cictikz

AI-driven TikZ circuit schematics.

Docs: overview · CLI · MCP server · dialect & converters · symbol gallery · domain libraries

A standalone Python package that ships the full aic2026 TikZ macro vocabulary as package data — cictikz_lib (the ckt_lib schematic dialect, grid = 1.6, one transistor tall) plus the domain libraries (boot, constellation, dacsm, esd, gmc, mos, plane, rdac, sc, sfg, spec) — renders figures reproducibly with pdflatex, and exposes the whole loop — discover symbols, render, look at the result — to an AI assistant over MCP. Later phases add a schematic IR with writers/readers for the constrained TikZ dialect and xschem .sch files.

Install

make dev-install        # pip install -e ".[mcp]"

Rendering needs pdflatex (with standalone + circuitikz) on PATH, and pdftoppm (poppler) for PNG / pdf2svg for SVG. Without them the package still imports; render calls fail with a clear message and the render tests skip.

Related MCP server: mcp-kicad-sch-api

CLI

cictikz render fig.tex --png        # compile a full standalone figure
cictikz render body.tex --wrap      # wrap a bare macro body in the packaged preamble
cictikz symbols [QUERY]             # list the symbol library
cictikz info vnmos                  # pins, entry/exit, example for one symbol
cictikz draw spec.json --fmt tikz   # schematic IR (JSON) -> TikZ or xschem
cictikz tikz2sch fig.tex            # dialect TikZ -> xschem .sch
cictikz sch2tikz circuit.sch        # any xschem .sch -> dialect TikZ
cictikz export-symlib DIR           # generate cictikz/*.sym for xschem
cictikz watch fig.tex               # live preview: recompile on save, browser follows

watch is the iteration loop: edit the file in any editor (or let an AI edit it), and the browser shows the new render half a second later — compile errors appear inline instead of a stale image.

The TikZ-to-xschem direction accepts only the cictikz dialect (registry macros, moves, named coordinates, --/|-/-|/to[short] wires) and fails loudly with a line number on anything else; xschem-to-TikZ works on any .sch, drawing unrecognised symbols as labelled boxes.

MCP

claude mcp add cictikz -- cictikz-mcp

Tools: render_tikz (source → PNG, or the parsed TeX errors), render_file, list_symbols, symbol_info, style_guide, list_examples / get_example (searches a figure corpus; set CICTIKZ_EXAMPLES to a directory of .tex figures).

Figure dialect

Figures are written against cictikz_lib.tex (macro names identical to the aic2026 course repo's ckt_lib.tex): path-fragment macros that compose in one \draw, e.g.

\draw (0,0) \vground \vresistor{$R_s$} \lvnmos{M1}{$v_i$};
\draw (M1.drain) to[short] ++(0,\grid);

See cictikz style-guide (or the MCP style_guide tool) for the house rules: one line width, one arrow tip, colour only when it means something.