---
license: apache-2.0
pretty_name: KiCad computer-use environment (REA)
tags:
- computer-use
- cua
- gui-agent
- rl-environment
- agentenv
- desktop
- linux
- rea
- eda
- electronics
---

# KiCad: a computer-use environment

![An agent solving the task in KiCad](media/hero.gif)

**The real KiCad 7 Schematic Editor running on an Ubuntu 24.04 desktop, as an [agentenv](https://pypi.org/project/agentenv-framework/) computer environment. An agent completes the task only through screenshots, mouse and keyboard, and a verifier grades the saved files with no model.**

KiCad's Schematic Editor opens a USB LED indicator schematic. The agent has to find resistor R1, change its value from 330 to 220 ohms in the symbol's properties, and save. It sees only the screen and acts only with the mouse and keyboard.

## Watch

- Agent runs (Claude Code with Claude Sonnet 5.5): [run 1](media/solve-1.mp4), [run 2](media/solve-2.mp4), [run 3](media/solve-3.mp4)
- Scripted witness, which proves the task can be done through the computer: [witness.mp4](media/witness.mp4)

Each video is the computer's own screen recording at 10 frames per second.

## The task

> In the USB LED indicator schematic open in KiCad's Schematic Editor, change resistor R1's value from 330 to 220 (ohms), then save the schematic.

`bundle/artifacts/r1-220-check/verify.py` reads the app's files through the computer's `data/get` view and passes only if every check holds:

| Check | Kind | File |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `r1-is-220` | `line_count` | `Documents/led/led.kicad_sch` |
| `no-330` | `line_count` | `Documents/led/led.kicad_sch` |
| `r1-kept` | `line_count` | `Documents/led/led.kicad_sch` |
| `led-kept` | `line_count` | `Documents/led/led.kicad_sch` |

The checks read the saved `.kicad_sch` file: R1's value is now 220, no 330 remains, and R1 and the LED are still in the schematic.

## Results

3 of 3 runs passed, about $0.42 per run.

| Run | Outcome | Turns | Cost | Video |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | passed | 11 | $0.72 | [video](media/solve-1.mp4) |
| 2 | passed | 12 | $0.27 | [video](media/solve-2.mp4) |
| 3 | passed | 12 | $0.28 | [video](media/solve-3.mp4) |

## Run it

You need Docker. `agentenv-framework` builds the computer: Ubuntu 24.04 with the app installed from Ubuntu's archive (`kicad` 7.0.11).

```bash
pip install agentenv-framework==0.9.1431
hf download earakely-scale/KiCadComputerEnv-REA --repo-type dataset --local-dir kicad
agent-env run kicad/bundle --task r1-220 --agent claude-code --model <model>
```

The agent needs a model provider configured for agentenv. `--task smoke` only boots the computer, with no agent. `bundle/README.md` describes the bundle in detail.

## How it was made

[REA](https://github.com/morluto/rea) built this environment from a real session with the app:

1. **Capture.** REA launched KiCad on a Linux desktop and recorded its package, windows and opened files while a scripted user made the edit. It also recorded the app's state folders before and after.
2. **Export.** REA turned the capture into an agentenv `computer_app`. It installs the app, seeds the starting files, starts the app, and waits for its main window. It also serves typed views of the app's files for verifiers.
3. **Task.** The task's checks were validated against the capture: they fail on the starting state and pass on the captured end state.
4. **Witness and runs.** Scripted computer actions solved the task in a fresh computer, and the verifier failed before, passed after and failed again after `data/reset`. Then an agent solved it 3 times, each run recorded.

## What's inside

```
bundle/      the agentenv bundle: envs/ (app module, seed files), tasks/, artifacts/ (verifier), evals/
media/       witness and agent-run recordings (MP4) with short GIF previews
results.json the runs above, with each check's result
```

## Limits

- The checks count lines in KiCad's s-expression file; they do not check the circuit's electrical rules.
- The computer uses the `kicad` version in Ubuntu 24.04's archive at build time; it is not pinned.
- Three runs is a small sample: the solve rate shows the task is solvable, not how hard it is.

## Licences

The bundle code, the task and the synthetic seed files are Apache-2.0. KiCad itself is not included: the computer installs it from Ubuntu's archive (`kicad` 7.0.11) at build time, under its own licence (GPL-3.0-or-later).