agentic-ic 1.0.0

AgentIC — One-Stop Open-Source VLSI EDA Tool Installer & AI-Driven Chip Design Pipeline

AgentIC: Autonomous AI Chip Design CLI

👉 View the detailed RTL-to-GDSII Pipeline Architecture Flow Diagram

AgentIC is a CLI-first AI hardware design system that turns a natural-language chip request into RTL, verification artifacts, timing constraints, and, when Docker/OpenLane plus an open PDK are installed, a hardening run that can produce GDSII.

The package is optimized for designing digital RTL blocks, peripherals, accelerators, small SoCs, and conducting open-PDK experiments. It accelerates the hardware development lifecycle by automating autonomous iteration, fail-closed gates, and correction loops that follow industry-standard VLSI flows. This includes spec generation, RTL creation, lint/syntax checking, testbench generation, simulation, formal verification, coverage/regression, SDC, synthesis, DFT/power/STA, floorplanning, hardening, DRC/LVS, post-layout checks, and signoff reporting.

Overview

AgentIC serves as an autonomous open-source VLSI CLI, enabling rapid RTL-to-GDSII hardening for supported designs and installed open PDKs. By integrating the OSS CAD Suite, Docker/OpenLane, and standard PDK setups, it streamlines the complex process of producing GDSII files for open PDK targets.

Designed as an advanced engineering assistant, AgentIC significantly reduces the manual overhead of the chip design process. While it automates the standard digital flow, complex analog/mixed-signal designs, full custom layouts, advanced memories, proprietary node optimizations, and final foundry-specific signoff are seamlessly handed off for professional engineering review and integration with foundry-qualified collateral.

CLI Correction Loops

The CLI includes bounded correction and recovery loops for:

• RTL syntax/lint failures via ReAct-style tool use and IncrementalFixEngine
• Testbench compile, port mismatch, timing race, and simulation failures
• Coverage closure with configurable threshold and fallback policy
• Synthesis recovery and strategy pivoting
• Timing recovery through clock relaxation, area expansion, and RTL rerouting
• OpenLane hardening recovery for timing, congestion, placement/routing, DRC, LVS, antenna, and physical violations
• Fail-closed retry budgets so the pipeline stops instead of looping forever

Use agentic doctor before serious builds. It prints the installed tool status and the active self-healing recovery categories.

CLI Toolchain Policy

The CLI can run RTL generation, syntax/lint checks, simulation, and many verification steps with the native Python and OSS CAD Suite environment. RTL-to-GDSII hardening uses Docker/OpenLane by default in both the CLI and the web app.

If you intentionally want to try a native OpenLane/OpenROAD hardening backend instead of Docker, set:

export AGENTIC_OPENLANE_BACKEND=native

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Installation

1. Install the package

pip install agentic-ic

2. Check your environment

agentic doctor

This checks that Python dependencies, OSS CAD Suite tools, Docker/OpenLane hardening support, PDK paths, and recovery-loop categories are available. See the output for any missing dependencies.

3. One-command CLI setup

Install the default CLI stack:

agentic install

By default this installs/checks the full open AgentIC stack:

• OSS CAD Suite for RTL, simulation, synthesis, formal, and coverage
• Magic, Netgen, and OpenSTA for independent physical/timing checks
• Docker/OpenLane and ORFS images for RTL-to-GDSII hardening
• Open experimental helpers for the extended research flow: ngspice, KLayout, GTKWave, Xschem, cocotb helpers, and the Fault Docker image for experimental scan/ATPG
• Volare plus requested open PDKs
• A commercial/foundry tool registration template at ~/.agentic/commercial-tools.env

Setup places stable tool links under ~/.agentic/tools/bin and exports absolute MAGIC_BIN, NETGEN_BIN, OPENSTA_BIN, and NGSPICE_BIN values so AgentIC's runtime resolves the same tools that setup installed.

Commercial/foundry PDKs and tools such as Calibre, Pegasus, IC Validator, PrimeTime/Tempus, Innovus/Fusion Compiler, Tessent/Modus/TetraMAX, and MBIST compilers cannot be auto-installed by AgentIC. Install them through your licensed vendor flow, then source the generated registration template and run agentic doctor.

Install each layer separately:

# RTL/sim/synth tools: yosys, verilator, iverilog, sby, etc.
agentic install-oss

# Direct physical signoff tools: newer Magic, Netgen, OpenSTA
agentic install-signoff-tools

# Open experimental helpers: ngspice, KLayout, GTKWave, Xschem, Fault Docker
agentic install-experimental-tools

# OpenLane hardening backend used for RTL-to-GDSII
agentic install-openlane

# ORFS backend used for research-node/non-OpenLane flows
agentic install-orfs

# PDKs
agentic install-pdk sky130
agentic install-pdk gf180mcu

Install all recommended auto-install PDKs in one command:

agentic setup-cli --pdks all-open-auto

4. Install a PDK

AgentIC requires an open-source PDK (Process Design Kit) to build chips.

# See all available PDKs
agentic install-pdk list

# Install SkyWater 130nm (recommended for beginners)
agentic install-pdk sky130

# Install GlobalFoundries 180nm
agentic install-pdk gf180mcu

Recommended auto-install PDKs: sky130, gf180mcu

Research/manual entries shown by agentic install-pdk list: asap7, nangate45, freepdk45, osu018, osu035, openfasoc130, skywater-raw, plus proprietary placeholders such as tsmc28, samsung14, intel22, and gf22. These are listed so users can register or experiment with them, but they are not guaranteed one-command complete hardening targets.

Use this to choose:

agentic install-pdk list

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PDK Comparison Guide

PDK	Node	Voltage	Typical Clock	AgentIC Tier	Use Case
sky130	130nm	1.8V	design-dependent	Recommended auto-install	Best open digital RTL-to-GDS target for beginners and shuttle-style experiments
gf180mcu	180nm	1.8V/3.3V/5V families	design-dependent	Recommended auto-install	Robust open digital RTL-to-GDS target for MCU, industrial, and high-voltage experiments
asap7	7nm predictive	0.7V	research-only	Research/manual	Predictive academic studies, not a foundry-fabrication target
nangate45	45nm	1.1V	research-only	Research/manual	Academic synthesis and PnR experiments
freepdk45	45nm	1.1V	research-only	Manual	Educational flow collateral, requires manual setup
osu018	180nm	1.8V	educational	Educational/manual	Standard-cell learning, not verified one-command OpenLane signoff
osu035	350nm	3.3V	educational	Educational/manual	Standard-cell learning, not verified one-command OpenLane signoff

What Each PDK Supports

PDK	One-command Install	OpenLane RTL-to-GDS	DRC/LVS Collateral	Fabrication Claim
sky130	Yes, via volare	Supported target	Available through open PDK/OpenLane	Possible only after clean project-specific signoff
gf180mcu	Yes, via volare	Supported target	Available through open PDK/OpenLane	Possible only after clean project-specific signoff
asap7	No, force/manual only	Experimental	Limited/research	No foundry fabrication claim
nangate45	No, force/manual only	Experimental	Limited/research	No foundry fabrication claim
freepdk45	Manual	Experimental	Limited/research	No foundry fabrication claim
osu018	Manual	Not verified	Limited/educational	No foundry fabrication claim
osu035	Manual	Not verified	Limited/educational	No foundry fabrication claim
osu035	✅	❌	⚠️ Limited	❌ No

Which PDK Should You Choose?

For beginners: Use sky130 - everything works, lots of examples, real chip fabrication possible.

For research/learning 7nm: Use asap7 only as an experimental/manual target; it is predictive and not a guaranteed one-command AgentIC hardening flow.

For automotive/industrial: Use gf180mcu - higher voltage, automotive grade.

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PDK Installation Guide

Sky130 (Recommended - Auto Install)

# One-command installation
agentic install-pdk sky130

# Or use volare (recommended for full control)
volare enable --pdk sky130
volare add --pdk sky130 --tag 2024.12.2_01.51

What gets installed:

~/.ciel/
└── sky130A/                    # Main PDK directory
    ├── libs.ref/                # Cell libraries
    │   ├── sky130_fd_sc_hd/     # High-density standard cells
    │   │   ├── verilog/         # Verilog models (for Yosys)
    │   │   ├── lib/            # Liberty timing files
    │   │   └── gds/            # GDS layouts
    │   └── sky130_sram/         # SRAM memories
    └── libs.tech/               # Tool-specific files
        ├── magic/              # Magic DRC tech files
        ├── netgen/             # Netgen LVS setup
        └── klayout/            # KLayout DRC/LVS rules

GF180MCU (Auto Install)

# One-command installation
agentic install-pdk gf180mcu

# Or use volare
volare enable --pdk gf180mcu
volare add --pdk gf180mcu --tag 2024.06.2_01.00

What gets installed:

~/.ciel/
└── gf180mcuC/                  # 5-metal stack variant
    ├── libs.ref/
    │   ├── gf180mcu_fd_sc_mcu7t5v0/  # 7-track standard cells
    │   └── gf180mcu_fd_io/    # I/O cells
    └── libs.tech/
        ├── magic/
        ├── netgen/
        └── klayout/

ASAP7 (Manual Installation Required)

ASAP7 is a predictive 7nm PDK - it cannot be fabricated but works with open-source tools.

# 1. Clone OpenROAD-flow-scripts (has ASAP7 support)
git clone https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD-flow-scripts.git
cd OpenROAD-flow-scripts

# 2. Download ASAP7 PDK files
make setup-asap7

# 3. Set environment
export PDK_ROOT=$(pwd)/pdks

Expected structure:

pdks/
└── asap7/
    ├── asap7sc7p5t/            # Standard cells
    │   ├── lib/                # Liberty files
    │   ├── lef/                # LEF for place&route
    │   └── verilog/            # Verilog for Yosys
    └── asap7/                  # OpenROAD platform

Nangate45/FreePDK45 (Manual Installation)

# 1. Clone OpenROAD-flow-scripts
git clone https://github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenROAD-flow-scripts.git
cd OpenROAD-flow-scripts

# 2. Download PDK files
make setup-freepdk45   # or make setup-nangate45

# 3. Set environment
export PDK_ROOT=$(pwd)/pdks

OSU018/OSU035 (Manual Installation)

Oklahoma State University educational PDKs:

# 1. Get files from OSU website or GitHub
# Visit: https://github.com/osu-icssr?tab=repositories&q=pdk

# 2. Create directory structure
mkdir -p $PDK_ROOT/osu018
# Copy PDK files here

mkdir -p $PDK_ROOT/osu035
# Copy PDK files here

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Where to Place PDK Files (Simple Explanation)

The Short Answer

PDK_ROOT/           ← Set this in your environment
└── {pdk_name}/    ← e.g., sky130A, gf180mcuC, asap7
    ├── libs.ref/  ← Cell libraries (standard cells, SRAM)
    └── libs.tech/ ← Tool files (DRC, LVS, timing)

What Each Folder Contains (Simple Terms)

libs.ref/           "Reference Libraries" - What cells exist
├── {std_cell_lib}/   Your standard cell library
│   ├── verilog/      Cell behavior in Verilog (for synthesis)
│   ├── lib/          Cell timing in Liberty format (for timing analysis)
│   └── gds/          Cell layouts in GDS format (for final chip)
└── {sram_lib}/       Memory blocks (optional)

libs.tech/          "Technology files" - How tools work with the PDK
├── magic/            Files for Magic DRC tool
├── netgen/           Files for Netgen LVS tool
└── klayout/          Files for KLayout DRC/LVS tool

Example: Sky130 Structure

~/.ciel/                    ← PDK_ROOT
└── sky130A/                ← PDK variant
    ├── libs.ref/
    │   ├── sky130_fd_sc_hd/     ← Standard cells (HD = High Density)
    │   │   ├── verilog/
    │   │   │   └── sky130_fd_sc_hd.v
    │   │   ├── lib/
    │   │   │   └── sky130_tt.lib
    │   │   └── gds/
    │   │       └── sky130_fd_sc_hd.gds
    │   └── sky130_sram/         ← Memories
    └── libs.tech/
        ├── magic/
        │   └── sky130A.tech     ← Magic DRC rules
        ├── netgen/
        │   └── sky130_setup.tcl ← Netgen LVS rules
        └── klayout/
            └── sky130.lydrc    ← KLayout DRC rules

Common Mistakes

❌ Wrong: Putting files in random locations

~/downloads/asap7/...      ← Tools won't find this
~/my_pdk_files/...         ← Tools won't find this

✅ Correct: Set PDK_ROOT and put files there

export PDK_ROOT=~/.ciel    ← Define this
~/.ciel/sky130A/...        ← Tools will find files here
~/.ciel/asap7/...          ← Tools will find files here

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Verifying PDK Installation

# Check what PDKs are installed
ls -la $PDK_ROOT/

# Verify sky130 installation
ls $PDK_ROOT/sky130A/libs.tech/

# Check for required files
find $PDK_ROOT/sky130A -name "*.v" -o -name "*.lib" -o -name "*.tech" | head -20

# Test with AgentIC
agentic doctor

After installation, add to your shell profile:

export PDK_ROOT=~/.ciel   # or wherever you installed the PDK

5. Setup AgentIC (First Run)

On first run, AgentIC will automatically guide you through setup. Or run it manually:

agentic login

The interactive setup wizard will ask for:

• LLM API Key — Your OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, or any OpenAI-compatible API key
• Custom Base URL — Optional, for self-hosted models (LM Studio, vLLM, Ollama, etc.)
• AgentIC License Key — Optional, for production features
• Supabase URL — Optional, for cloud features

Any OpenAI-compatible provider works:

Provider	Base URL	Example Model
OpenAI	(default)	infinity
Anthropic	(none needed)	claude-3-5-sonnet
Groq	api.groq.com/openai/v1	llama-3.3-70b
Ollama	localhost:11434	qwen2.5-coder:7b
LM Studio	localhost:1234	any local model
vLLM / Zai	your-endpoint.com/v1	meta-llama-3.1-70b

6. Build your first chip

agentic build \
  --name fast_multiplier \
  --desc "A high-speed 16-bit pipelined hardware multiplier with active-low synchronous reset." \
  --pdk sky130

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Quick Command Reference

Command	Description
agentic doctor	Check environment and toolchain
agentic install	Install the complete open AgentIC stack in one command
agentic setup-cli	Install OSS CAD Suite, physical signoff tools, Docker/OpenLane and ORFS images, volare, PDKs, and shell exports
agentic install-oss	Install only OSS CAD Suite for RTL/sim/synth tools
agentic install-signoff-tools	Install Magic 8.3.411+, Netgen, and OpenSTA for direct drc/lvs/sta checks
agentic install-experimental-tools	Install open research helpers for experimental DFT/ATPG, GLS, SPICE, waveform, and layout inspection
agentic install-openlane	Pull the Docker/OpenLane hardening image
agentic install-orfs	Pull the ORFS image and clone OpenROAD-flow-scripts
agentic install-pdk <name>	Install a PDK (sky130, gf180mcu, etc.)
agentic install-pdk list	Show all available PDKs
agentic login	Interactive setup wizard (first run)
agentic configure	Reconfigure LLM API keys
agentic build --name X --desc "..."	Build a chip from natural language
agentic synth --rtl <path> --top <name>	Run Yosys synthesis
agentic sta --netlist <path> --sdc <path> --lib <path>	Run OpenSTA timing analysis
agentic power --netlist <path>	Run power analysis
agentic dft --rtl <path> --top <name>	Run DFT scan insertion
agentic drc --gds <path> --tech <path>	Run Magic DRC
agentic lvs --sch <path> --gds <path> --setup <path>	Run Netgen LVS
agentic report --design <name>	Generate QOR report
agentic harden --name <name>	Run OpenLane hardening
agentic simulate --name <name>	Run simulation with auto-fix

Important: All file paths must be exact paths (e.g., designs/my_design/src/my_design.v). Relative paths like tiny_alu.v are not auto-resolved.

For complete CLI documentation with all options, see: docs/CLI_COMMANDS.md

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LLM Caching & Rate Limiting

AgentIC includes intelligent caching to reduce API costs and handle rate limits gracefully.

How It Works

1. Response Caching: Identical prompts are cached for 24 hours (configurable)
2. Rate Limit Recovery: On 429 errors, waits 30s then tries cache
3. Provider Fallback: Automatically retries with different providers
4. Token Budgeting: Smart context truncation based on model limits

Cache Commands

# View cache statistics and hit rate
agentic cache stats

# Clear all cached responses
agentic cache clear

# Clear expired entries only
agentic cache prune

What Gets Cached

• RTL generation prompts and outputs
• Testbench generation prompts
• Verification result analysis
• SVA assertion generation

Cache Location

~/.agentic_cache/
├── response_cache.db    # LLM response cache (SQLite)
└── usage.db             # API usage tracking

Rate Limit Behavior

When rate limited by an LLM provider:

1. First 30s: Wait with exponential backoff
2. After 30s: Check cache for identical prompt
3. After 60s: Try fallback provider
4. After 120s: Fail gracefully with error

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Checkpoint Management

AgentIC automatically saves checkpoints at key build milestones, enabling recovery from failures.

When Checkpoints Are Saved

• After RTL generation (RTL_GEN)
• After verification (VERIFICATION)
• After synthesis (SYNTHESIS)
• After floorplanning (FLOORPLAN)
• After hardening (HARDENING)
• After signoff (SIGNOFF)
• On failure

Checkpoint Commands

# List checkpoints for a design
agentic checkpoint --design my_design list

# Show details of latest checkpoint
agentic checkpoint --design my_design list --latest

# Restore from checkpoint (view only - full restore requires orchestrator API)
agentic checkpoint --design my_design restore

# Clear all checkpoints
agentic checkpoint --design my_design clear

Checkpoint Contents

Each checkpoint saves:

• Current build state and step count
• RTL code and testbench
• Architecture specification
• Coverage metrics
• Convergence history
• Error history

Checkpoint Location

checkpoints/
└── {design_name}/
    ├── latest.json              # Most recent checkpoint
    ├── checkpoint_20240115_120000.json
    ├── checkpoint_20240115_121500.json
    └── metadata_index.json      # Checkpoint history

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API Usage Tracking

Track your API costs and optimize usage with detailed analytics.

Usage Commands

# Summary view (default)
agentic usage

# Detailed daily breakdown
agentic usage --format detailed --days 7

# Compare providers
agentic usage --format provider

# Filter by build
agentic usage --build my_design --days 30

What Gets Tracked

• Per-call: Provider, model, tokens, duration, success/failure
• Per-build: Total calls, cache hits, cost estimate
• Per-stage: RTL_GEN, VERIFICATION, SYNTHESIS, etc.

Cost Estimation

Provider	Model	Cost/1K Tokens
OpenAI	infinity	$0.005
OpenAI	infinity-mini	$0.00015
Anthropic	claude-3-5-sonnet	$0.003
Groq	llama-3.3-70b	$0.00059

Reducing API Costs

1. Use cache: Identical prompts are free after first call
2. Use smaller models: infinity-mini is 30x cheaper than infinity
3. Use Groq: Free tier available, fast inference
4. Batch builds: Cache hits increase with repeated similar designs

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Token Budget Management

AgentIC uses intelligent token budgeting to maximize context efficiency.

How It Works

• Provider-aware: Respects context limits (GPT-4o: 128K, Claude: 200K, Groq: 32K)
• Priority-based: Error messages > Spec > RTL > History
• Smart truncation: Preserves module structure when truncating

Default Allocation

Content Type	Budget
Error messages	25%
RTL code	35%
Architecture spec	20%
History	10%
Other	10%

Error-Focused Mode

When fixing errors, allocation shifts:

• Error messages: 45%
• RTL code: 30%
• Spec: 10%

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Build Command Options

Core options

--name TEXT           Design name (required)
--desc TEXT           Natural language description (required)
--pdk TEXT            Target PDK (auto-detected if omitted)
--pdk-path TEXT       Path to a custom PDK directory
--skip-openlane       Stop after simulation (no GDSII hardening)
--skip-spice          Skip post-layout ngspice extraction/simulation

Verification options

--skip-coverage       Skip coverage analysis
--min-coverage FLOAT  Minimum line coverage % (default: 80.0)
--full-signoff        Run full industry signoff (formal + coverage + DRC/LVS)

Control flow options

--max-retries N       Max auto-fix retries (default: 5)
--recovery-attempts N Max hardening recovery attempts (default: 5)
--max-pivots N        Max strategy pivots before fail-closed stop
--strict-gates/--no-strict-gates  Enable/disable fail-closed gating
--dry-run             Validate spec without running build
--json                Output machine-readable JSON

Thinking display

--show-thinking       Print LLM reasoning for each step
--thinking-level       minimal (default) | normal | verbose

Testbench options

--tb-gate-mode        strict (default) | relaxed
--tb-max-retries N    Max TB recovery attempts (default: 3)
--tb-fallback-template  uvm_lite (default) | classic

Coverage options

--coverage-backend    auto (default) | verilator | iverilog
--coverage-fallback-policy  fallback_oss (default) | fail_closed | skip
--coverage-profile     balanced (default) | aggressive | relaxed

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System Requirements

Required

• Python 3.10+ — your own virtual environment (see below)
• OSS CAD Suite — verilator, iverilog, vvp, yosys, sby
  • Download: https://github.com/YosysHQ/oss-cad-suite-build/releases
  • Set: export OSS_CAD_SUITE_HOME=/path/to/oss-cad-suite
• Native OpenLane/OpenROAD - optional backend when AGENTIC_OPENLANE_BACKEND=native
• Open PDK - set PDK_ROOT or run agentic install-pdk <name>
• Docker - required for default OpenLane RTL-to-GDSII hardening in CLI and web builds
• LLM API key — OpenAI, Anthropic, Groq, or any OpenAI-compatible provider

Optional

• Volare — For automated PDK installation via volare
  • Install: pip install volare

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Python Environment Setup

Do NOT use OSS CAD Suite's bundled Python

OSS CAD Suite ships with its own Python interpreter (oss-cad-suite/py3bin/python3). This is not the Python you should use to run AgentIC.

OSS CAD Suite's Python is compiled alongside the EDA binaries for internal tool compatibility. It likely lacks AgentIC's dependencies (crewai, litellm, typer, rich, etc.).

The correct setup: your own virtual environment

Create a separate Python virtual environment for AgentIC. AgentIC calls EDA tools as subprocesses — it does not need to run inside the OSS CAD Suite Python.

# 1. Create your own virtual environment
python3 -m venv ~/agentic-env
source ~/agentic-env/bin/activate

# 2. Install AgentIC (this installs all Python dependencies)
pip install agentic-ic

# 3. Point to OSS CAD Suite (where the EDA binaries live)
export OSS_CAD_SUITE_HOME=/path/to/oss-cad-suite

# 4. Set PDK location
export PDK_ROOT=~/.ciel

# 5. Run AgentIC
agentic build --name counter --desc "8-bit counter"

Why this works

AgentIC does not import or run inside OSS CAD Suite's Python. It simply:

1. Finds EDA tool binaries via OSS_CAD_SUITE_HOME or PATH
2. Calls them as independent subprocesses (subprocess.run(['yosys', ...]))
3. Reads back the output

Your own virtual environment only needs the AgentIC pip package. The EDA tools (yosys, verilator, iverilog, sby, magic, netgen, etc.) are standalone binaries found by the OSS_CAD_SUITE_HOME environment variable.

Environment variable reference

Add these to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

# Python virtual environment (your own)
source ~/agentic-env/bin/activate

# OSS CAD Suite location
export OSS_CAD_SUITE_HOME=/path/to/oss-cad-suite

# PDK installation root
export PDK_ROOT=~/.ciel

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Notes

• If you only want RTL generation and verification, use --skip-openlane.
• OpenLane is pulled through Docker on demand — no separate manual install needed.
• Build outputs are written to $OPENLANE_ROOT/designs/ (or agentic-workspace/ by default).
• After first login, subsequent commands run silently without re-verification.
• License works offline for up to 24 hours (then needs re-verification).

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License

COPYRIGHT © 2026. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

AgentIC is proprietary software. Purchase a license at buildstack.live.

Unauthorized copying, reproduction, reverse-engineering, or distribution of this software is strictly prohibited.

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AgentIC — From Thought to Silicon.