altium-designer-mcp

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, Google Antigravity, VSCode Copilot) 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.

Related MCP server: mcp-server-kicad

The Core Idea

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

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.

Quick Start with Claude Code

Claude Code Setup Guide — Complete step-by-step instructions for using this MCP server with Claude Code CLI on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Quick Start with Google Antigravity

Google Antigravity Setup Guide — Step-by-step instructions for using this MCP server with Google Antigravity (IDE and CLI) on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

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 │
│    │                         ├─────────────────────────────►│               │
│    │                         │◄─────────────────────────────┤               │
│    │                         │  { success: true }           │               │
│    │                         │                              │               │
│    │  "Done! Footprint       │                              │               │
│    │   and symbol created"   │                              │               │
│    │◄────────────────────────┤                              │               │
│                                                                             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

MCP Tools

The server exposes 33 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

Inspect & visualise

Compare

Edit in place

Manage components

Library operations

Backups & safety

Primitive Types

Footprint Primitives (PcbLib)

Pad Shapes and Pin 1 Indicator

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

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)

Standard Altium Layers

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

Additional layers supported:

Installation

See CONTRIBUTING.md § Development Setup for build instructions.

The release binary will be at target/release/altium-designer-mcp.

Command-Line Usage

altium-designer-mcp [OPTIONS] [CONFIG_FILE]

Usage with Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop MCP configuration:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "altium": {
            "command": "altium-designer-mcp",
            "args": ["/path/to/config.json"]
        }
    }
}

Configuration

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

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:

When using copy_component_cross_library or merge_libraries:

• Embedded models are copied along with the component

• External model references are removed with a warning, as the file paths are not portable across different machines or directory structures

To preserve 3D models when copying components, ensure they are embedded in the source library (not external references).

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

• write_pcblib / write_schlib (when overwriting)

• import_library (when overwriting)

Disabling backups: All write operations accept a create_backup parameter (default: true). Set to false to skip backup creation:

{
    "name": "delete_component",
    "arguments": {
        "filepath": "./MyLibrary.PcbLib",
        "component_names": ["OLD_COMPONENT"],
        "create_backup": false
    }
}

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

Dry-run support: Most destructive 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

• copy_component / rename_component / reorder_components

• write_pcblib / write_schlib / import_library

• copy_component_cross_library / 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.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

• Follow the style guide in STYLE.md

• Security issues: see SECURITY.md

Development

Running Tests

cargo test

Tests are self-contained and generate their own data programmatically. Temporary files are created in .tmp/ (git-ignored) and automatically cleaned up.

Code Quality

cargo fmt --check  # Check formatting
cargo clippy       # Lint

Licence

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

GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENCE.

Links

• MCP Specification

• Report an Issue

Sample Files

Sample Altium library files are included in the scripts/ folder for manual debugging only. Automated tests do not depend on these files.

See scripts/README.md for details on available sample files and analysis scripts.

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 serializers, 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/).