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Electronics Stack installation

Current workstation evidence

Audit date: 2026-07-31.

The current WSL host did not expose the following executables on PATH:

  • kicad-cli
  • kibot
  • kikit
  • generate_interactive_bom
  • ngspice
  • kintree
  • docling

The system Python also lacked the repository's declared test dependencies, including MCP, OpenPyXL, pdfplumber, RapidFuzz, ReportLab, sexpdata, and SKiDL. This means a clean environment must be installed before the historical pipeline results can be revalidated on this host.

Python environment

Create an isolated environment:

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -e '.[test,design]'
.venv/bin/python -m pytest -q

The base dependencies cover the deterministic Python checks and MCP adapter. The design extra installs SKiDL. KiCad, KiBot, KiKit, InteractiveHtmlBom, ngspice, and other system integrations remain optional and must report an explicit unavailable or skipped result when absent.

External tools

External repositories are not committed as orphan Git links. Install or clone them explicitly when their integration is needed:

Tool Purpose Upstream
KiCad Canonical ERC and board tooling https://www.kicad.org/
KiBot KiCad output automation https://github.com/INTI-CMNB/KiBot
KiKit Panelization and fabrication output https://github.com/yaqwsx/KiKit
InteractiveHtmlBom Assembly visualization https://github.com/openscopeproject/InteractiveHtmlBom
Ki-nTree Part and inventory integration https://github.com/sparkmicro/Ki-nTree
Kiri Visual KiCad history comparison https://github.com/leoheck/kiri
Nexar render demo Design API reference implementation https://github.com/NexarDeveloper/nexar-design-render-demo

Provider configuration

Provider credentials belong in host configuration with mode 0600, never in the repository. Network validation is opt-in because provider quotas and access conditions vary. --with-api permits distributor API calls, while --with-browserbase independently permits managed-browser escalation. The default sourcing command can still issue ordinary HTTP requests to URLs in the BOM; it does not use either provider mechanism. See ADR 0002.

The LCSC client is offline during normal construction. Populate or refresh its jlcparts database only through the explicit refresh operation documented by scripts/lcsc_client.py; importing the client never downloads data.

Current LCSC evidence

On 2026-07-31, 7-Zip 23.01 was installed from the Ubuntu package repository. The explicit refresh reused the existing 13-part archive and extracted a 5.6 GB SQLite database. The refreshed upstream schema uses jlc_components, not the legacy components/manufacturers tables.

Validation on that database reported:

  • SQLite PRAGMA quick_check: ok
  • 7,157,071 component rows
  • C8734 ID lookup: found
  • exact-MPN keyword lookup: three results at a limit of three
  • C8734 price parsing: six quantity tiers

These counts are dated cache evidence, not a stable upstream invariant. The client supports both the current and legacy table layouts through fixture tests and fails clearly when it encounters an unknown schema.

Nexar Supply and Design APIs use different OAuth scopes and separate caches. The Design API operates on Altium 365 projects; it does not accept KiCad uploads. Pure-KiCad rendering must use KiCad's own export tools.

Historical note

The previous version of this document recorded successful installs on 2026-04-30, including KiCad 9.0.8, KiBot, KiKit, InteractiveHtmlBom, Docling, Ki-nTree, PySpice, and ngspice. Those observations describe an earlier environment and are not current-host verification. Recover that revision from Git history when exact historical commands or failure text are needed.