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virtuoso-skill-mcp

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virtuoso-skill-mcp

Connect Cadence Virtuoso SKILL to Claude Code via a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Load files, evaluate expressions, inspect GUI forms, and read CIW errors — all from natural language.

Prerequisites

Requirement

Version

Notes

Cadence Virtuoso

IC6.1.8 or ICADVM20.1+

Any release with skillbridge support

Python

3.8 or newer

python3 --version to check

Claude Code

latest

Install below

Install Claude Code (if you haven't already):

npm install -g @anthropic/claude-code
# or, on macOS with Homebrew:
brew install claude-code

Related MCP server: Virtuoso Schematic MCP

One-command install

cd virtuoso-skill-mcp
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

That's it. The script will:

  • Find your Python and create an isolated virtualenv

  • Install all dependencies (skillbridge, fastmcp, mcp[cli])

  • Auto-detect your Virtuoso installation and CIW log

  • Generate the Virtuoso SKILL bootstrap file with the correct socket path

  • Register the MCP server with Claude Code

  • Print a colour-coded summary of everything it found

Start the bridge in Virtuoso

One-time (in the CIW)

Type this in the Virtuoso Command Interpreter Window:

load("/path/to/virtuoso-skill-mcp/skill/start_server.il")

You will see:

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║   ✓  Claude Code MCP bridge ready                   ║
║      Virtuoso ←→ skillbridge ←→ FastMCP ←→ Claude   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Auto-start every session (.cdsinit)

Add this one line to your ~/.cdsinit:

load("/path/to/virtuoso-skill-mcp/skill/start_server.il")

Replace /path/to/virtuoso-skill-mcp with the absolute path printed by install.sh.

How to use it

Open Claude Code in your terminal (claude) and try:

1. Test a SKILL file and report any errors

Load /home/me/projects/myForm.il into Virtuoso and show me all errors and warnings.

2. Inspect and open GUI forms

List all registered forms in Virtuoso, then open myDesignForm and tell me
if any callback errors appear in the CIW.

3. Debug an expression interactively

Evaluate this SKILL expression and explain the result:
  hiCreateStringField(?name 'myField ?prompt "Enter value:" ?value "default")

4. Full test cycle

Reload /home/me/skill/layout_form.il, open the first new form,
and give me a full test report.

Available tools

Tool

What it does

virtuoso_status()

Check whether Virtuoso is running and the IPC socket is live

load_skill_file(file_path)

Load a .il file; return only errors

eval_skill(expression)

Evaluate arbitrary SKILL; return result

check_syntax(file_path)

Syntax check without execution

get_errors(lines=100)

Tail CIW log; return ERROR/WARNING lines

list_forms()

List all registered hiForm names

open_form(form_name)

Open a form; capture callback errors

reload_and_test(file_path)

Full cycle: load → open → collect errors

Troubleshooting

Virtuoso is not running

ERROR: Cannot connect to Virtuoso: the IPC socket does not exist.

Fix: Start Virtuoso, then source start_server.il in the CIW.

Wrong Python version

[ERROR] Python 3.6 is too old. Requires Python 3.8+.

Fix — pass the path to a 3.8+ Python explicitly:

# Via environment variable
PYTHON=/usr/cad/chn/python3/python-3.10.0/bin/python3 ./install.sh

# Via flag
./install.sh --python /usr/cad/chn/python3/python-3.10.0/bin/python3

# Find available candidates
ls /usr/cad/chn/python3/*/bin/python3
which python3.10 python3.11 python3.12

The installer also automatically checks /usr/cad/chn/python3/python-3.10.0/ before any PATH candidates.

claude CLI not found

[WARN] claude CLI not found on PATH.

Fix: Install Claude Code and add it to your PATH.

# bash/zsh
export PATH="$HOME/.claude/bin:$PATH"

# csh/tcsh (common in EDA environments)
setenv PATH "$HOME/.claude/bin:$PATH"

Then re-run ./install.sh to register the MCP server automatically.

skillbridge connection refused

ERROR: Cannot connect to Virtuoso after 3 attempts.

Checklist:

  1. Is Virtuoso running? (ps aux | grep virtuoso)

  2. Did you source start_server.il in the CIW?

  3. Does the IPC socket path in config/defaults.json match what skillbridge expects?

    .venv/bin/python -c "from skillbridge import Workspace; print(Workspace.DEFAULT_SOCKET)"

  4. Re-run ./install.sh to regenerate config/defaults.json with fresh paths.

CIW log not found

ERROR: CIW log file not found.

Fix:

# Find the log Virtuoso is writing
ls -lh ~/.cdnstmp/*.log ~/virtuoso.log /tmp/virtuoso.log 2>/dev/null

# Set the path
export CDS_LOG_PATH=/path/to/virtuoso.log

# Re-run installer so config picks it up
./install.sh

Or edit config/defaults.json directly:

{
  "ciw_log_path": "/home/you/.cdnstmp/virtuoso.log"
}

pyStartServer is not defined

*ERROR* [virtuoso-skill-mcp] pyStartServer is not defined.

Fix: The skillbridge SKILL helper (server.il) is not loading. Check config/defaults.json → skillbridge_il_path and confirm the file exists:

ls -l "$(python3 -c 'import skillbridge, pathlib; print(pathlib.Path(skillbridge.__file__).parent)')"

Then re-run ./install.sh.

Project layout

virtuoso-skill-mcp/
├── install.sh           # One-command installer
├── pyproject.toml       # Package metadata
├── README.md            # This file
├── src/
│   ├── server.py        # FastMCP server (MCP entry point)
│   ├── skill_bridge.py  # skillbridge connection + retry logic
│   ├── ciw_monitor.py   # CIW log parser
│   └── health_check.py  # Pre-flight checks
├── skill/
│   └── start_server.il  # Virtuoso SKILL bootstrap
├── config/
│   └── defaults.json    # Paths and settings (generated by install.sh)
└── tests/
    └── test_connection.py  # Unit tests (mock-based, no Virtuoso needed)

Running tests

No Virtuoso required — all SKILL calls are mocked:

.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/ -v

This server cannot be installed

F
license - not found
-
quality - not tested
C
maintenance

How are these scores calculated?

Maintenance

–Maintainers
–Response time
–Release cycle
–Releases (12mo)
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