altium-monkey-mcp

Read-only MCP server that lets AI assistants (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, VS Code, ...) inspect Altium Designer projects — schematics, netlist, BOM and PCB — on Linux, macOS or Windows, without Altium Designer installed.

It is a thin wrapper around altium-monkey, which parses the binary .SchDoc / .PcbDoc / .PrjPcb formats directly.

Tools

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | list_projects | Find .PrjPcb projects under a directory | | project_info | Sheet hierarchy, variants, project parameters, counts, compile diagnostics | | search_components | Regex search over designator, value, footprint, description, parameters | | get_component | Parameters, every pin with its net and what else is on that net, PCB placement | | search_nets | Regex search over net names | | get_net | All pins on a net + PCB routing stats (track length/width per layer, vias) | | get_bom | Bill of materials, optionally per design variant, grouped | | pcb_info | Board size, layer stackup, net classes, differential pairs, design rules | | pcb_placement | Pick-and-place (X/Y, rotation, side) | | components_near | Components within a radius of a given part | | render_schematic | Render a sheet to SVG + PNG | | render_pcb | Render selected PCB layers to SVG + PNG (cropped to the board) | | export_netlist_json | Write the full compiled netlist to a JSON file |

project accepts a .PrjPcb (recommended), .SchDoc, .PcbDoc, or a directory containing a project. Parsed designs are cached in memory and reloaded when any design file changes. Coordinates are reported in mm.

Requirements

• Python 3.12–3.14 (required by altium-monkey)
• Inkscape on PATH — optional, only for PNG output of the render tools

Installation

git clone https://github.com/wjakiela/altium-monkey-mcp.git
cd altium-monkey-mcp
uv venv --python 3.12
uv pip install -e .

Claude Code (available in all projects)

claude mcp add --scope user altium -- "$PWD/.venv/bin/altium-monkey-mcp"

Claude Desktop / other clients

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "altium": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/altium-monkey-mcp/.venv/bin/altium-monkey-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts

• "Which ESP32 pins are connected to the 32 kHz crystal, and what load capacitors are used?"
• "List all parts on net V_BAT and how long the trace is on each layer."
• "Render the bottom layer of the PCB and show me where Y1 sits."
• "What clearance and width rules does the board use?"

Limitations

• Read-only: the server never modifies design files.
• Accuracy depends on altium-monkey; Linux support there is less tested than Windows.
• Arc length is not included in routing length; polygons/planes are counted, not measured.

License

AGPL-3.0-or-later, because the project depends on altium-monkey (AGPL-3.0-or-later). Altium and Altium Designer are trademarks of Altium Limited; this project is not affiliated with Altium.