Custom Descriptions & Metadata

Note: This guide is primarily aimed at Creators – those setting up and managing the shared KiCad libraries.

While KiLM manages adding libraries to KiCad, KiCad itself displays a description for each library in its managers.

KiLM allows you to define these descriptions centrally within your library repository by looking for a specific YAML file.

library_descriptions.yaml

If you place a file named library_descriptions.yaml in the root of a library directory that you have initialized with kilm init, KiLM will read this file when running kilm setup.

The expected format for this file is:

# Symbol library descriptions
symbols:
  LogicalLibraryName1: "This is the description for Symbol Library 1 that will appear in KiCad."
  AnotherSymbolLib: "Contains specialized analog components."

# Footprint library descriptions
footprints:
  LogicalLibraryName1: "Description for Footprint Library 1 (can be different from symbol desc)."
  MyCustomFootprints: "Footprints for custom breakout boards."

Key Points:

• Keys are Logical Names: The keys under symbols and footprints (LogicalLibraryName1, AnotherSymbolLib, etc.) must match the actual logical names of the libraries within your KiCad library directory (usually the filenames without the .kicad_sym or .pretty extension).
• Matching: KiLM uses these logical names to find the corresponding library entry in KiCad’s sym-lib-table or fp-lib-table and sets the description field.
• Location: The library_descriptions.yaml file must be in the root of the library directory managed by kilm init.
• Setup Required: These descriptions are applied only when you run kilm setup.

This provides a way to keep your library descriptions version-controlled alongside your library files.