Product Boundaries

The monorepo has three product workspaces, but the products must stay decoupled at source level.

Allowed dependencies

From	May depend on
apps/vscode-extension	npm dependencies, VS Code APIs, KiCad CLI process calls, MCP protocol data, test harness in tests only
packages/mcp-server	Python dependencies, KiCad Python/CLI integrations, MCP protocol data
packages/mcp-npm	Node standard library and the published Python package name
packages/test-harness	Node standard library and shared packages only
future shared packages	external dependencies and other shared packages only

Forbidden dependencies

• The extension must not import Python server modules such as kicad_mcp.*.
• The MCP server must not import VS Code extension source or npm wrapper implementation.
• The npm launcher must not import extension source or Python server source.
• No product may reach into another product with relative imports.
• Production source must not import @oaslananka/kicad-test-harness or path-reference packages/test-harness.
• packages/* shared packages must not depend on apps/*.

Integration rule

The products integrate through MCP protocol and metadata:

• compatibility.yaml
• apps/vscode-extension/src/mcp/compatibilityMatrix.ts
• packages/mcp-server/src/kicad_mcp/compatibility.py
• packages/mcp-server/mcp.json
• packages/mcp-server/server.json
• contract and compatibility checks

Protocol changes must update both product surfaces and the compatibility validation scripts. Use the protocol change checklist when changing tool names, schemas, capability metadata, transport behavior, server-info payloads, or extension adapter behavior.

Enforcement

Run the boundary checker from the repository root:

corepack pnpm run check:boundaries

The checker fails when a product source file imports or path-references another product workspace implementation, when production source imports the shared test harness, or when the test harness imports product internals. CI runs the same check in the metadata job.

Ownership is declared in .github/CODEOWNERS for .github/, architecture docs, examples, the extension, the MCP server, the npm wrapper, and shared protocol schemas. Branch protection guidance is documented in branch-protection.md.