hey-pcb

hey-pcb

Agent-driven PCB engineering through HeyPCB's first-party MCP server: design real KiCad boards from a text brief, instant fabrication estimates, and production tracking, with a workflow skill bundled. Portable Agent Plugins v1 package (mcp.json + skills/), no plugin code. The server is declared untrusted with per-tool costs and a per-chat spend limit, so Hermes names the cost and asks before any call that can spend (design reads stay free). The HEYPCB_API_KEY is forwarded from the user's environment and never stored in plugin files. Disclosure — the MCP server talks to api.heypcb.ai; npx fetches the pinned @heypcb/mcp@0.1.8 from npm on first launch; open_kicad_project and upload_kicad_project upload a local KiCad project folder to HeyPCB, and save_export/restore_local write files on your computer (each after Hermes approval); engine runs and design-agent turns are billed to the user's HeyPCB account at its plan rate; ordering on heypcb.ai is still a human decision. Not affiliated with HeyPCB.

imperator-clawdiusToolsv0.1.0Updated 1 hour ago

About

hermes-hey-pcb

Agent-driven PCB engineering for Hermes Agent: a portable Agent Plugins v1 package that
connects Hermes to HeyPCB's first-party MCP server (@heypcb/mcp), with spend-aware gating
and a workflow skill bundled.

hermes plugins install imperator-clawdius/hermes-hey-pcb
hermes plugins enable hey-pcb

What it gives your agent

Design from a brief. build_board hands a text spec to HeyPCB's design agent, which
produces a real KiCad project — parts, placement, routing, ground pours, DRC/ERC.
Reads stay free. Board state, schematics, netlists, images, part search, history and
exports are zero-cost design tools (rate-limited per account).
Spend is gated. The manifest declares the server untrusted with per-tool costs and a
per-chat spend_limit, so Hermes names the cost and asks before any call that can spend.
Local source of truth. export (gerbers / kicad / bom / cpl / step) saves real files.

The workflow skill

hey-pcb:hey-pcb encodes the pipeline: brief -> design -> wait_for_turn polling -> local
review of Inky's self-grade -> export -> estimate -> approval gate. It also encodes the
honest limits: agent-generated DRC/ERC-clean boards are not automatically production-qualified.

Setup

Get an API key at heypcb.ai (Settings -> API).
Put it where Hermes reads profile secrets: HEYPCB_API_KEY in your profile .env
(or export it in the shell that runs Hermes).
Install and enable this plugin. The key is forwarded to the MCP server as an environment
variable — it is never stored in plugin files.

Disclosures (rule 13)

Network: the MCP server talks to api.heypcb.ai; npx fetches the pinned
@heypcb/mcp@0.1.8 package from npm on first launch.
No local secrets: the key lives in Hermes's environment, not in this repo.
Costs: design tools are free per HeyPCB's published limits; engine runs and Inky turns
are billed to the HeyPCB account at its plan rate. Hermes shows the cost before each call.