July 5, 2026
Browser boardroom meltdown
Show HN: KiCad in the Browser
KiCad hits the browser, and the comments instantly turned into a roast-and-rave session
TLDR: KiCad in the Browser lets people edit circuit board files online without uploading them, which is a big deal for anyone who wants convenience without giving away their files. But the comments quickly stole the spotlight, with praise for the idea mixed with complaints about download size and a brutal roast of the site's AI-looking design.
A new demo called KiCad in the Browser promises something pretty wild for hardware tinkerers: you can open and edit circuit board projects right in your web browser, with nothing uploaded and your files staying on your own machine. That privacy-first angle should have been the easy win — but the real action, of course, exploded in the comments, where the crowd immediately split into equal parts impressed, confused, and lightly savage.
On the supportive side, people were clearly excited that a normally heavy desktop tool might be usable anywhere, and creator ViktorEE jumped in with cheerful "happy to answer any questions" energy while also admitting the demo flow could be smoother. That self-aware vibe helped. But then came the practical reality check: one user on a slow, metered connection asked for the total download size up front, which is the kind of painfully relatable comment that turns a shiny launch into a "yes, but what will this cost me?" moment.
And then the spiciest jab landed: one commenter warned people might dismiss the whole thing as "slop" because the landing page had strong "made by Claude in one prompt" vibes. Ouch. Suddenly the discourse wasn't just about the app — it was about whether the project looked too artificial to be trusted. Toss in a "wait, is this related to kicanvas.org?" identity-check comment, and the launch thread became a classic internet cocktail: praise, nitpicks, branding drama, and a creator hustling to keep the vibes alive.
Key Points
- •The article introduces a browser-based way to edit KiCad files.
- •Users can open either an example project or a local folder in the browser.
- •The article states that no files are uploaded; a browser-imported copy is edited instead of the original local files.
- •Projects can be saved locally and exported as a downloadable .zip file.
- •Library data and board-specific 3D models are cached in the browser and can be re-downloaded when needed.