Show HN: Copperhead – Hardware as Fast as Software

Proven on real copper. Open Telegraph: pocket-size ESP32-S3 Morse key, built end to end with this workflow. Every decision, every check, every file is public. Read the build storyBrowse the repo Nothing commits without its gate. You write the brief. copperhead runs eight stages against it, each one its own agent run, each one committing only once its gate finds the work on disk. A run that goes wrong stops instead of drifting. brief.md what you want, written in your own words 01 spec docs/SPEC.md gatea budgets section, actually filled in spec docs/SPEC.md gatea budgets section, actually filled in 02 architecture docs/SUBSYSTEMS.md gatereal reasoning under every subsystem architecture docs/SUBSYSTEMS.md gatereal reasoning under every subsystem 03 parts docs/BOM.md gatepart numbers chosen against datasheets parts docs/BOM.md gatepart numbers chosen against datasheets 04 schematic design.kicad_sch gatesymbols placed, docs agree, ERC clean schematic design.kicad_sch gatesymbols placed, docs agree, ERC clean 05 layout design.kicad_pcb gatefootprints on the board, DRC clean layout design.kicad_pcb gatefootprints on the board, DRC clean 06 outputs gerbers / drill / STEP gategerbers actually on disk outputs gerbers / drill / STEP gategerbers actually on disk 07 firmware firmware/ / pins.h gatesources on disk, pins from the pinout firmware firmware/ / pins.h gatesources on disk, pins from the pinout 08 dev plan docs/DEVPLAN.md gatea written bring-up and test plan dev plan docs/DEVPLAN.md gatea written bring-up and test plan a design package gerbers, firmware, docs. One commit per stage. Every hop is a gate: no real work on disk, no commit. Copper border: verified by KiCad itself, ERC and DRC clean. Pay to not run it yourself. copperhead is open core. The CLI is free and always will be, and it does the real work on its own. You pay to host it, to work as a team or to give an auditor what they ask for. CLI Free Apache-2.0, forever Design on your own, on your own machine. Get started Includes: The full agent: do, create, init, check, watch Bring your own Claude or GPT-5 key Runs on your KiCad files, in your own git repo Plain markdown, JSON and KiCad output. No lock-in. Runs locally, never metered Community support CLI Apache-2.0, forever Design on your own, on your own machine. Includes: The full agent: do, create, init, check, watch Bring your own Claude or GPT-5 key Runs on your KiCad files, in your own git repo Plain markdown, JSON and KiCad output. No lock-in. Runs locally, never metered Community support Most popular Cloud $49per user / month Free for open hardware repos Hosted runs on private repos, with a web viewer. Let's talk Everything in CLI, plus: Hosted runs, no local setup, from anywhere Private repositories Web viewer: chat, live schematic and board render, ERC/DRC status Run history and shareable check reports One-click gerber, DXF/STEP, render and BOM export BYO key, or managed inference with 200 credits a seat Cloud Free for open hardware repos Hosted runs on private repos, with a web viewer. Everything in CLI, plus: Hosted runs, no local setup, from anywhere Private repositories Web viewer: chat, live schematic and board render, ERC/DRC status Run history and shareable check reports One-click gerber, DXF/STEP, render and BOM export BYO key, or managed inference with 200 credits a seat Team $49per user / month + $199 / mo platform Cloud, with governance and CI for a whole team. Let's talk Everything in Cloud, plus: CI bot: run check as a required PR status check Shared, versioned constraint libraries across the org SSO / SAML, role management, central billing Managed credits pooled across the team Shared run history Team + $199 / mo platform Cloud, with governance and CI for a whole team. Everything in Cloud, plus: CI bot: run check as a required PR status check Shared, versioned constraint libraries across the org SSO / SAML, role management, central billing Managed credits pooled across the team Shared run history Enterprise Customannual Self-hosted, built for procurement, one price a year. Talk to sales Everything in Team, plus: Self-hosted or VPC, so design data never leaves your network Altium support beyond KiCad RBAC, security review, dedicated support and an SLA An audit trail your compliance team can hand over Flat annual license, no per-run metering Enterprise Self-hosted, built for procurement, one price a year. Everything in Team, plus: Self-hosted or VPC, so design data never leaves your network Altium support beyond KiCad RBAC, security review, dedicated support and an SLA An audit trail your compliance team can hand over Flat annual license, no per-run metering Questions, before you ask them. An open source AI agent that designs, documents and verifies printed circuit boards. You describe a change or hand it a product brief, and it edits your real KiCad files, updates every document that references them, and runs KiCad's own checks until they pass. Longer introduction here. Drift. A hardware design spreads one decision across a schematic, a bill of materials, a power budget and several documents, and nothing breaks when they fall out of sync. The inconsistency is found at bring-up, and a respin costs 5,000 to 50,000 dollars and six to eight weeks. The full argument is here. Node 20 or newer, KiCad with kicad-cli on your path and a model API key of your own. Then npm i -g copperhead. That is the main case. Point it at a KiCad repository, run copperhead init and start asking for changes. It can also run the full pipeline from a written brief with copperhead create, but iterating on real designs is what it is best at. It refuses to run on a dirty git tree, refuses to edit any design file before a validated change proposal exists and refuses changes that break a budget or constraint you have documented, citing the line it would violate. It also never invents a part number it cannot justify from a datasheet. No. Edits are surgical changes to the KiCad s-expression source, so your diffs stay small and reviewable and untouched parts of the file stay byte-identical. A tool that regenerates the file to move one net has made its own work impossible to review. 9 more questions Never ship a board your docs no longer describe. copperhead is open source and free to use. Install once, describe the board you want in a short brief.md and run create. $ npm i -g copperhead $ export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY= $ copperhead create --brief brief.md # Pocket Bluetooth speaker A palm-size Bluetooth speaker that plays for a day on one charge. - ESP32, Bluetooth audio (A2DP sink) - 3 W class-D amp into a 4 Ω driver - Li-Po cell, USB-C charging - Standby current budget: 100 µA