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Attribution and licences

The application is Apache-2.0. The data it helps you obtain is not, and the licences on that data do not become Apache-2.0 by passing through this tool. That distinction is the reason this page exists.

Hardware Agent Studio is licensed under the Apache License 2.0. Copyright 2026 GittieLabs.

Distributed builds include a frozen Python runtime containing the daemon’s dependencies. Two of them ship NOTICE files that Apache-2.0 section 4(d) requires us to reproduce, and we do, in the NOTICE file at the repository root:

The rest are permissively licensed and carry no notice-propagation requirement: MIT, BSD 2- and 3-Clause, ISC and Apache-2.0 across pdfplumber, kiutils, kicad-python, pynng, trimesh, numpy, pydantic, httpx and the model provider SDKs. certifi is Mozilla Public License 2.0 and is bundled unmodified; its source is at certifi/python-certifi.

This is where obligations can land on you, not us.

When the app searches the footprint and symbol libraries installed on your machine, it is reading KiCad’s libraries, which are licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0 with an exception for design outputs.

That exception is the important part and it is generous: using a KiCad footprint or symbol in your own design does not make your design a derivative work, and does not oblige you to license your board under CC-BY-SA. Redistributing the libraries themselves is a different matter and does carry the share-alike terms.

The app can search and import from a small, hand-verified allowlist of GitHub-hosted community libraries:

Library Licence
SparkFun KiCad Libraries CC-BY-4.0
Espressif KiCad Libraries See its LICENSE.md

CC-BY-4.0 requires attribution. If you import a SparkFun footprint or symbol and publish the resulting design, you are expected to credit SparkFun. That obligation is yours and this tool cannot discharge it for you. The imported record keeps its source so you can find what came from where.

When the app imports a community footprint or symbol it stores the original file content verbatim rather than re-deriving it into its own format — deliberately, so the thing you keep is the thing they published, and its provenance stays honest.

Footprints the app generates from datasheet package dimensions are computed from IPC-style rules and the dimensions in your part’s own datasheet. They are marked source: datasheet_generation and verified: false in your library, and that second flag is not decoration — a generated footprint has not been checked against a real part by anyone. Verify it before you commit it to a board.

Datasheets are the manufacturer’s copyrighted documents. The app downloads a copy to your machine for your own use and shows you passages from it with page citations. It does not redistribute them, and neither should you without checking the manufacturer’s terms.

It does not integrate with distributor APIs — DigiKey, Mouser, Octopart, Arrow, element14 and others were researched in depth and ruled out. Partly because they do not return what this tool needs (no pins, no footprints, no design guidance), and partly because their terms forbid what a local-first tool does: caching responses, building a local database, aggregating across sources. The full research, with per-clause citations, is in the repository.

Distributors appear only as links you click.

KiCad and FreeCAD are trademarks of their respective owners. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by either. It is an independent tool that talks to both as separate programs, and neither is bundled.

If something on this page is inaccurate, or a licence has changed, that is worth an issue — licence correctness is not a detail we would rather not hear about. Open one.