KiCad README

For specific documentation about building KiCad, policies and guidelines, and source code documentation see the Developer Documentation website.

You may also take a look into the Wiki, the contribution guide.

For general information about KiCad and information about contributing to the documentation and libraries, see our Website and our Forum.

Build state

KiCad uses a host of CI resources.

GitLab CI pipeline status can be viewed for Linux and Windows builds of the latest commits.

Additional status is available for builds:

AUTHORS.txt - The authors, contributors, document writers and translators list
CMakeLists.txt - Main CMAKE build tool script
copyright.h - A very short copy of the GNU General Public License to be included in new source files
CTestConfig.cmake - Support for CTest and CDash testing tools
Doxyfile - Doxygen config file for KiCad
INSTALL.txt - The release (binary) installation instructions
uncrustify.cfg - Uncrustify config file for uncrustify sources formatting tool
_clang-format - clang config file for clang-format sources formatting tool

3d-viewer - Sourcecode of the 3D viewer
bitmap2component - Sourcecode of the bitmap to PCB artwork converter
bitmaps_png - Menu and program icons
CMakeModules - Modules for the CMAKE build tool
common - Sourcecode of the common library
cvpcb - Sourcecode of the CvPCB tool
demos - Some demo examples
Documentation - Developer documentation (deprecated; moved to https://dev-docs.kicad.org)
eeschema - Sourcecode of the schematic editor
gerbview - Sourcecode of the gerber viewer
helpers - Helper tools and utilities for development
include - Interfaces to the common library
kicad - Sourcecode of the project manager
libs - Sourcecode of KiCad utilities (geometry and others)
pagelayout_editor - Sourcecode of the pagelayout editor
patches - Collection of patches for external dependencies
pcbnew - Sourcecode of the printed circuit board editor
plugins - Sourcecode for the 3D viewer plugins
qa - Unit testing framework for KiCad
resources - Packaging resources for various operating systems
scripting - SWIG Python scripting definitions and build scripts
scripts - Example scripts for distribution with KiCad
template - Project template
thirdparty - Sourcecode of external libraries used in KiCad but not written by the KiCad team
tools - Other miscellaneous helpers for testing
translation - Translation data files (managed through Weblate for most languages)
utils - Small utils for KiCad, e.g. IDF, STEP, and OGL tools and converters