Getting started tutorial

This tutorial is the first guided path for a new user who wants to verify that KiCad MCP Pro can start and expose tools to an MCP-capable client.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13.
• Node.js and Corepack when using the npm wrapper or repository development flow.
• KiCad 10.x when you want live KiCad CLI/IPC integration.
• A local project directory for experiments. Do not begin with customer or private manufacturing data.

1. Install

uvx kicad-mcp-pro@latest --help

For local development from the repository:

corepack enable
corepack pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
uv sync --all-extras --frozen

2. Start in read-only mode

KICAD_MCP_OPERATING_MODE=readonly uv run --all-extras kicad-mcp-pro --help

3. Run a basic health check

uv run --all-extras kicad-mcp-pro health --json

4. Connect a client

Use the client configuration generator or the agent-specific setup docs:

• docs/client-configuration.md
• docs/agents/index.md
• docs/agents/security.md

5. Next steps

• Task recipes: docs/how-to/index.md.
• Tool details: docs/reference/index.md.
• Architecture rationale: docs/explanation/architecture.md.