fabready

fabready reads a KiCad board and tells you what would go wrong at the fab: unrouted nets, vias too small to drill, backwards diodes, capacitors rated too low for their rail. It fixes the simple ones for you.

Why I built it

A mistake found after ordering a PCB costs the boards and weeks of waiting. KiCad's own check doesn't know a fab's limits, doesn't judge part ratings, and doesn't understand keyboard matrices. I build keyboards, so I wanted all three.

What it does

• Checks routing, fab limits (JLCPCB or a safe profile), the board outline, and mounting holes
• Reviews every part: under-rated, over-spec, or OK
• Runs keyboard checks: missing or backwards diodes, matrix lines that never reach the controller, copper under the antenna
• Fixes thin tracks, small vias, and copper under the antenna automatically, with a preview, a backup, and undo

It runs three ways from one Rust engine: a desktop app, a CLI, and an MCP server, so AI agents like Claude Code can check and fix a board too. Everything stays on your machine.

Design choices

• The board comes first. Every finding has a numbered marker on the board. Click one and the other follows.
• Preview before saving. You see the board after a fix, and the error count before and after, before anything is written.
• Little text. Short labels, one-line welcome screen, sample boards for anyone without a design yet.
• Edits like Figma. Single-key tools (V, H, X, I, M), Space to pan, snapping to a 0.1 mm grid.

I built it in four days. The source is on GitHub.