check_placement_clearance
Classify placement conflicts as body overlap, courtyard overlap, keepout violation, silk/text overlap or pad clearance.
This record as markdown: /tools/mixelpixx-kicad-mcp-server/check-placement-clearance.md
What check_placement_clearance does on KiCAD-MCP-Server
AI agents call check_placement_clearance to retrieve information from KiCAD-MCP-Server without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
Why check_placement_clearance is rated Low
The tool checks and classifies placement conflicts in a KiCAD PCB design, which is fundamentally a read operation that analyzes the current state of the board. It retrieves information about component placement and reports conflicts, with no side effects on the design data. No data is created, modified, deleted, or external actions triggered.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'check_placement_clearance' and description 'Classify placement conflicts as body overlap, courtyard overlap, keepout violation, silk/text overlap or pad clearance' indicate the tool performs validation and classification of existing design data…
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs check_placement_clearance safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and KiCAD-MCP-Server, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For check_placement_clearance, this is the rule to start with:
check_placement_clearance is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect KiCAD-MCP-Server, apply this rule, and every check_placement_clearance call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about check_placement_clearance
Classify placement conflicts as body overlap, courtyard overlap, keepout violation, silk/text overlap or pad clearance. It is categorised as a Read tool in the KiCAD-MCP-Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the KiCAD-MCP-Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for check_placement_clearance: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches KiCAD-MCP-Server. Nothing to install.
check_placement_clearance is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the check_placement_clearance rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for check_placement_clearance. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
check_placement_clearance is provided by the KiCAD-MCP-Server MCP server (mixelpixx/kicad-mcp-server). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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