Overview
Meet ProtoBot: your AI design assistant inside Protoboard that can search, build, validate, and manage hardware designs through natural language.
ProtoBot is Protoboard's built-in AI assistant. It lives in the left sidebar and gives you conversational access to over 100 tools for searching parts, wiring connections, running validation, organizing the board, and managing your BOM, all through natural language.
Open it by clicking the animated bot icon in the leftmost Activity Bar. ProtoBot is always scoped to the board you currently have open; switch boards and your chat context switches too.
What ProtoBot Can Do
Search the ProtoPart library with semantic search ("find a 3.3V I2C temperature sensor")
Place, move, duplicate, rename, and remove parts
Create custom parts, with web search to populate real component specs
Fetch datasheet information for components
Create harnesses and link interfaces between parts
Auto-link interfaces and auto-wire functions for standard protocols (I2C, SPI, UART)
Allocate and auto-allocate pin resources, per function or for an entire harness
Run full board DRC and explain each error in plain language
Check compatibility between two parts before you wire them
Get capacity and utilization status
Suggest and apply specific fixes
Manage board name, description, notes, requirements, tasks, and tags
Add, update, and resolve review comments
View BOM items and cost estimates, refresh supplier pricing, manage supplier records
Detect layout issues, auto-arrange parts, auto-route harnesses, find empty space
Search the web to verify component specifications
Search the Protoboard documentation
Every response includes expandable tool-call cards showing exactly what ProtoBot did on your board, and a collapsible extended thinking view of its reasoning.
Choosing a Model
ProtoBot runs on OpenAI models. Pick one from the model selector at the bottom of the chat input:
gpt-5.4
The default. Fast and capable; handles most design tasks well
gpt-5.5
The most capable option for the hardest multi-step problems (Pro)
More capable models cost more energy per interaction. The selector shows each model's context window and relative cost; see Usage, Energy, and Privacy.
Reasoning effort
Next to the model selector is a reasoning-effort control with four settings: Off, Low, Medium, and High. It sets how much the model thinks before it acts. Medium is the default. Raise it for tricky, multi-step problems (DRC diagnosis, cross-domain compatibility); lower it to save energy on routine work. The control reads Off and is disabled for models that do not support reasoning. Your choice is remembered per account.
Where ProtoBot Excels
Finding compatible parts: semantic library search from a plain-language description
Wiring: auto-linking interfaces and allocating resources for standard protocols
DRC: running checks, explaining errors, and suggesting concrete fixes
Bulk work: multi-step workflows like "set up a motor chain end to end"
Research: verifying specs against the web before creating custom parts
Where Human Review Matters
ProtoBot is a powerful assistant, not a replacement for engineering judgment. Apply your own review for:
Trust and verify
Standard tasks, well-known components
Auto-linking I2C, placing common parts, running DRC
Trust but double-check
Multi-step workflows, cost-related tasks
BOM estimates, auto-arranging layout
Review carefully
Edge cases and unusual configurations
Custom part creation, cross-domain (thermal + electrical) interactions
Always verify independently
Safety-critical, procurement, compliance
Final BOM ordering, regulated designs, timing-critical signals
ProtoBot may miss datasheet edge cases (timing constraints, pull-up requirements, errata), and it reasons about each engineering domain individually rather than modeling cross-domain effects. Cross-reference datasheets for critical connections, and verify pricing and lead times with your supplier before ordering.
What ProtoBot Cannot Do
Physical simulation: no SPICE, thermal, or mechanical simulation
PCB layout: Protoboard operates at the system level, not the trace level
Manufacturing files: no Gerber or pick-and-place output
Live pricing: BOM prices come from cached supplier data, not live quotes
Account management: ProtoBot cannot change your plan, billing, or settings
Related pages
Using ProtoBot: getting started, common workflows, and prompt patterns
Usage, Energy, and Privacy: how energy works and where your data goes
Agent Bridge (MCP): connect your own external agent instead
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