Core-PCB

Core-PCB is a stand-alone project derived from selected core-ce components, focused on AI-assisted schematic and PCB design workflows.

Primary target capability:

• Run and orchestrate local models (including multimodal/vision-capable models) for electronics tasks, such as:
  • schematic interpretation
  • netlist reasoning
  • PCB placement/routing guidance
  • design rule and manufacturability review

Initial target model reference:

• https://huggingface.co/kingabzpro/qwen3vl-open-schematics-lora

Runtime policy

• Local-first and local-only by default.
• Runtime scope for current architecture: llama.cpp only.
• Frontier APIs are optional and not required for base operation.

Scope for this phase

1. Stand-alone project structure inside this repository.
2. Reuse strategy from core-ce for:

• Hugging Face metadata/download flows
• local runtime launching and model session management
• optional deterministic tooling and RAG adaptation for EDA documents

3. No modifications to existing core-ce files.

Integration status

1. Option 1 (active): external app + file bridge.
2. Option 2 (stub): external app + KiCad Python bridge.
3. Option 3 (stub): KiCad Action Plugin.

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md and docs/INTEGRATION_PATHS.md.

Quick Start (Current MVP)

Install dependencies once:

cd Core-PCB
npm install

Linux runtime bootstrap (recommended):

cd Core-PCB
./install/RUN_ONCE_LINUX.sh

Desktop app (Electron):

npm run desktop

Web app only:

npm start

Open http://localhost:4310.

Alternative launchers from the Core-PCB folder:

• Linux desktop: ./start.sh
• Linux web: ./start-web.sh
• macOS web: ./start.command
• Windows web: start.bat
• macOS desktop: ./start-desktop.command
• Windows desktop: start-desktop.bat

RUN_ONCE_LINUX.sh creates .venv, installs adapter runtime Python deps, and writes .env.local with CORE_PCB_PYTHON for launcher scripts.

Current UI supports:

• optional Hugging Face token save
• add model by Hugging Face URL (auto metadata scrape)
• local catalog persistence
• llama.cpp (llama-server) start/stop/status

For implementation status, see docs/MVP_STATUS.md.