a big batch no longer reports a timeout while it is still placing parts.
• KiCad busy (#95): setting the design rules and other edits that go through the saved board wait up to 8 s while KiCad is busy (a dialog open, zones filling); if it stays busy, the message says to close the dialog and try again.

Update from the panel's Update button, or: pull, close KiCad, run install.ps1 -Update. The KiCad MCP server is rebuilt, since its patch changed.

1.3.1

• Library Update no longer gets stuck: edits you can't share can be set aside, and it says what really stopped it.
• Set aside and update (#87): when the update changes files you've edited in your library copy, the panel lists them and offers to set them aside. They're copied to a backup folder next to the library, and the update goes ahead. Your other local edits are kept.
• Clear reasons: GitHub can't be reached, local commits in the library copy, or edited files in the way. Each is now named, instead of always "Share them first".
• The new texts are translated into every panel language.
• Tests: Claude's own tool slips stay covered (#84), and a test that failed on Linux is fixed.

1.3.0

• The PowerLab router is back, with a new engine: it routes from a plan you agree first and adds no DRC errors.
• Routing plan first. Claude builds a routing plan from your schematic (gate drive, switch nodes, PWM and clocks first; power and sense lines next; test points and LEDs last) and shows it to you before routing. You can change any net's priority.
• All nets at once. The router checks every pin's way out, then routes all nets together and lets the important ones keep their room. Decaps are joined to their pins first, buses run as bundles, tracks are 45° with pads entered at their centres.
• DRC has the last word. At the end KiCad's DRC runs; any connection that would add an error (starved thermal reliefs included) is taken out and left for Claude to route by hand.
• Closer to how a person routes. Vias can sit beside fine-pitch pins as the board's rules allow, every ground net with a pour (GND, GNDA, AGND…) is treated as a pour, the last pin of a fine-pitch row can leave sideways, and the GND plane layer is kept for short runs.
• Small placement fixes while routing. When a connection has no way out, Claude may move a part by up to 2 mm or turn it 90°, and lists every such change in its reply and in the design review.
• The installer now adds numba (pinned) for the router's search; without it the router still works, only slower.

1.2.0

• The panel in 19 languages, and hand-routed tracks that follow the lab's 45° rules
• Languages: pick the panel's language from 19 (English, Türkçe, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Deutsch, Français, Español, Português, Italiano, Polski, Русский, Українська, العربية, فارسی, हिन्दी, 日本語, 한국어, Tiếng Việt, Bahasa Indonesia). Claude answers in the same language; Arabic and Persian lay the panel out right to left.
• Fewer tokens in old chats: a chat reopened later, or a very long one, no longer sends the whole conversation again with every message. Claude starts from your last three prompts and the project, and reads the earlier chat only if it needs to.
• Hand routing at 45°: tracks run at 0°, 45° and 90° with 45° corners, leave pads straight along their axis, and same-net neighbours connect directly. Arcs are fine, and preferred on high-speed lines.
• check_routing: lists slanted pieces, sharp corners, kinks, detours, off-centre pad entries and solid GND pours, which DRC lets through. The reviews run it.
• Lab rules in Board Setup: the lab design rules now reach KiCad's Board Setup (constraints, net classes, solder mask), not only DRC. Signals default to 0.15 mm; GND pours always use thermal reliefs.
• Zones can be edited and deleted (#79); vias can be any size (add_via takes size and drill).
• Board items in an area can be listed without a schematic (#80), and close-up board views take more ways of giving the area and say what's wrong with a bad one (#81).
• Design review: picks the handbook's rules one by one instead of skipping whole sections (#83).
• Calmer steps: Claude's own small slips (an edit before reading the file, a search pattern it then fixes) show as a grey mark, not a red error (#74, #78).
• Installed tools protected: Claude can no longer edit or rebuild the assistant's own KiCad tools (#73).
• PowerLab router: switched off for now; Claude routes by hand until it has had more testing.
• Update from the panel, or pull, close KiCad and run install.ps1 -Update.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

1.1.2

• A cleaner chat: tool steps fold into one line, and block plans and reviews open in their own window
• Tool steps in one line: a run of tool calls, and the board views Claude looks at, is one collapsed line ("5 steps · 1 view — Move component, Run drc"), with a spinner and the running step while Claude works. Click it to see each step and the views in a small box.
• Errors stay in sight: a failed step's error shows in red under that line; click it to open the box at that step.
• Block plans and design reviews open in a window: in the chat they are one row with Open (and PDF for a review). The window shows the whole card, and the block plan works there as before: drag, snap, turn, click to select in KiCad, "Send moves to Claude". It redraws when Claude writes the plan or review again.
• PowerLab router: bus runs and their escape vias now keep out of rule areas (no-track / no-via keep-outs).
• Update from the panel, or pull, close KiCad and run install.ps1 -Update.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

1.1.1

• Placement starts with a block plan you can drag around in the panel, and board text can be edited
• Block plan first: before placing any part, Claude draws the board's functional blocks on its real outline (from Edge.Cuts, any shape) and asks whether to move any. The plan shows as a card in the panel: top blocks solid, bottom ones hatched, gate-drive and other key links with their lengths, and a block list. Click a block to select its parts in KiCad (and in the schematic).
• Move blocks yourself: drag blocks on the card, turn boxes by 90°/45° or any angle, and switch a block's side. Links follow the drag with the gap measured live. Drags snap to the board's edges, the middles of the edges, corners and the centre (sectors to 45° steps); hold Alt to drag freely. Undo, or "Send moves to Claude" to have it check them against the rules.
• Board text and logos go on the plan as blocks too, so you can place them the same way.
• Board text can be changed and removed (#70): list_graphics lists board texts, delete_graphic deletes them, and the new edit_board_text changes their content, position, layer, size, angle or mirroring, also with the board open in KiCad. Live add_board_text keeps its size, rotation and thickness.
• Pad nets: edit_component can set the net of pads already on the board, so plated mounting holes can go on GND.
• install.ps1 -Update now rebuilds the KiCad MCP server whenever its patch changed.
• Update from the panel, or pull, close KiCad and run install.ps1 -Update.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

1.1.0

• Claude can now flip parts, add footprints and mounting holes, and update the PCB from the schematic while the board is open in KiCad
• Live board edits: with the board open in KiCad, Claude can move parts to the other side, place new footprints and mounting holes (plated holes can sit on a net, e.g. GND), swap or reload footprints (replace_component works now), draw round board outlines, and run Update PCB from Schematic. Edits KiCad's API can't make directly go through the saved file and KiCad reloads it, which restarts KiCad's undo history (#63, #64, #65, #66, #67, #68).
• Update PCB from Schematic uses KiCad's netlist: pad nets come from the same netlist F8 uses, so local labels and sheet names come out right. A renamed net keeps its tracks and zones (#65).
• Schematic junctions stay: adding or deleting a wire no longer removes the junction dots of T's drawn in KiCad, which left pins unconnected (#62).
• Schematic text: Claude can delete and move notes and text boxes on a schematic (#60).
• Faster open_board: opening a large board no longer times out after 30 s (#61).
• Router on big boards: the PowerLab router routes 4-layer boards with hundreds of connections in minutes and much less memory, treats inner zone layers as planes, and leaves what it can't finish in its time limit for hand routing.
• Placement checks: check_part_spacing measures pad-to-pad gaps, overlapping bodies, parts in keep-out areas on either side (with parts a keep-out lets in), parts on the other side's through pads, and pads near the edge, since the lab parts have no courtyards. Placement rules now ask for short connections first, passives placed by their connections, and spacing by assembly method.
• Update from the panel, or pull, close KiCad and run install.ps1 -Update.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

1.0.1

• Schematic parts keep all their library data, power wires are drawn red and GND wires blue, and MCUs are placed in units
• Parts keep their library fields: a part placed by Claude now carries every field from the PowerLab library, including MPN, manufacturer, ratings and distributor numbers. Before, it showed only five fields in Symbol Properties.
• Ratings stay out of the Value: a capacitor reads 22 µF with 100V under it from its Voltage Rating field, not 22 µF 100V. Claude repairs parts placed before this fix by updating them from the library.
• Power wiring style: Claude sets up the GND (blue) and Power (red) net classes with 0.3 mm wires before drawing the schematic, as the lab rules ask.
• MCUs in units: microcontrollers and other ICs over about 40 pins are placed as multi-unit symbols, one unit per function (power, clock and debug, analog, GPIO banks), each beside its circuit. TMS320F280049PMS is split this way in the library.
• Lab symbols load directly: library paths such as ${METUPOWERLAB_SYMBOLS} now resolve, so placing a new lab part no longer fails with "Symbol not found".
• Update from the panel, or pull, close KiCad and run install.ps1 -Update.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

1.0.0

• Routing is the PowerLab router's now: you watch it route live in KiCad, with power pours, stitching vias and cleaner tracks
• One question first: Claude asks whether to route by hand or with the PowerLab router (recommended). After routing it fixes the DRC errors and anything the router left by hand, runs the design review without asking, and then asks you to look.
• Live routing: with the board open in KiCad, the tracks appear as the router lays them (the pours are unfilled meanwhile and refilled at the end).
• Cleaner tracks: no corners that serve nothing (wiggles along header pins, bends just before a pad), pads entered at 45° where they aren't fine pitch, no U-turns round vias, and no second track of a net beside the first: later tracks join the earlier ones.
• Lab copper rules: power rails (3V3, 5V, VBUS…) get a copper pour round their tracks, GND pours join pads with thermal reliefs (solid only for high-current pours), and GND stitching vias are added about every 5 mm.
• Deleting with KiCad open (#56): deleting tracks, vias and board-outline lines now happens in KiCad's board; before, the tool said it worked and nothing changed.
• "No board is loaded" (#57): DRC and other tools that read the saved board no longer fail with this while KiCad has the board open.
• Freerouting removed: the installer no longer downloads Java or Freerouting and removes the old copies (about 120 MB).
• Update from the panel, or pull, close KiCad and run install.ps1 -Update.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code