Freerouting Kotlin CLI Modernization

Welcome to the Freerouting Kotlin CLI Modernization project. This repository streamlines and simplifies the classic Freerouting printed circuit board (PCB) auto-router by migrating its command-line interface (CLI) launcher to Kotlin, removing heavy/unnecessary components (such as Swing GUIs, REST API servers, and MCP servers) to deliver a highly optimized, headless PCB routing engine.

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🚀 Key Features

• Kotlin-Based CLI Launcher: Fully migrated CLI orchestration (FreeroutingCli.kt) managing input parsing, session setup, job orchestration, and background scheduling.
• Minimalistic & Lightweight: Intentionally disables Swing-based GUIs and local API/MCP servers to minimize memory footprint and binary sizes.
• SPECCTRA Compatibility: Full byte-for-byte output parity with the original Freerouting compiler, routing .dsn (Design) files and exporting .ses (Session) files.
• JVM 25 Ready: Targeted and toolchained for modern Java releases, falling back gracefully to standard runtimes.

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📁 Repository Structure

This repository uses a multi-project Gradle workspace:

freerouting-kt-root/
├── freerouting/              # The core Java-based Freerouting engine
│   └── src/                  # Routing algorithms, DRC logic, and board solvers
├── freerouting-cli-kotlin/   # The new migrated Kotlin CLI subproject
│   ├── src/main/kotlin/      # app.freerouting.FreeroutingCli launcher
│   └── build.gradle          # Kotlin-specific JVM Gradle build configuration
├── settings.gradle           # Multi-project workspace configuration
└── gradle.properties         # JVM targets and compiler validations

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🛠️ Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Java Development Kit (JDK): Version 21 or higher (JVM 25 toolchain recommended).
• Gradle: Managed via the included Wrapper (./gradlew).

Building the Executable JAR

Generate a standalone, runnable fat JAR containing all dependencies and the core routing engine:

./gradlew :freerouting-cli-kotlin:executableJar

The compiled executable JAR will be located at: freerouting-cli-kotlin/build/libs/freerouting-cli-kotlin-current-executable.jar

Running the Router

To route a board layout headlessly, run the executable JAR with the input and output arguments:

java -jar freerouting-cli-kotlin/build/libs/freerouting-cli-kotlin-current-executable.jar \
  -de path/to/input.dsn \
  -do path/to/output.ses

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🤝 Contributing

We adopt the Trunk-Based Development Git workflow enforced via tbdflow and expect all commits to conform to Conventional Commits best practices.

Please read our Contribution Guidelines for more details.