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2026 Technical Roadmap

This roadmap converts the May 2026 research findings into enforceable repository work. It favors small gates and measurable artifacts over large rewrites.

August 2026 status snapshot

  • Version 3.30.0 was published on 2026-08-04 for the Python/server, npm wrapper, and desktop GUI release surfaces; 3.30.1 followed on 2026-08-05. The release history and exact changes remain authoritative in CHANGELOG.md and GitHub Releases rather than being re-described here.
  • M9 — Apps UI, Hybrid Bridge & Distribution has verified progress from PR #569 plus completed #571, #572, and #575. It remains open for #412, #573, and #574; in particular, the read-only ChatGPT Apps surface must not be presented as completion of the hosted/local mutation or desktop release-hardening work.
  • M10 — Agent Design OS & Workflow Surface carries the post-release hardening backlog. After #579, the remaining open work is #576, #577, #578, and #580.
  • July release-readiness closeout work is historical; current roadmap language should track these live milestones and objective evidence instead of treating completed release work as pending.

P0: Stabilize current CI and release loops

  • Keep corepack pnpm run check:ci green on Linux and smoke coverage green on macOS/Windows.
  • Keep release:check scoped to current release sections so historical changelog entries do not break normal CI.
  • Keep CI status checks stable across the monorepo package matrix PR commits.
  • Require PR descriptions to include exact commands run and generated artifact paths for agent-authored changes.

P1: KiCad 10 runtime validation

  • Keep the Ubuntu KiCad 10 smoke workflow running against a real kicad-cli.
  • Extend smoke artifacts to include version output, stdout, stderr and generated export files.
  • Add optional nightly/manual KiCad 10.x compatibility jobs without making RC or nightly builds required for release.

P2: API modernization and compatibility guardrails

  • Enforce no new SWIG/pcbnew usage with compat:check.
  • Keep CLI export paths for headless deterministic exports.
  • Expand IPC diagnostics in doctor --json with socket/auth/retry fields.
  • Add adapter boundaries before exposing new KiCad IPC features as MCP tools.

P3: HTTP and studio bridge hardening

  • Add regression tests for bearer auth, token rotation, CORS origin rejection and wildcard rejection.
  • Add debounce/delta-sync behavior to the studio watcher before increasing the context payload size.
  • Publish a minimal threat model for local HTTP bridge deployments.

P4: Engineering metadata enrichment

  • Add structured material/stackup resources for SI/PI/EMC tools.
  • Move analysis defaults into explicit JSON resources with schemas.
  • Keep generated recommendations traceable to physical inputs such as substrate, copper weight, trace width and current assumptions.

Publishing surfaces

Surface Purpose Gate
PyPI Python package distribution release workflow, metadata sync, package smoke
GitHub Releases Source release, SBOM, provenance release-please and attestation
GHCR CI/runtime images Docker build + Trivy
MCP registry MCP discovery metadata metadata:check
Documentation site User and operator docs properdocs build -f mkdocs.yml --strict + link check
VS Code Marketplace KiCad Studio integration separate extension release gate

Non-goals

  • Do not add a second release automation system beside release-please.
  • Do not require KiCad GUI for normal check:ci.
  • Do not merge fallback-only fixes that should live in the canonical repository.