Placed

PCBAgent-GX10

PCBAgent takes one circuit request and, with no further input, designs a private board on the ASUS Ascent GX10: simulated, sourced, and routed offline.

A schematic is the product. Part values, pinouts, and the board outline should not have to leave the machine before software can help. PCBAgent runs that work on the GX10, an ultra-small AI computer with the NVIDIA GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip and 128 GB of unified memory. Nemotron, ngspice, a local JLCPCB catalog, KiCad, and Freerouting all run on the box. Unplugging the network does not stop a design.

Why local

Cloud schematic tools upload the design before they answer. Here the model and the checkers share the machine where the design is created. There is no cloud round trip, no vendor API for the netlist, and no infrastructure to keep up for a single board. The same flow still runs with the network disconnected.

What it does

One request becomes a checked board. The model writes the circuit. SPICE, the parts catalog, the placer, and KiCad decide whether that circuit is true. After the first prompt, the run continues on its own until you cancel it, and you can watch placement and routing in KiCad while it does.

1. Specify and simulate. /design writes a circuit spec and a SKiDL file. SKiDL emits a SPICE netlist, and ngspice runs it. The model does not hand-write a simulator deck.
2. Verify. Each acceptance number in the spec, such as output voltage and current, is compared with the ngspice measurement inside the stated tolerance. A value counts only when that simulation produced it. A miss stays inside /design: the model changes the circuit and the same checks run again. It does not edit the spec to hide a failure.
3. Select parts and write the netlist. Passives and the regulator are matched to a local JLCPCB catalog. Stock, price, and footprint names are copied from that cache and from the installed KiCad libraries. The same connections become a KiCad netlist with those symbols and footprints.
4. Place and route. /layout asks the model for placement constraints, such as a capacitor next to its IC. It does not emit coordinates or traces. A placer chooses positions, Freerouting draws the copper, and KiCad's design-rule check scores the board. layout.py --demo records that sequence and plays it in the PCB editor with no further prompts.

Demo

Two finished boards are in designs/:

• 5v-to-3v3-divider, a 5 V to 3.3 V divider into a 33 ohm load
• 5v-to-3v3-ldo-10uf-22uf-33ohm-25x20mm-jlcpcb, the same request on an AMS1117-3.3 with 10 µF in and 22 µF out

Replay the routed board in the KiCad PCB Editor from the GX10 desktop. Enable Preferences → Plugins → Enable KiCad API first.

source .venv/bin/activate
.venv/bin/python skills/layout/demo.py designs/5v-to-3v3-ldo-10uf-22uf-33ohm-25x20mm-jlcpcb --replay

Parts move into place, then the copper appears. layout/board.png in the same design is the still image of the routed board. To record a new animation while laying out again, run skills/layout/layout.py designs/<slug> --demo.

A new design starts in Pi with a single command, for example:

/design 5 V supply to 3.3 V LDO using one linear regulator IC, a 10 µF input capacitor, and a 22 µF output capacitor, output voltage 3.3 V within 0.05 V, output current 0.1 A within 0.01 A into a 33 ohm load, maximum board size 25 mm by 20 mm, JLCPCB

Chat window

The same agent, in its own window instead of the terminal. Skills, commands, and checks are unchanged. On the GX10 desktop:

python3 chat/window.py

/design and the rest of the flow work as they do in pi. Close the window to stop that session.

Run it on the GX10

KiCad 9 or newer is installed separately. From this checkout:

./setup.sh
source .venv/bin/activate
ollama list

setup.sh installs Pi and uv when they are missing, installs SKiDL into .venv, and downloads Freerouting 2.5.0. Use an exact model id from ollama list. Start the Ollama bridge in one terminal:

export PCB_OLLAMA_MODEL=<id from ollama list>
.venv/bin/python tools/ollama_bridge.py

In another terminal, from this checkout:

export PCB_OLLAMA_MODEL=<id from ollama list>
pi --provider pcb-ollama --model "$PCB_OLLAMA_MODEL" --thinking off

Trust the project when asked. .pi/settings.json loads this package. Restart Pi after pulling extension changes, or run /reload in a session that is already open. Stop a run yourself with Escape in Pi, or Ctrl+C in a CLI process.

From another machine on the LAN, the GX10 is reached with ssh <user>@<hostname>.local, or ssh <user>@<gx10-ip> if .local does not resolve. At the GX10 keyboard, whoami, hostname, and hostname -I print those values.

Checks

.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests -q
node --test tests/test_policy.mjs

Stage commands, when you want to run them without the agent:

.venv/bin/python tools/pcb_stage.py designs/<slug> prepare
.venv/bin/python tools/pcb_stage.py designs/<slug> verify
.venv/bin/python tools/pcb_stage.py designs/<slug> parts
.venv/bin/python tools/pcb_stage.py designs/<slug> netlist
.venv/bin/python skills/layout/layout.py designs/<slug>

Each stage prints a short JSON result and writes a full log. Simulation evidence, part ratings, and the netlist report stay next to the design. A passing check covers the measurements and rules the runners implement.