Vivado MCP

Vivado MCP is planned as a Model Context Protocol server that lets AI clients operate AMD Vivado through safe, workflow-level tools while the user can watch and interact with the Vivado GUI.

The first design target is not GUI click automation. The preferred mode is a managed Vivado Tcl session that can open the GUI with start_gui, load a small Tcl bridge, and let the MCP server submit validated workflow commands into that same Vivado process. Batch mode remains useful for CI and fallback automation.

Current design documents:

• Vivado MCP Design

• ADR 0001: Control Vivado through Tcl batch mode

• ADR 0002: Support managed GUI Tcl sessions

• ADR 0003: Support trusted-local raw Tcl

• ADR 0004: Provide built-in help and skills

• Built-in Skills

Initial scope

• Discover a local Vivado installation and report its version.

• Start and stop a managed Vivado Tcl/GUI session.

• Submit raw Tcl to a managed session when trusted-local expert mode is enabled.

• Create or open project-mode Vivado projects.

• Add RTL/source/constraint files with path validation.

• Run synthesis, implementation, and bitstream generation.

• Generate timing, utilization, DRC, and message reports.

• Parse common report outputs into compact structured summaries.

• Expose logs and generated reports as MCP resources.

• Provide built-in help/skills so AI clients can learn the intended Vivado workflows before acting.

Related MCP server: EDA Tools MCP Server

Capability profiles

• safe: workflow tools only; no raw Tcl.

• trusted-local: workflow tools plus raw Tcl/source-file execution inside the managed Vivado session.

• unrestricted: raw Tcl with minimal policy checks for personal local use.

The prototype bridge in experiments/mcp_bridge.tcl proves the core control path: an external process can submit Tcl files to a live Vivado Tcl/GUI session and receive result files back.

Built-in help

The MCP should expose tutorial content through both tools and resources:

• vivado_help

• vivado_list_skills

• vivado_get_skill

• vivado_suggest_next_steps

• vivado://skills/index

Seed skill docs live in docs/skills.

Install For Local Use

From this repo:

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -e ".[dev]"

This machine has been tested with:

C:\Xilinx\Vivado\2023.1\bin\vivado.bat

MCP Client Configuration

Use the installed console script as the MCP server command:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vivado": {
      "command": "C:\\Workspace\\Vivado_mcp\\.venv\\Scripts\\vivado-mcp.exe",
      "env": {
        "VIVADO_BIN": "C:\\Xilinx\\Vivado\\2023.1\\bin\\vivado.bat",
        "VIVADO_MCP_WORKSPACE": "C:\\Workspace\\Vivado_mcp",
        "VIVADO_MCP_ALLOWED_ROOTS": "C:\\Workspace\\Vivado_mcp"
      }
    }
  }
}

VIVADO_MCP_WORKSPACE is the default working directory for managed sessions. VIVADO_MCP_ALLOWED_ROOTS is a semicolon-separated list on Windows; workflow paths such as projects, sources, constraints, and Tcl files in trusted-local mode must stay under one of these roots. Use unrestricted capability profile only for personal experiments that need to source Tcl outside the allowed roots.

First Manual Test

After connecting the MCP client, use this sequence:

1. vivado_help with topic="gui_session".

2. vivado_check_installation.

3. vivado_start_session with open_gui=true.

4. vivado_run_tcl with tcl="return \"version=[version -short]\"".

5. vivado_project_summary after opening or creating a project.

6. vivado_list_artifacts to inspect command/result files.

7. vivado_stop_session.

Implemented Tools

• vivado_check_installation

• vivado_start_session

• vivado_list_sessions

• vivado_session_state

• vivado_stop_session

• vivado_run_tcl

• vivado_source_tcl

• vivado_create_project

• vivado_open_project

• vivado_add_sources

• vivado_run_synthesis

• vivado_run_implementation

• vivado_generate_bitstream

• vivado_report

• vivado_project_summary

• vivado_list_artifacts

• vivado_read_artifact

• vivado_help

• vivado_list_skills

• vivado_get_skill

• vivado_suggest_next_steps

Development Checks

.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pytest
.\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m compileall src

The test suite includes a fake Vivado process and an MCP protocol smoke test that starts the stdio server and lists tools/resources.

Artifact Resources

Command files, result files, logs, and reports are stored under the managed session directory and exposed through artifact URIs:

vivado://sessions/{session_ref}/artifacts/{artifact_id}

Use vivado_list_artifacts to discover artifact URIs and vivado_read_artifact to read text artifacts. vivado_report also returns a best-effort report_summary for timing, utilization, DRC, and message reports. vivado_project_summary returns the current project, source files, runs, IP, and block designs as structured data.

Explicitly out of scope for the first version

• GUI click automation.

• Attaching to an arbitrary already-open Vivado process that did not load the MCP bridge.

• Hardware programming and live hardware manager operations.

• Full IP Integrator automation.