ADS Agent Bridge

An unofficial, local-first documentation and automation bridge for Keysight Advanced Design System (ADS).

[!IMPORTANT] This is a limited public alpha. Use disposable ADS workspaces and review the reported capability gates before relying on automation results. Keysight and ADS are trademarks of Keysight Technologies. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Keysight.

The intended PyPI user path is:

pipx install ads-agent-bridge
ads-agent doctor
ads-agent setup
ads-agent quickstart
ads-agent launch --workspace /path/to/MyWorkspace_wrk
ads-agent status
ads-agent shutdown

If pipx is missing or the system python3 is older than 3.10, use the bootstrap installer. It searches installed Python versions instead of assuming that the default interpreter is usable, installs pipx in an isolated bootstrap environment when needed, and reports the exact command path. It does not modify an externally managed system Python:

# Linux
curl -fsSLO https://github.com/cottman99/ads-agent-bridge/releases/download/v0.1.0a25/install.sh
sh install.sh

# Windows PowerShell
Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/cottman99/ads-agent-bridge/releases/download/v0.1.0a25/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\install.ps1

To select a non-default interpreter or install an offline/local wheel:

sh install.sh --python /path/to/python3.11 --package /path/to/ads_agent_bridge.whl
.\install.ps1 -Python C:\Path\To\python.exe -Package C:\Path\To\ads_agent_bridge.whl

Use --check on Linux or -Check on Windows to verify interpreter selection without installing or changing PATH.

The current alpha slice implements cross-platform ADS installation discovery, capability/support reporting, per-installation local documentation indexing, DE/DDS add-on registration, and a headless minimal-AC quickstart with dataset readback. Setup also installs the portable ads-kb-docs Codex skill when its target directory is free and starts private full-text documentation enrichment in the background.

It does not currently claim a completed Momentum, RFPro, FEM, SIPro, or PIPro workflow. Those lanes require separate solver-side acceptance evidence.

Official ADS documentation is never distributed with this package. Indexes and Markdown caches are built privately from documentation already installed on the user's machine.

Set ADS_AGENT_HOME to place configuration, data, and caches under an explicit directory. This is useful for isolated tests, remote servers, and systems where the normal user cache location is not appropriate.

Install and verify

Prerequisites:

• a locally licensed ADS installation;
• Python 3.10 or later for the ads-agent command;
• pipx (recommended) or an isolated virtual environment.

pipx install ads-agent-bridge
ads-agent doctor
ads-agent setup
ads-agent quickstart

When several ADS versions are found, interactive setup asks which one to use. For an unattended or version-specific setup:

ads-agent setup --ads-root /path/to/ADS2026_Update2 --non-interactive

A successful quickstart independently reports documentation, add-on, workspace, circuit simulation, and dataset readback gates. It creates a new disposable workspace and refuses to overwrite an existing path.

To leave Codex skills unchanged or postpone full-text conversion:

ads-agent setup --skip-skill --no-background-docs

Managed ADS sessions

Launch GUI ADS into an existing workspace with a process working directory that is bound to the same workspace:

ads-agent --pretty launch --workspace /path/to/MyWorkspace_wrk
ads-agent --pretty status

On Linux, bind the session to the intended X display explicitly when needed:

ads-agent --pretty launch --workspace /path/to/MyWorkspace_wrk --display :4

The launcher reserves the slot immediately after process creation, so a slow license checkout, first-run dialog, or add-on delay remains observable as starting instead of losing the process identity. Ownership becomes verified only after the packaged add-on returns the one-time launch identity. The exact workspace is then verified through ADS. Lifecycle mutations for one slot are serialized across local client processes, and an existing slot is never reused implicitly. With --reuse-existing, the bridge accepts the workspace only when no workspace is open or the same workspace is already active; it never closes or force-switches a different workspace. Reuse also requires the bridge-reported ADS installation root to match the explicitly selected instance; an absent or different root is rejected before any workspace action.

status reports starting, waiting-for-host-ui, bridge-ready, workspace-ready, blocked-by-dialog, degraded, or orphaned with the managed log path and bounded window diagnostics where relevant. For long GUI tasks, an independent dialog-watch lane can inspect Qt labels, buttons, accessibility metadata, and standard roles. The Agent may request a targeted screenshot for vision, then act against the exact dialog fingerprint and button ID. The embedded callback re-reads and revalidates both immediately before the Qt click. See the dialog automation contract.

On Linux, the short-lived ads wrapper is provisional. The session manager adopts only hpeesofemx or hpeesofde processes carrying the exact launch nonce and slot. If that real ADS process is alive but the embedded bridge has not started, status becomes waiting-for-host-ui and returns a bounded host-UI handoff contract. The client Agent must inspect only windows owned by those reported candidate processes; separate-process UI helpers are observation-only and never establish ADS ownership. The Agent must not guess a license choice or start the slot again.

Instead, it can request one PID-bound target image and perform one fingerprint-bound action:

ads-agent host-ui snapshot --slot SLOT --image-out product-selection.png
ads-agent host-ui action --slot SLOT --window-id 0x... --fingerprint SHA256 \
  --click X Y --risk medium --authorization workflow-policy \
  --reason "Select the explicitly configured product"

X,Y are client-relative coordinates chosen from that fresh target image; the package contains no product title, row, or absolute-screen coordinate rules. The action re-reads the slot, nonce-bearing candidate PID, window identity, geometry, visibility, and fingerprint before touching the window. A changed or ambiguous target is rejected. Linux uses X11 and Windows uses the same contract through the native window APIs.

ADS owns the remembered product preference. The validated Linux selector wrote it to the user's .eesoflic, while Windows used its native per-user preference store; the bridge neither invents nor hard-codes vendor bundle ids. Once the user or workflow explicitly enables the selector's Always try to start... option, later launches use that ADS-owned preference and normally bypass the host-UI gate.

Session commands deliberately separate client and application lifetime:

ads-agent disconnect                 # ADS keeps running
ads-agent shutdown                   # exactly one agent-owned session
ads-agent shutdown --slot SLOT       # explicit agent-owned session
ads-agent bridge dialog-watch --slot SLOT --timeout 3600
ads-agent bridge dialog-snapshot --slot SLOT --image-out dialog.png

shutdown refuses user-owned sessions, ownership mismatches, and sessions blocked by an existing modal dialog. It schedules ADS's native modified-file prompt without holding the client request open, then reports cancelled, awaiting-user-action, closing, or exited. It never calls close_workspace, discards changes automatically, or force-terminates a process.

Five public examples

List the supported examples and their prerequisites before running one:

ads-agent --pretty examples list

The initial catalog is intentionally small:

1. ADS installation discovery and explicit version selection;
2. a headless minimal-AC workspace, simulation, and dataset readback;
3. read-only live DE workspace context;
4. bounded DDS dataset readback into a new native DDS file;
5. a fixed read-only AEL workspace call demonstrating the hybrid boundary.

Every runner emits JSON, names its required state, and returns nonzero when its acceptance gate is not met. See the example guide for exact commands and stop rules.

Portable Docs Skill

setup installs the ads-kb-docs skill without replacing an existing skill. It can also be managed explicitly:

ads-agent skill status docs
ads-agent skill install docs
ads-agent skill uninstall docs

The fast index is immediately queryable. Full enrichment converts installed HTML into private per-version Markdown and updates the local SQLite index:

ads-agent docs ensure
ads-agent docs build --background
ads-agent docs status

Use --ads INSTANCE_ID on any docs command to bind the result to a non-default installation. No ADS version is hard-coded into the skill.

Current commands

ads-agent doctor [--ads-root PATH] [--search-root PATH] [--no-ping]
ads-agent instances scan [--ads-root PATH]
ads-agent instances list
ads-agent instances use INSTANCE_ID
ads-agent compatibility explain [--ads INSTANCE_ID]
ads-agent docs ensure [--ads INSTANCE_ID]
ads-agent docs build [--ads INSTANCE_ID] [--background]
ads-agent docs status [--ads INSTANCE_ID]
ads-agent docs query QUERY [--ads INSTANCE_ID]
ads-agent setup [--ads-root PATH] [--non-interactive] [--config-dir PATH]
ads-agent quickstart [--ads INSTANCE_ID] [--workspace PATH] [--config-dir PATH]
ads-agent launch --workspace PATH [--ads INSTANCE_ID] [--slot SLOT] [--display DISPLAY] [--reuse-existing]
ads-agent status [--slot SLOT]
ads-agent disconnect [--slot SLOT]
ads-agent shutdown [--slot SLOT]
ads-agent host-ui snapshot --slot SLOT [--window-id ID] [--image-out PATH]
ads-agent host-ui action --slot SLOT --window-id ID --fingerprint SHA256 (--click X Y|--close) ...
ads-agent examples list
ads-agent examples show NAME
ads-agent examples run NAME [--ads INSTANCE_ID] [--slot SLOT]
ads-agent skill status|install|uninstall docs
ads-agent addon status
ads-agent bridge sessions
ads-agent bridge runtime-snapshot --slot SLOT --profile de [--detail compact|full]
ads-agent bridge context-list --slot SLOT --profile de
ads-agent bridge context-get CONTEXT_OR_HANDLE --slot SLOT --profile de

Documentation queries stay on the local machine:

ads-agent docs query "keysight.ads.de workspace" --limit 5

The bridge listens only on localhost and uses a random token per session. Arbitrary embedded Python and dynamic AEL calls are disabled unless ADS is launched with ADS_AGENT_UNSAFE=1 and the client command also includes --unsafe.

On Windows, setup reads Keysight's per-version eeenv/HOME registry values to locate the real hpeesof/config directory. Use --config-dir (or ADS_AGENT_ADS_CONFIG_DIR) when maintaining separate ADS profiles.

On Linux, ADS Python may still require an available X display even though the quickstart opens no ADS window. Set DISPLAY to the intended isolated display before running it. setup edits only the current user's ADS add-on XML files, creates timestamped backups, and preserves unrelated add-ons.

Stable support is targeted at ADS 2025 and later. ADS 2024 Update 2 is a preview target; ADS 2023 Update 2 through ADS 2024 Update 1 are experimental. Runtime capability probes, rather than version numbers alone, decide which features are actually available.

The installed DE and DDS add-ons also expose Copy ADS Context in supported design, workspace-tree, and DDS menus. The copied handle is a bounded reference to the user's exact target or selection; it does not authorize an edit or simulation. See the context interaction contract for lifecycle, freshness, and DE/DDS boundaries.

For Agent preflight, runtime-snapshot returns one compact, revision-aware view of the selected slot + profile, plus dynamic capability states and bounded safe next actions. See the execution context contract.

Remove the integration

ads-agent addon uninstall

The installer preserves unrelated ADS add-ons and creates timestamped XML backups before changing an existing configuration.

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md and the evidence-backed v0.1 validation record. The ADS Session Manager introduced in 0.1.0a22 has a separate live validation record. The DE/DDS context interaction introduced in 0.1.0a24 has its own cross-platform live validation record. The pre-bridge Host UI lane has a separate cross-platform live validation record, including first-run product-selection gates on Linux and Windows.