AI Copilot

# Agent Mode

Agent Mode is the most powerful AI mode. The AI can directly edit your schematic — placing components, drawing wires, adding labels, running DRC, and more.

What Agent Mode Can Do

• Generate entire circuits — Describe a circuit in natural language and the AI builds it step by step
• Place components — The AI selects and positions the right components with proper values
• Route connections — Wires are drawn between pins either directly or via net labels
• Add power and ground — Power symbols and ground references are placed automatically
• Run design checks — The AI can invoke DRC to verify the schematic after making changes
• Search for components — LCSC and datasheet search to find real parts for your design
• Clean up layouts — Align components to grid, remove dangling wires, optimize placement
• Create annotations — Add text notes, shapes, and region overlays for documentation

Example Prompts

Checkpoints & Rollback

Before the AI makes any changes, it automatically creates a checkpoint of your schematic. If you're not happy with the result, you can instantly roll back to the checkpoint state. This makes it safe to experiment with AI-generated changes.

# Ask Mode

Ask Mode is a read-only conversational mode. The AI can see your schematic and answer questions about it, but it cannot make changes.

Use Cases

• Design review — Ask the AI to review your schematic for issues or improvements
• Component selection — Get recommendations for component values or part numbers
• Learning — Ask about circuit theory, design patterns, or best practices
• Debugging — Describe unexpected behavior and get diagnostic suggestions
• Documentation — Ask the AI to explain what a section of your schematic does

Example Questions

# Plan Mode

Plan Mode generates a detailed implementation plan before making any changes. This is ideal for complex, multi-step designs where you want to review and approve the approach before execution.

How Plan Mode Works

1. Describe your goal — Tell the AI what you want to build or modify
2. Review the plan — The AI generates a structured plan document with tasks, component lists, and connection diagrams
3. Approve or request changes — You can approve the plan, request modifications, or reject it entirely
4. Execute — Once approved, the AI executes each task in sequence, marking them complete as it goes
5. Track progress — Watch the execution progress in real-time with per-task status updates

Plan Document

The plan document supports rich formatting with LaTeX math equations and Markdown. It includes:

• Component lists with values and part numbers
• Connection tables showing pin-to-pin wiring
• Design rationale and calculations
• Step-by-step execution tasks

# Model Selection

ProtoFlow supports multiple AI providers and models. Choose the model that best fits your task — from fast, lightweight models for quick tasks to powerful reasoning models for complex designs.

Available Models

Reasoning Effort

For models that support it, you can adjust the reasoning effort level. Higher effort produces more thorough analysis but takes longer. This is useful for complex design decisions where you want the AI to think more deeply.

# Conversation Management

ProtoFlow saves and manages your AI conversations with full history, branching, and checkpoint support.

Features

• Multi-turn conversations — Continue conversations across multiple messages with full context
• Conversation saving — Conversations are saved automatically and can be loaded later
• Message branching — Branch from any message to explore alternative approaches without losing the original conversation
• Version selection — Switch between different branches of a conversation
• Checkpoint rollback — Roll back both the conversation and schematic to a specific checkpoint
• Message compression — Long conversations are automatically compressed to stay within model context limits
• Token usage tracking — See how many tokens each message uses and the total conversation cost
• Server sync — Conversations are synced to the server for persistence across devices

Streaming Responses

AI responses are streamed in real-time, so you can see the output as it's generated. Tool calls (like placing components or drawing wires) are shown with visual indicators so you can follow the AI's actions on the canvas.

# File Attachments

Attach files and images to your AI messages to provide additional context. This is especially useful for sharing reference designs, datasheets, or screenshots.

Supported Attachments

• Images — Screenshots, photos of hand-drawn schematics, or reference circuit images
• Documents — Datasheets, specifications, or design documents
• Files — Schematic files from other tools for analysis or conversion

The AI uses multimodal input to analyze attached files alongside your text prompt, providing more accurate and context-aware responses.