KiCad Make (kmake)

Copyright (c) 2019-2025 Antmicro

This is a simple utility that automates handling of KiCad projects. kmake provides a unified way to generate KiCad production files and manage project structure. The script can be used locally and in conjunction with CI infrastructure. Kmake is developed with KiCad 8+ and a CI environment in mind. It uses the KiCad CLI where possible and kiutils for functions that require raw file manipulation.

Documentation

Visit the kmake documentation for more information about usage and development of kmake.

Installation

Requirements

kmake depends on the following packages:

• KiCad 8.0.x
• python >= 3.7
• pip

Installation (Debian)

1. Configure PATH:

   export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH
   

2. Install requirements

   sudo apt install kicad python3 python3-pip
   

3. Update pip

   python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
   

4. Clone kmake repository:

   git clone https://github.com/antmicro/kmake
   cd kmake
   python3 -m pip install .
   

   Important: In some system configurations you may need to add the --break-system-packages flag to the command above.

Usage

Important: All commands should be issued from the KiCad project root directory.

To show available functionalities run:

cd <KiCad project directory>
kmake --help

Version

As an convention, the kmake version is derived from the KiCad version supported by the release. For example, kmake version 8.0.x supports KiCad version 8.0.x.

To check which version of kmake is installed in your system, run:

python3 -m pip show kmake | grep "Version:"

Licensing

This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 license.