revlo-cli 0.1.2

AI-powered design review for KiCad schematics

██████╗ ███████╗██╗   ██╗██╗      ██████╗ 
██╔══██╗██╔════╝██║   ██║██║     ██╔═══██╗
██████╔╝█████╗  ██║   ██║██║     ██║   ██║
██╔══██╗██╔══╝  ╚██╗ ██╔╝██║     ██║   ██║
██║  ██║███████╗ ╚████╔╝ ███████╗╚██████╔╝
╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝  ╚═══╝  ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ 

Review your hardware before it reviews your wallet.

AI-powered design review for KiCad schematics

What is Revlo?

Revlo is a command-line tool that catches electrical engineering mistakes in KiCad schematics before they become expensive PCB respins. Point it at a .kicad_sch file and get back actionable findings -- missing decoupling caps, wrong pull-up values, unterminated pins, power rail issues -- all verified against real datasheet specifications pulled automatically from the internet.

Features

• KiCad 7/8/9 Parser -- Extracts components, nets, connectivity, power symbols, and properties from .kicad_sch files
• Hierarchical Sub-sheet Support -- Recursively parses sub-sheets and resolves cross-sheet nets with instance-aware references
• Datasheet Intelligence -- Automatically fetches component datasheets, extracts specs with AI, and caches results locally
• Comprehensive EE Review -- Revlo reviews your design across decoupling, pull-ups, unused pins, reset circuits, clock/oscillator, signal integrity, power rails, grounding, ESD, and thermal concerns
• Confidence-Scored Findings -- Every finding includes a 0.0-1.0 confidence score so you can prioritize what matters
• Interactive TUI Browser -- Browse and filter findings in a full-screen terminal UI with severity highlighting
• Ask Mode -- Interactive chat with live access to your schematic via built-in tools
• Branded CLI Output -- Progress bars, colour-coded severity cards, and a summary line at a glance
• Review History -- Every review and conversation is saved automatically; re-open past reviews without re-running
• JSON & Markdown Export -- Pipe structured output into your CI/CD pipeline or generate human-readable reports

Quick Start

Install

pip install revlo-cli

Or with uv:

uv tool install revlo-cli

First Review

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
revlo review path/to/schematic.kicad_sch

That's it. Revlo parses the schematic, fetches datasheets, runs the AI review, and launches the interactive TUI.

Example Output

CLI Progress

██████╗ ███████╗██╗   ██╗██╗      ██████╗
██╔══██╗██╔════╝██║   ██║██║     ██╔═══██╗
██████╔╝█████╗  ██║   ██║██║     ██║   ██║
██╔══██╗██╔══╝  ╚██╗ ██╔╝██║     ██║   ██║
██║  ██║███████╗ ╚████╔╝ ███████╗╚██████╔╝
╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝  ╚═══╝  ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ v0.1
AI-powered design review for KiCad schematics

■ Parsing schematic...
■ Found 47 components, 38 nets
■ Fetching datasheets... ████████████████████⢕⢕⢕⢕⢕⢕⢕⢕⢕⢕ 12/18
  U1: STM32F103CBT6 (fetched)
  U2: AMS1117-3.3 (cached)
  U3: CH340G (manual PDF)
■ Datasheets: 2 cached, 1 manual, 9 fetched, 0 failed
■ Running review...
Found 3 errors, 5 warnings, 4 suggestions
■ Review saved to .revlo/reviews/2025-01-15T10-30-00.json
■ Launching review browser...

Example Findings

✗ ERROR U1: Missing decoupling capacitors on VDDA
  STM32F103CBT6 pin 13 (VDDA) requires a 1uF + 10nF decoupling capacitor
  pair per datasheet section 6.1.6, but no capacitors are connected to
  the VDDA net.
  Add a 1uF ceramic + 10nF ceramic capacitor between VDDA (pin 13)
  and GND, placed as close to the pin as possible.

▲ WARN  R3: I2C pull-up resistor value too high for 400kHz operation
  R3 (10kΩ) on the I2C_SCL net exceeds the recommended maximum of
  4.7kΩ for Fast-mode (400kHz) I2C. With a bus capacitance of ~50pF,
  the rise time will be approximately 500ns, violating the 300ns spec.
  Replace R3 with a 2.2kΩ or 4.7kΩ resistor to meet I2C Fast-mode
  rise time requirements.

◆ INFO  U1: Unused GPIO pins left floating
  U1 pins PA8, PA11, PA12 (GPIO) are unconnected and not configured
  as inputs with internal pull-ups in the schematic. Floating inputs
  increase power consumption and may cause spurious interrupts.
  Configure unused GPIOs as outputs driven low, or connect to GND/VCC
  via 10kΩ resistors. Alternatively, ensure firmware enables internal
  pull-ups on these pins.

Ask Mode

Press a in the TUI to enter Ask Mode -- an interactive chat with live access to your schematic. Ask complex EE questions and get answers grounded in your actual design.

Schematic Tools

Revlo can actively explore your design using 4 built-in tools:

Tool	What it does
lookup_component(ref)	Get full component details: pins, nets, properties, datasheet specs
trace_net(net_name)	See every component/pin connected to a net
find_unconnected_pins(ref?)	Find floating pins, optionally filtered by component
list_power_rails()	List all power nets with connection counts

Example

You: Is my reset circuit correct for U1?

Revlo: [looks up U1, traces the NRST net] The STM32F103 datasheet (p.47) requires a 100nF filter cap on NRST. Your circuit has C3 (100nF) to GND and R5 (10k) pull-up to VCC. RC time constant: 10k x 100nF = 1ms -- well above the 20us minimum.

Toggle extended thinking with t for deeper analysis on complex questions.

TUI Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Up/Down or j/k	Navigate findings
e	Filter: errors only
w	Filter: warnings only
s	Filter: suggestions only
f	Filter: show all
a	Enter Ask Mode
t	Toggle extended thinking (in Ask Mode)
m	Export markdown report
o	Open datasheet PDF
Esc	Exit Ask Mode
q	Quit

Review History

Revlo saves every review and Ask Mode conversation automatically.

# List past reviews for a schematic
revlo history board.kicad_sch

# Re-open last review in TUI (no re-run needed)
revlo open board.kicad_sch

# Load a specific past review
revlo history board.kicad_sch --load 2

How It Works

  .kicad_sch file
       │
       ▼
 ┌─────────────┐
 │   Parser    │  Extract components, nets, connectivity,
 │             │  hierarchical sub-sheets, power symbols
 └──────┬──────┘
        │
        ▼
 ┌─────────────┐
 │  Datasheet  │  Resolve MPN → fetch PDF → extract specs
 │  Pipeline   │  (normalize, cache, smart page selection)
 └──────┬──────┘
        │
        ▼
 ┌─────────────┐
 │  Chunker    │  Split into IC-context + power-rail chunks
 └──────┬──────┘
        │
        ▼
 ┌─────────────┐
 │  EE Review  │  AI reviews each chunk against
 │  Engine     │  domain-specific checklists + datasheet specs
 └──────┬──────┘
        │
        ▼
 ┌─────────────┐
 │  Output     │  TUI browser, CLI cards, JSON, Markdown
 └──────┬──────┘
        │
        ▼
 ┌─────────────┐
 │  Ask Mode   │  Interactive chat with schematic tools
 │  (optional) │  Extended thinking for deep EE analysis
 └─────────────┘

Datasheet Intelligence

Revlo automatically fetches and analyzes component datasheets to make reviews more accurate. It resolves datasheet PDFs in this order:

1. Schematic-embedded URL -- If your KiCad component has a Datasheet property, Revlo validates it with a HEAD request and downloads it directly.
2. Mouser API -- Searches by manufacturer part number using the Mouser Search API.
3. Farnell/Element14 API -- Falls back to the Farnell Product Search API.
4. Manual PDF -- If all automated sources fail, you can drop a PDF into the datasheets/ directory next to your schematic.

API Keys (Optional)

Mouser and Farnell lookups require free API keys. Without them, Revlo still works using schematic-embedded URLs and manual PDFs.

# Get a free key at https://www.mouser.com/api-hub/
export MOUSER_API_KEY="your-mouser-api-key"

# Get a free key at https://partner.element14.com/
export FARNELL_API_KEY="your-farnell-api-key"

You can also add these to a .env file in the project root -- Revlo loads it automatically via python-dotenv.

Manual PDF Fallback

If a datasheet can't be fetched (e.g. vendor blocks programmatic downloads), place the PDF in the datasheets/ directory next to your schematic. Revlo matches PDFs by manufacturer part number:

my-project/
  board.kicad_sch
  datasheets/
    MSPM0G3507SPTR.pdf      # matched by MPN substring
    www.ti.com/              # or in vendor subdirectory
      mspm0g3507.pdf

Caching

Downloaded datasheets and extracted specs are cached in datasheets/cache.json with a 90-day TTL. Delete the cache file to force re-fetching.

CLI Reference

# Full review with interactive TUI (default)
revlo review board.kicad_sch

# CLI output only (no TUI)
revlo review board.kicad_sch --no-tui

# JSON output to stdout
revlo review board.kicad_sch --json

# Save markdown report to file
revlo review board.kicad_sch --output report.md

# Skip datasheet enrichment (faster, less accurate)
revlo review board.kicad_sch --skip-datasheet

# Filter low-confidence findings
revlo review board.kicad_sch --min-confidence 0.7

# Use a larger model for deeper review
revlo review board.kicad_sch --model opus

# Verbose output (show debug info)
revlo review board.kicad_sch --verbose

# Re-open last review without re-running
revlo open board.kicad_sch

# List past reviews for a schematic
revlo history board.kicad_sch

# Load a specific past review in the TUI
revlo history board.kicad_sch --load 2

Development

Setup

cd backend && uv sync

Run Tests

cd backend && uv run pytest tests/ -v

Lint

cd backend && uv run ruff check revlo/

Verify Install

cd backend && uv run python -c "from revlo.parser import parse_schematic; print('OK')"

Built With

Built with Opus 4.6 during a Claude Code hackathon. Revlo is an early-stage project -- more features, deeper analysis, and broader KiCad support are on the way.

License

Apache 2.0 -- see LICENSE for details.