No More Context Switching
Traditional PCB design means constantly switching between tools: reading datasheets in a PDF viewer, checking stock on DigiKey, creating footprints in a library editor, searching forums for reference designs. Trace brings all of this into your design environment.
What Trace Handles
Trace agents are trained on electronics knowledge, circuit topologies, and thousands of real designs. They handle the tedious parts so you can focus on your product:
Datasheet Parsing
- Extract pinouts, electrical specs, and recommended circuits from datasheets
- Understand package dimensions and thermal requirements
- Pull reference designs and application notes
Component Selection
- Real-time availability from JLCPCB, LCSC, DigiKey, Mouser, Texas Instruments, Amazon, Nexar/Octopart
- Pin-compatible alternatives when parts are out of stock
- Filter by assembly type (SMT, through-hole, hand-solderable)
- Price optimization across distributors
- Calculate component values (resistors, capacitors, etc.)
- Amazon sourcing for hobbyists and DIY projects
Distributor integrations: Component search queries DigiKey, Mouser, and Nexar/Octopart APIs for live stock levels, unit pricing at various quantities, and lead times. The AI automatically suggests alternatives if your first-choice part is out of stock or EOL.
BOM Preview & Approval
When the AI generates a bill of materials, it presents an interactive BOM Preview in the chat:
- Sortable table — Columns for reference designator, value, footprint, manufacturer, MPN, stock status, and unit price
- Supplier links — Click through to distributor pages for each component
- Pricing — Aggregated pricing across distributors at your target quantity
- Approval workflow — Review the BOM, then accept it as-is, modify specific components, or cancel and start over
The BOM preview ensures you see exactly what the AI plans to use before any components are placed in your design.
Design Review
- Import and review existing KiCad schematics and PCBs
- Get explanations of how circuits work
- Identify potential issues before fabrication
- Suggest improvements and optimizations
- Answer questions about any design, not just ones created in Trace
- Auto-generate schematic symbols from datasheets
- Create accurate footprints from mechanical drawings
- Generate 3D models (STEP) for enclosure fit checking
- Verify symbol-to-footprint pin mappings
- Search symbols and footprints by description using vector similarity (finds parts even when you don’t know the exact name)
- Placeholder symbols — When the AI places a component and the library symbol is missing locally, Trace generates a placeholder symbol with the correct pin names and count so your schematic remains valid
Add to Chat
Right-click on any component, wire, or selection in the schematic or PCB editor and choose Add to Chat to give the AI context about specific design elements. The selected items are added to the chat input as context, so you can ask questions like “why is this resistor 10K?” or “route this section differently” with the AI understanding exactly which elements you’re referring to.
Schematic Capture
- Generate circuit block diagrams from natural language descriptions
- Convert block diagrams into detailed schematics
- Generate and edit schematic connections
- Annotate components automatically
- Run Electrical Rule Checks (ERC) and suggest fixes
- Navigate and switch between hierarchical sheets
- Answer questions about your design
- AI-driven symbol creation — Describe a component and the AI creates a schematic symbol with correct pin names, groupings, and electrical types
PCB Layout
- Assist with component placement considering signal flow, thermal, and mechanical constraints
- AI-powered auto-placement using simulated annealing with LLM-guided analysis (deeper constraint awareness in progress)
- Auto-route traces on your PCB with impedance-aware net classes
- Route differential pairs with spacing and length matching enforcement
- Define layer stackups and derive controlled-impedance trace widths
- Track reference planes for return path continuity
- Switch between PCB layers, apply layer presets, and toggle visibility via AI
- Run Design Rule Checks (DRC) and explain violations
- Auto-position silkscreen labels
- Via stitching and copper pour optimization
- AI-driven footprint generation — Describe a component package and the AI creates a PCB footprint with accurate pad dimensions
Manufacturing Export
- Generate Gerbers, drill files, and pick-and-place files
- Package into fab-ready ZIP archives
- Export BOM with distributor part numbers
- STEP export for mechanical CAD integration
Chat Interface
The chat panel is located on the right side of the application. Type your request in natural language, and Trace responds with suggestions, questions, or actions.
Multi-Tab Conversations
Each tab in the chat panel is an independent conversation with its own context and streaming state. You can run multiple AI tasks in parallel across different tabs without them interfering with each other. For example, you can have the AI routing traces in one tab while asking design questions in another.
- Each tab has its own conversation history and AI backend client
- Streaming in one tab doesn’t block or affect other tabs
- Input is enabled/disabled per-tab based on whether that tab is currently streaming
- Two tabs cannot hold the same conversation (duplicate detection prevents this)
Template Selector
When starting a new conversation, the chat panel offers pre-built prompt templates to help you get started. Templates cover common workflows like designing a power supply, setting up a microcontroller, reviewing a schematic, or generating manufacturing files. Select a template to pre-fill the chat input, then customize it for your specific design.
Activity Feed
As the AI works, the chat shows an interleaved activity feed with real-time visibility into what’s happening:
- Tool calls — See which files the AI is reading, editing, or creating
- Thinking steps — Watch the AI’s reasoning process as it analyzes your design and plans its approach
- Status updates — Friendly messages like “Reading schematic…” or “Running DRC…” appear as the AI progresses
- Text responses — The AI’s explanations and suggestions stream in alongside the activity
This timeline gives you full transparency into the AI’s workflow, so you always know what it’s doing and why.
Thinking & Reasoning
When working on complex tasks, Trace shows its reasoning process in real-time. You can see the AI’s thought process as it analyzes your design, considers tradeoffs, and plans its approach before making changes.
Mermaid Diagrams
The AI renders architecture diagrams, signal flow charts, and circuit block diagrams directly in the chat using Mermaid. These appear inline as part of the conversation, especially useful during Plan mode for visualizing proposed designs before execution.
Todo Checklists
For multi-step tasks, Trace creates and tracks a todo checklist in the chat panel. The checklist updates in real-time as the AI completes each step:
- Plan mode — When you approve a plan, the AI creates todos from the implementation steps and checks them off as it works
- Agent mode — For complex tasks, the AI may create todos to organize its approach even without a formal plan
- Visibility — The todo widget appears in the chat, expanding downward to show all items with their completion status
File Uploads & Context
Drag and drop files into the chat to give Trace additional context for your design:
- Datasheets (PDF) — Trace extracts pinouts, recommended circuits, electrical specs, and application notes
- Images — Screenshots of circuits, hand-drawn schematics, board photos, reference designs, oscilloscope captures
- Spec documents — Requirements docs, design specs, constraint documents
- BOMs — Existing bills of materials for availability checking or alternative sourcing
- Reference designs — KiCad files or screenshots from other designs you want to replicate or adapt
Files are processed and their content becomes part of the conversation context, so the AI can reference them throughout the design session.
Edit, Undo & Regenerate
You can edit any message you’ve sent to refine your request, undo the AI’s changes to roll back to a previous state, or regenerate a response if the AI’s output wasn’t what you needed. Version history is maintained for every edit.
Version History & Rollback
Every AI edit to your schematic is versioned automatically. You can roll back to any previous state:
- Per-message rollback — Click the undo button on any assistant message to restore the design to the state before that message’s edits
- Local history — Versions are stored locally in a
.history/ directory using git, so rollback works offline
- Cloud sync — Versions are also saved to the cloud for cross-device access and backup
- Non-destructive — Rolling back creates a new version rather than deleting history, so you can always go forward again
AI Interaction Modes
The AI operates in three modes, available in both the Schematic and PCB editors:
| Mode | Description |
|---|
| Ask | Query and analyze your design without making changes. Get explanations, suggestions, and answers to questions. |
| Agent | AI makes direct edits to your schematic or PCB. Use for tasks like adding components, routing traces, or generating files. |
| Plan | Multi-step design planning. AI creates a plan for complex tasks, which you can review and approve before execution. |
Plan Mode Approval Workflow
In Plan mode, Trace presents a step-by-step plan before making changes. Plans include component tables, Mermaid architecture diagrams, and a numbered implementation checklist. This ensures you maintain control over complex, multi-step tasks. You can:
- Approve — Accept the plan and execute all steps. The AI creates a todo checklist and updates progress as it works.
- Modify — Ask for adjustments before proceeding
- Reject — Cancel and try a different approach
- Request more research — Ask the AI to investigate further before finalizing the plan
Under the hood, the AI uses specific tools to interact with your design. Knowing these can help you understand what the AI is doing and write more effective prompts:
File Operations
| Tool | Description |
|---|
read_file | Read the contents of a schematic, PCB, or other project file |
write | Create or overwrite a file |
search_replace | Make targeted edits to a file using exact string matching |
grep | Search for patterns across your project files |
list_dir | List files and directories in your project |
delete_trace_file | Delete a file (with user confirmation) |
Design Verification
| Tool | Description |
|---|
run_erc | Run Electrical Rule Check on your schematic |
run_drc | Run Design Rule Check on your PCB layout |
take_snapshot | Capture a screenshot of the current design for visual analysis |
annotate_schematic | Auto-annotate schematic symbols with reference designators |
fetch_component_pins | Query local KiCad symbol libraries for a component’s pin names, numbers, and electrical types |
Navigation
| Tool | Description |
|---|
get_hierarchy | Get the hierarchical sheet structure of a multi-sheet schematic |
switch_sheet | Switch the active view to a different schematic sheet |
switch_layer | Switch the active PCB layer |
get_layers | List all PCB layers and their visibility state |
apply_layer_preset | Apply a saved layer visibility preset |
set_layer_visibility | Toggle visibility of specific PCB layers |
Manufacturing
| Tool | Description |
|---|
generate_gerbers | Generate Gerber files for all layers (copper, silkscreen, solder mask, paste, board outline) |
generate_drill_files | Generate Excellon drill files |
autoroute | Run the cloud autorouter on your PCB |
Task Management
| Tool | Description |
|---|
todo_write | Create or update the todo checklist in the chat |
todo_read | Read the current state of the todo checklist |
| Tool | Description |
|---|
search_web | Search the web for datasheets, reference designs, and technical information |
search_parts | Search component databases for availability and pricing across distributors |
parse_datasheet | Extract structured data from PDF datasheets |
search_symbols / search_footprints | Find symbols and footprints by description using vector similarity search |
Symbol and footprint search runs server-side. This means searches work even without local libraries installed and return results from the full KiCad library database.
Research Phase
In Plan mode and for complex Agent tasks, the AI performs a research phase before acting. The multi-agent orchestrator runs several server-side tools in parallel:
- Web search — Finds datasheets, reference designs, application notes, and forum discussions
- Parts search — Queries DigiKey, Mouser, and Nexar for component availability and pricing
- Datasheet parsing — Extracts pinouts, recommended circuits, and specifications from PDFs
- Symbol/footprint search — Finds matching library components via vector similarity
Research results are synthesized into a collapsible Research Summary Card in the chat. The card streams in real-time and shows a 2-4 sentence summary when research completes.
Crash Reporting
If Trace crashes, the next time you launch the application you’ll see a dialog asking whether you’d like to submit a crash report. This is entirely consent-based — the report is only uploaded if you click Send.
Crash reports include the log file from the previous session and help the team diagnose and fix stability issues. No design files or personal data are included in crash reports.
Limitations
These tools accelerate your workflow but don’t replace engineering judgment. Always review generated designs for correctness, especially for safety-critical applications.
