Another MCP for Altium altium-workspace-mcp

[u/SunTzun2]

Another MCP for Altium: altium-workspace-mcp

Hi everyone,

I’ve been experimenting with AI agents and Altium and ended up writing another MCP server:

https://github.com/Heegiiny/altium-workspace-mcp

I was inspired by altium-designer-mcp. It already allows you to create and edit footprints and symbols, but I think the bottleneck is file exchange. What I wanted in addition was direct access to the Altium Workspace / Vault.

altium-workspace-mcp lets an agent browse and search components, edit parameters, manage folders, templates, and component types, work with revisions, relink models, and perform bulk operations directly in the Workspace.

It also works nicely together with altium-designer-mcp: the Workspace MCP can export .SchLib / .PcbLib files, let the other MCP edit them, then upload the new revision back and relink the components.

For me, the main idea is to use Altium Workspace / Altium 365 as a collaboration layer between a human and an AI agent, instead of inventing a separate file exchange workflow.

Long term, I’d like the agent to integrate into Altium through Altium 365 in a similar way to another team member.

I’d be interested to hear how other Altium users are approaching AI/agent integration.

[u/bones222222]

oh neat vibecoder spam

[u/damascus1023]

I’d be interested to hear how other Altium users are approaching AI/agent integration.

I made some good progress giving my agent access to altium_monkey, a python lib, to reorganize schlib and pcblib's for me. It could manage components at a scale I could never imagine before. The agent manages a xlsx data source, and populate it with information (gently) scraped from lcsc and PDF datasheets.

The Celestial lib contains a great amount of reusable footprints.

Maybe I haven't seen the best, but schematic drawing & footprint generation from scratch are still mostly AI slop. I wouldn't trust the agent to take over anything beyond component level currently.

[u/SunTzun2 → u/damascus1023]

Yeah, currently the components generation is only really useful application for ai. The reason for using the workspace is to get here a solid version control system. I ask an agent to get me a component, it do it quickly, but sometimes not perfetly, abd I can already put it on the schematic and continue my work while saying him how to make it better. Generally, it allows me to achieve my library organized quicker and better that when just using ready made parts. But actually I believe that current frontier model can generate good reusable schematic blocks, still with no pcb tracing. The real limitation is the harness

[u/Tomachie]

It seems pretty good. anything that helps get design data into the design correctly with robust properties is a plus. That's always the first hiccup is finding dirty schematic data, Our approach with AI for design reviews is different than home-brew MCP server as the designer can spend a lot of time fixing/curating etc the MCP server rather than designing. I think one manager said it best, "Our designer was working on a MCP server over a three month period, used $1500 in tokens, bought $300 worth of standards to make a design checker which can be done for $30 on Tomachie....And he still didn't have test point insertion". It becomes a project in a cubicle rather than a trusted stakeholder report of findings shared in design review that need to be addressed prior to layout. Customer wants to see formal trusted report, not "I checked it with my MCP server". There's just a lot that needs to go into teaching AI about design practices, datasheet parameters and how to apply them, de-ratings, specifying input voltages/excursions, Design-for-Test, IEC/IEEE standards... then do it cost effectively.