Brand new, or escaping another tool's learning curve? Everything here is a task, not a manual. And when you get stuck, your AI already knows Circuitcaster — just ask it.
Short, screen-by-screen walkthroughs on our learn site. Each one stands on its own — jump in wherever you are.
Spin up a fresh cloud project — from the Projects panel to a blank board in five taps.
Describe a part in plain English and let an AI build it — real dimensions, every pin labeled.
Describe a circuit and watch an AI build the whole board — parts, wiring, and all — live.
Export to KiCad, develop a real project from it, and route the copper into a manufacturable PCB.
The whole idea: you don't wrestle a UI. You describe what you want, drop parts, connect them, and export. That's it.
Go to app.circuitcaster.com — free, no signup, works in any browser (or grab the Android app). You land right on the board.
Pick a part from your library and place it on the board. No hunting through menus — parts are right there, and you can make your own in a minute (Step 3 below).
Paste your project link into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini and say what you're building. It places parts and wires them up alongside you, live. You steer, it does the tedious part.
We'll wire up the classic starter — a blinking LED. Every step works by hand or by asking your AI. (Prefer to watch? See the video tutorials up top.)
Open the app and start a fresh project. Give it a name like "LED Blinker." Your project is one slot — keep it on your device, or sync it to the cloud to back it up and share it.
Your library is your box of parts. Add the ones this board needs — a microcontroller (or 555 timer), an LED, and a resistor. Parts you add stick around for your next project too.
Add a 555 timer, an LED, and a 330Ω resistor to my library.Got a part nobody stocks? Open Component Mode, set the body size, and tap to drop the pins in order — Circuitcaster snaps them to a real grid. Name it, hit Save, and it's in your library forever. No datasheet-wrestling, no library "association" step.
Make a footprint for an SOT-23-3 transistor and your AI drafts it; you nudge and save.Place your parts on the board, then connect pin to pin. Tap one pin, tap the next — that's a wire. No fighting a crosshair. Circuitcaster keeps the electrical connections (the netlist) correct automatically as you go.
Wire the 555 as an astable blinker driving the LED through the resistor.Sync the project to the cloud, then grab the KiCad export — a real .kicad_pcb plus Gerbers, generated on our servers. Fab-ready. (Full walkthrough just below.)
Upload the Gerber zip to JLCPCB, PCBWay, or your fab of choice. A few dollars and a week later, your blinking LED shows up in the mail. You designed a real PCB.
Short answers to the things people actually ask.
Sync to the cloud, share the project link with Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini, and tell it what you want. It edits the same board live.
Tap a pin, then tap the pin you want to connect it to. That's the wire. Tap a wire to delete or reroute it.
Every project autosaves on your device. Sync to the cloud and it's on every device you own, backed up.
Share a cloud project's link. Two people, five people, or you + an AI edit the same board at once — live. One person → · A whole team →
Parts live in your library. Copy one into another project and it's an independent copy — change it freely.
Export KiCad + Gerbers from any cloud project (below), then upload the Gerber zip to your fab.
Open the same project link on both, then add a key so the second device can see your whole project list. Full steps →
Design on the phone, pick it up on the laptop — same board, same second.
In the app, use Copy collab URL on the device that already has your project, then open that link on the new one. That's it — the board is there and edits flow both ways within a couple of seconds. No sign-in needed for this part.
Step 1 shares one board. To get your whole project list on the new device, go to your API keys, create one, and name it after the device — "Laptop". Copy it while it's on screen: it's only shown once. Make a separate key per device, so losing one machine never means resetting the others.
On the new device open Projects → Cloud projects and paste the key into the box there, or tap 🤖 Share to AI and paste it when asked. Your projects appear straight away.
One board, one link. They never touch the rest of your account.
Every invite link carries a permission: view (watch only — good for a client or a tutor looking over your shoulder), export (view plus download KiCad/Gerbers), or edit (change the board with you). Pick the smallest one that does the job — you can always send a stronger link later.
Open the project and copy its share link. Send it however you like — text, email, chat. They don't need an account to open it. No sign-up wall between you and the help you asked for.
You'll both see the board update within a couple of seconds. Move a part on your screen, it moves on theirs. Nobody has to "send the latest version" — there's only one board.
Rotate the link and the old one stops working. It only ever reached that one board, so revoking it can't affect your other projects.
Give everyone their own link and their own job. Including the robots.
Don't pass one link around. Mint a separate one per person and per AI, named for them. You can see which link is being used, and drop a single one without disturbing anybody else.
A role is a name and a short brief — what this AI is responsible for, and what it must not touch. "power-rails: the buck converter and decoupling caps. Don't move the radars." Circuitcaster mints that AI's link and writes the prompt for you: paste it into Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and it arrives already knowing its job.
Everyone edits the same live board — two people, five people, or three people and two AIs. Each edit is merged in by the part it touches, so two members working on different corners don't overwrite each other.
Every AI writes a note describing what it changed, and those land in the live activity feed. You see the board change and the reason it changed.
This is the step people dread in other tools. Here it's a download.
The export runs on our servers, so the project needs to be a cloud project (a device-only one has to sync up first — or have your AI walk it over).
Download the export — you get a real .kicad_pcb and a full set of Gerbers in a zip. Nets stay intact (GND is one net, not eight fragments), footprints and pads carry over.
Want to tweak in KiCad? Open the .kicad_pcb directly and keep going. Or skip KiCad entirely — the Gerbers are already fab-ready.
Upload the Gerber zip to JLCPCB / PCBWay / your fab. Done.
You already know PCBs. Here's what changes — mostly, things stop being a fight.
| The task | In KiCad | In Circuitcaster |
|---|---|---|
| Drawing a wire | Wrestle the crosshair, hit the exact node, fight the tool | Tap pin, tap pin. Or ask your AI to wire it. |
| Libraries & footprints | Hunt libraries, associate footprints to symbols, manage paths | Parts live in your project. Make one in a minute; AI can draft it. |
| Getting started | Ten separate manuals; a week to a first board | Minutes. Open the app, drop parts, wire, export. |
| Getting unstuck | Search forums, watch a course, read the reference | Ask your AI. It knows the tool and edits your board. |
| On your phone | Desktop only | Browser or Android app — design at the bench. |
| Getting fab files | Plot Gerbers, set layers, zip it up | One export — KiCad file + Gerbers, ready to upload. |
Everything you export is a real KiCad project and standard Gerbers — so you're never locked in. Take it to KiCad any time.
Circuitcaster is built to be driven by an LLM — it ships an instruction manual your AI can read. Paste this to kick off:
No. Start with the LED blinker above, lean on your AI to explain each part, and grow from there. Circuitcaster keeps the wiring electrically correct so you can learn by doing.
Yes — 3 project slots free forever, every feature included. You only pay for more room (2 more slots for $5/mo). See pricing →
Absolutely. Everything is clickable by hand — place parts, tap pin-to-pin to wire, export. The AI is a shortcut, not a requirement.
Real, fab-ready PCBs. People build ESP32 boards, sensor nodes, audio gear, blinkers, breakouts — anything you'd design in KiCad, plus you can hand it to an AI.
Local projects live on your device. Cloud projects are backed up + shareable. Everything exports to KiCad + Gerbers + a JSON bundle any time — no lock-in.
Yes, and it's the point. Open the same project link on both and they stay in step within a couple of seconds — no saving, no emailing yourself a file. Steps here →
Usually not. To open one board somewhere else — another device, a friend, an AI — you just send that board's link. A key is only for showing your whole project list on a second device of your own. Think of the link as a key to one room, and the API key as a key to the building. When in doubt, send the link.
Yes — standard Gerber + drill files, the same JLCPCB / PCBWay / OSH Park accept. Zip and upload.