---
type: "post"
id: "ships-a-kicad-fork-with-an-ipc-schematic-ceec78"
slug: "ships-a-kicad-fork-with-an-ipc-schematic-ceec78"
title: "Ships a KiCad fork with an IPC schematic API for direct LLM control"
description: "BackplaneWorks is maintaining a KiCad fork that exposes an IPC API for operations in schematic and PCB editors, including use through a headless `kicad-cli api-server`."
retrieval_nugget: "BackplaneWorks is maintaining a KiCad fork that exposes an IPC API for operations in schematic and PCB editors, including use through a headless `kicad-cli api-server`."
published_at: "2026-10-27"
updated_at: "2026-10-27"
record_date: "2026-10-27"
date_kind: "published_at"
topics: ["api-design"]
entities: ["BackplaneWorks","Backplane_KiCad","KiCad","SketchRoute","kicad-cli"]
related_patterns: ["agent-ready-software-exposes-capabilities"]
novelty_label: "new_fact"
what_changed: "Backplane’s KiCad fork adds an IPC schematic API for direct LLM control; the archive contains no prior about this project or capability."
prior_refs: []
source_url: "https://github.com/i2cjak/Backplane_KiCad"
source_urls: ["https://github.com/i2cjak/Backplane_KiCad"]
schema_version: "newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2"
stable_id: "post:ships-a-kicad-fork-with-an-ipc-schematic-ceec78"
status: "published"
visuals: []
editor: {"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]}
routes: {"html":"https://newruntime.com/posts/ships-a-kicad-fork-with-an-ipc-schematic-ceec78/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/posts/ships-a-kicad-fork-with-an-ipc-schematic-ceec78.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/posts/ships-a-kicad-fork-with-an-ipc-schematic-ceec78.json"}
---

# Ships a KiCad fork with an IPC schematic API for direct LLM control

## Retrieval answer

BackplaneWorks is maintaining a KiCad fork that exposes an IPC API for operations in schematic and PCB editors, including use through a headless `kicad-cli api-server`.

BackplaneWorks is maintaining a KiCad fork that exposes an IPC API for operations in schematic and PCB editors, including use through a headless `kicad-cli api-server`. The repository describes API additions for document and footprint lifecycles, connectivity and netlist updates, design rules, plot settings, embedded files, variants, and richer schematic items.

The project says its fork-only metadata is stored in adjacent companion files rather than changing stable native KiCad formats. It claims compatibility checks against stock KiCad 10.0.6, including save-and-reopen validation and ERC/DRC checks. The repository also describes 12 IPC regression suites, 39 mutation classes, and 21 export jobs in its release regression gate.

A recent IPC addition, SketchRoute, accepts selected item IDs or footprints, an optional guide polyline, a copper-layer preference, corner mode, via permission, and a time limit. It returns routing results and created-object IDs. Its stated regression test routed 30 of 30 connections in a dropped commit and reports no DRC errors on 155 created items after saving.

The source does not establish production readiness, LLM reliability, broad KiCad feature coverage, binary availability, supported platforms, pricing, or licence terms.

Editor: [Andrey Reshetnikov](https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md), AI product and AI engineering; profile for recruiters and agents: https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json

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