MCP server for AI agents

ics mcp (the mcp command of the ics command line tool) exposes IC Studio to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol (stdio). An agent can create and open projects, read netlists, simulate, edit layouts, generate and route layout from a schematic, and run DRC, extraction and LVS.

Setup

The release installer registers the server with Claude Code when claude is on the PATH. In the app, File > Settings… > AI agents (MCP) has Add to Claude Code, which does the same, and Copy MCP config, which copies the JSON below for other clients.

To register it by hand:

claude mcp add --scope user ic-studio -- /path/to/ics mcp

For other MCP clients, add a stdio server whose command is the ics binary with the argument mcp:

{ "mcpServers": { "ic-studio": { "command": "/path/to/ics", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

From source, build it with cargo build --release -p ics-cli and use target/release/ics.

Then ask, for example: “create a demo project in ./demo and run LVS on cmos_inverter”.

Agent skill

The tools tell an agent what it can do; the ic-studio skill in skills/ic-studio tells it how to design with them: the schematic → simulation → layout → DRC → LVS → post-layout flow, units, how to read LVS / DRC results, the schematic.json format and the ics CLI as a fallback. Install it with:

npx skills add geniuskey/ic-studio

or copy skills/ic-studio into ~/.claude/skills/.

Conventions

Coordinates are in µm, y pointing up, snapped to the technology grid.
A cell argument is a cell name or lib/cell. Layout edit tools create the cell (in library work) and its layout view if they do not exist.
Edits stay in memory until save_project.

Tools

The server has 34 tools:

Tool	Purpose
`open_project`, `new_project`, `save_project`, `project_info`	Project management; `project_info` lists the technology layers, vias and all cells
`get_netlist`	SPICE deck of a cell
`write_schematic`	Create or replace a cell’s schematic from a SPICE netlist; its analysis lines set the simulation setup
`set_simulation`	Change a cell’s analyses, backend, temperature, extra lines, parasitics or corner
`simulate`	Run the cell’s saved analyses (optional `backend`, `parasitics`); returns a compact summary
`run_spice`	Simulate a raw SPICE deck
`layout_summary`	Bounding box, shapes per layer, labels and instances
`add_rect`, `add_path`, `add_label`	Draw shapes; a label on a routing layer names the net under it
`place_instance`, `place_pcell`	Place a cell or a PCell (`nmos`, `pmos` with an optional PDK `device`, `poly_res`, `mom_cap`)
`delete_items`	Delete shapes / instances by id
`generate_layout`	Schematic-driven placement with matching (no wiring)
`flylines`	List unrouted connections
`route`	Route the flylines on the metal layers
`run_drc`	DRC with the technology deck
`fix_drc`	Apply verified quick fixes to the cell’s top-level geometry until nothing more can be fixed
`compact`	Slide top-level items toward each direction until the rules stop them; constraints hold
`optimize`	Size device parameters to meet specs (optionally after layout); `apply` writes the best values
`place_like`	Layout by example: place a cell like a finished cell with the same circuit topology, optionally route
`diff_layout`	XOR a cell’s layout per layer against a git revision (default `HEAD`) or the saved files
`extract`	Extracted nets and devices, plus SPICE
`run_lvs`	Compare layout and schematic
`run_signoff`	Run an external KLayout / Calibre / netgen runset of the technology
`post_layout_parasitics`	Extracted parasitics and the largest net and coupling capacitances
`emir`	IR drop and electromigration of a net: worst drop and where, loads, highest current densities, EM violations
`load_pdk`	Replace the technology with a PDK file
`export_gds`, `import_gds`	GDSII / OASIS export and import (import skips layers the technology lacks); both apply the technology’s stream layer map
`run_skill`	Run Cadence SKILL code (`code`) or a `.il` file (`file`); returns `output`, `value` and the `modified` cells
`gui_status`	Whether a desktop app is connected, and its project

run_skill

run_skill takes either code (SKILL source) or file (a .il path, also the base of relative load() paths) and returns the following. The optional cell names the cell that geGetEditCellView() returns.

{ "output": "what the script printed", "value": "value of the last form", "modified": ["work/pads"] }

On a SKILL error the tool fails with SKILL error: <file or line>: <message>, followed by the cells already modified (their edits are kept) and the output printed so far. In live mode the app records undo history for every changed layout and opens the first one when no cell is open.

Live mode

While the desktop app is running, the MCP server (ics mcp) forwards every tool call to it, and the agent works on the project open in the window:

edits appear immediately and layout edits can be undone with Ctrl+Z,
the window opens the affected cell in the matching workspace; simulate shows the waveforms, and DRC / extraction / LVS results appear in the layout panels with markers,
the status bar shows MCP live, and each call is logged in the console as MCP · <tool> <cell> -> <summary>.

The app listens on 127.0.0.1 with a per-session token and writes the discovery file live.json to %LOCALAPPDATA%\ic-studio (Windows) or $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/ic-studio, falling back to ~/.local/state/ic-studio (Linux, macOS). ics mcp checks for a running app on every call, so you can start or close the app at any time.

Without a running app, or with ICS_MCP_STANDALONE=1, the server works on its own in-memory project; start with open_project or new_project. ICS_LIVE_DIR overrides the folder of the discovery file.

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