Kicad

Make KiCad 9 a node in the swamp automation graph — headless ERC/DRC/BOM/netlist/gerber/pos/render over KiCad's kicad-cli, run in a podman/toolbox container and surfaced as typed, CEL-referenceable swamp evidence for factory gates.

One model INSTANCE is scoped to a SINGLE board/source-set: kicad is the TYPE, the instance handle is the board name (e.g. swamp model create @kneel/kicad badge_min). A second board needs a second instance, so the fixed data-names never collide across boards. Every evidence payload self-identifies its board via source + sha256, and consuming gates MUST assert data.latest("<board>","drc").attributes.source == <expected> before trusting clean.

Trust model

GlobalArgs are trusted-operator config set at model-create time, but every security-critical value with a single correct answer is a HARDCODED in-code constant, not a configurable field: the binary name (kicad-cli) and the version pin (9.0.9) are constants. GlobalArgs expose only runtime (toolbox|podman|local), container, and sharedMountRoot (validated at config-time to resolve to a real directory under a minimum depth). Every caller-influenced argv element is path-checked, enum-bounded, or an integer — no free-form string reaches argv unchecked, and no -- terminator is emitted (KiCad 9.0.9 rejects it).

Methods

• erc — schematic electrical-rules check → erc evidence (clean, errorCount, warningCount, exclusionCount, violations[]).
• drc — board design-rules check → drc evidence (adds unconnectedCount, parityCount).
• netlist — export the KiCad-sexpr netlist → netlist (componentCount).
• bom — export the CSV BOM → bom (rows[], lineCount).
• export_gerbers — export Gerbers AND the Excellon drill file → gerbers (deterministic normalized sha256 bundle digest, layers[], fileCount).
• pos — export the placement CSV → pos (placementCount).
• render — render a PCB PNG → render (width, height, side).
• check — Rule-6 fan-out: run erc + drc (+ optional bom) in ONE execution / one model-lock, writing each evidence instance (no separate check instance).

ERC/DRC are invoked WITHOUT --exit-code-violations and parse the -o JSON file UNCONDITIONALLY regardless of child exit status; clean is authoritative and model-computed from parsed error-severity violations (fail-closed) — an unknown/missing severity counts as an error and keeps the board dirty.

Quickstart

swamp model create @kneel/kicad badge_min \
  --global-arg runtime=toolbox \
  --global-arg container=fedora \
  --global-arg sharedMountRoot=/home/neil/dev
swamp model method run badge_min check --input source=.../badge.kicad_sch \
  --input pcb=.../badge.kicad_pcb --input outDir=.../out

Reference the evidence with CEL (2nd arg is the board instance):

data.latest("badge_min", "drc").attributes.clean
data.latest("badge_min", "drc").attributes.source

Initial @kneel/kicad — KiCad 9 kicad-cli wrapper. 7 methods (erc/drc/netlist/bom/export_gerbers/pos/render) + Rule-6 fan-out check. Fail-closed ERC/DRC; security seam with in-code constants + assertSafeSource/OutDir. 26 unit tests, E2E-green on kicad-cli 9.0.9.