[monuszero]

That precise mixed technique approach has worked well for me. I’ve been using JITX (python based circuit design with a powerful auto router). Free for personal use, and has been discussed a few times here in HN.

Edit: it’s almost assumed at this point but for completeness Claude / Codex were the ones driving the OO python code and datasheet research and parsing.

https://www.jitx.com/

[bbourn]

Can you elaborate on what you mean by “it’s almost assumed..”? I’m actively working on datasheet parsing at scale at Zenode.ai, and I haven’t read anything specifically about this…

[monuszero]

I sloppily glommed a lot together there.

The pdf parsing was certainly the least mature capability of those that I mentioned. Got decent results with the pdf parsing tool that ships with Claude (desktop) but ultimately wrote a subagent definition to help with pdf parsing. I found myself sticking to vendors with the most parseable (or ideally html) datasheets formats TI, AD, Microchip all fine - but I did learn to love Wurth Elektronik. I looked into doing a custom RAG solution for this.. docling etc. to smooth over things like tables split between pages, Figure reading. Ultimately found their team to be responsive on discord and figured they have every incentive to solve this for me by the next time I find time for a hobby electronics project.

Generally the llms were awesome at discovering the chips I needed (with a few hallucinations promptly uncovered - like a TI mux chip which didn’t exist in the automotive grade designation for that package) without a doubt shortened my search and design development time by some large factor. I remember some AWESOME solo distance driving where i voice chatted with GPT 5x doing thinks like picking the right RS485 driver ic and microcontroller pairing without needed to wade through datasheets

The python is less in need of explanation I’m sure