revlo-cli 0.3.0

AI-powered design review for KiCad schematics

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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.

Revlo is currently an alpha-stage schematic review tool. The implemented runtime focuses on KiCad schematics, datasheet enrichment, terminal-first review workflows, and interactive Ask Mode.

Features

• KiCad 6/7/8/9 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
• Ground-Truth Connectivity via kicad-cli -- Uses KiCad's exported netlist when available, with automatic fallback to parser-derived connectivity
• 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
• Deterministic Rule Engine -- Built-in checks for power connectivity, decoupling, I2C pull-ups, library hygiene, and BOM coverage run without LLM calls
• Custom Rule Packs -- Project-local JSON rule packs execute alongside built-in checks with additive or override modes
• Review Profiles -- Built-in profiles (generic, MCU board, sensor node, power supply) tune prompts and severity weighting
• Baseline & Waiver Tracking -- Save baselines, classify findings as new/existing/waived/resolved across reviews
• Schematic Diff Review -- Compare two schematic revisions and tag change-driven findings
• CI Integration -- Non-interactive check command with severity/category thresholds and versioned JSON policy output
• Sign-Off Reports -- Export stakeholder-ready packets that separate unresolved issues from accepted risk
• Investigation Mode -- Focus Ask Mode on a specific finding with expanded tools: decoupling, power tree, reset chain, boot straps, interface bundles, and constraint analysis
• 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 OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-proj-..."
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.

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• An OPENAI_API_KEY (default provider) or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for review and datasheet extraction
• KiCad schematic in modern .kicad_sch format

Optional:

• kicad-cli installed for more accurate net connectivity
• MOUSER_API_KEY and FARNELL_API_KEY for broader automatic datasheet lookup

Configuration

Revlo reads configuration from a revlo.toml file in the project directory (or any parent). The file is optional -- all settings have sensible defaults.

[llm]
provider = "openai"           # "openai" (default) or "anthropic"
review_model = "gpt-5.4"      # Override the review model
extraction_model = "gpt-5.3"  # Override the datasheet extraction model
ask_model = "gpt-5.4"         # Override the Ask Mode model
datasheet_concurrency = 4     # Max concurrent datasheet fetches

[review]
profile = "generic"           # "generic", "mcu-board", "sensor-node", "power-supply"

You can also set the provider via environment variable:

export REVLO_LLM_PROVIDER="anthropic"   # Switch to Anthropic
export REVLO_REVIEW_MODEL="claude-opus-4-6"  # Override model

Example Output

CLI Progress

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╚═╝  ╚═╝╚══════╝  ╚═══╝  ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ 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/board-review-20250115T103000.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
 └─────────────┘

Current Scope

Revlo's implemented review path is schematic-first:

• Fully implemented: schematic parsing, datasheet enrichment, AI review, TUI browsing, Ask Mode, review history
• Not yet implemented as a live runtime path: PCB layout review from .kicad_pcb, BOM lifecycle analysis, web upload flow

The review engine currently uses a direct Claude API workflow over structured schematic chunks rather than a live multi-agent orchestration layer.

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 faster model instead of the default Opus review
revlo review board.kicad_sch --model sonnet

# 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

# Export sign-off report for stakeholders
revlo review board.kicad_sch --signoff signoff-packet.md

# Use a review profile tuned for MCU boards
revlo review board.kicad_sch --profile mcu-board

# Compare against a previous revision (diff review)
revlo review board.kicad_sch --compare-to board-v1.kicad_sch

# Provide a BOM for sourcing checks
revlo review board.kicad_sch --bom board-bom.csv

# Non-interactive CI check with severity threshold
revlo check board.kicad_sch --fail-on error --policy-json > results.json

CI Integration

Use revlo check with --policy-json to emit a versioned JSON schema (v1) that downstream tooling can parse reliably. The exit code reflects the --fail-on policy:

# Fail CI on errors, write versioned JSON to results.json
revlo check board.kicad_sch --policy-json --fail-on error --output results.json

# Or pipe to stdout -- exit code 2 means policy violation
revlo check board.kicad_sch --policy-json --fail-on error > results.json
echo "Exit code: $?"

The JSON output includes schema_version, finding IDs (stable SHA-256 fingerprints), severity, category, confidence, source type, baseline classification, evidence, and review metadata.

Custom Rule Packs

Create a revlo-rules.json file next to your schematic to add project-specific checks:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "name": "my-project-rules",
  "additive": true,
  "rules": [
    {
      "id": "no-0201-passives",
      "title": "0201 passives not allowed",
      "severity": "warning",
      "category": "library_hygiene",
      "remediation": "Use 0402 or larger package sizes for manufacturability.",
      "conditions": [
        {"field": "value_contains", "operator": "contains", "value": "0201"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Set "additive": false to replace built-in rules entirely with your custom pack.

Development

Setup

cd backend && uv sync

Run Tests

cd backend && uv run pytest tests/ -v

Note: if the full suite fails, check for missing test fixtures first. The CLI/TUI tests depend on local schematic fixtures in backend/tests/fixtures/.

Lint

cd backend && uv run ruff check revlo/

Verify Install

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

License

Apache 2.0 -- see LICENSE for details.