Gald

A PCB editor that runs in a browser tab. Drop in a board file and move parts. No install, no licence, no desktop CAD suite.

Bring your own board. You do not need an account until you want to keep your work.

What it does today

  • Open a board

    Drop a .kicad_pcb on the page. Add its .kicad_sch if you have one. Both files are read in the browser. Looking at a board uploads nothing.

  • Move the parts

    Drag, rotate and flip footprints on a grid you pick, from 0.05 to 2.54 mm. Select several parts by click or lasso. Align to edges or centres. Lock the parts that are settled. Hold Alt to push blocking parts aside. The tracks and vias attached to a part follow it. Undo, redo, and copy a placement onto another part. The keymap opens on ?. Drag it out of the way.

  • See what you changed

    Layout shows the copper: tracks, vias and pours. The ratsnest follows every drag. 3D shows the makers' own part models when you need to check the fit. Upload a STEP file for the parts no library has. Set a height limit, and the parts that break it are listed, beside every part that no longer sits where the file put it.

  • Keep your work

    Sign in and the board is stored. Edits save on their own and show up live in every tab with the board open. Saves stack up: a new one never overwrites the last. Every change to the board file is kept as history. An agent can restore any of it.

  • Check the copper

    Clearance between nets, shorts, tracks too close to the edge, copper inside a footprint keep-out, and nets in unconnected pieces are listed as you work. The list follows the parts you move.

  • Route the board

    Board → Route board routes the board for you. The default engine is Gald's own router, and it runs on the server your board lives on. Freerouting is still there as a second engine. The tracks come back as a new round. One undo takes you back to the board you sent.

  • Edit the tracks

    The Tracks tool (T) picks, deletes and drags tracks and vias. It draws new tracks at 45° that snap to pads, drops a via when you change layer, and turns red where a track comes too close to another net. Route net joins one net for you. Apply writes the edit into the board file as a new round.

  • Fix a footprint

    A wrong courtyard or a misplaced pad does not need a KiCad round trip. Move and resize pads and reshape the courtyard in the part's panel. The change is written straight into the board file.

  • Tidy and wire the schematic

    The sheet opens beside the board. Pick a net and it lights up in both. Drag or rotate symbols to where the sheet is clearer. Click a pin to see its net and everyone on it, then set the net, flag it no-connect, or clear it. Press W and draw wires from pin to pin — junctions land where a line ends on another — then Apply them. Click or lasso wires and Delete removes them; Ctrl+Z undoes. Export the .kicad_sch with only those moves and edits written in.

  • Export the same file

    You get your own file back, with only the placements rewritten. A flip to the other side is included. Every other byte is identical, so a diff of the export shows exactly the review and nothing else.

  • Export the fab files

    One zip with gerbers, drill file, placement file and BOM for JLCPCB, written by Gald itself, no KiCad on the way. A part with no LCSC code is flagged, and a board whose pours are out of date is refused rather than exported.

  • Let an agent work beside you

    Hand out a token under File → Connections and an agent joins over MCP. It can measure clearances, find a free spot, align and lock parts, import a part from LCSC, and add and connect parts on the schematic. You watch it happen. Revoke the token and the agent is out.

What it does not do

  • Drawing a schematic by hand

    You can move symbols, wire pins by label, and draw wires pin to pin. New symbols come from your library, KiCad's, or LCSC.

  • Filling copper pours

    Fab files use the fill stored in your board file, so a board with pours goes through KiCad once after its last placement change.

  • New footprints

    An existing footprint's pads and courtyard can be adjusted, but a new one comes from KiCad, or an agent imports it from LCSC.

Gald is built outward from placement. Everything in the first list exists because placing parts needed it. Everything in the second list is a later slice, not a promise made by this one.

What it costs

Opening a board and moving its parts is free and needs no account. Keeping work, exporting rounds, agents and routing are paid in tokens.

  • Free account

    100 tokens at the start of every month. The balance is topped up to that and not carried over. This is enough to keep 10 boards. Free tokens are always spent first.

  • Token packs

    Need more? Buy a pack. Bought tokens last 12 months. Prices include VAT.

    • 100 tokens€10.00
    • 500 tokens€45.00
    • 1,000 tokens€80.00
What a token buys
Storing a board, per month10
Exporting a reviewed round2
An agent request over MCP0.5
Routing a board, charged only when it delivers20

Why it exists

It started with one board that needed a second look: a GPS tracker, a few dozen parts, a pigtail routed too close to the antenna feed. To judge that board, we had to install a desktop CAD suite, learn its mouse gestures, and watch it crash twice in an afternoon.

Reading a board is not a hard job. It should open in the tab you already have, show you the ratsnest, let you push a capacitor 2 mm to the left, and give the file back untouched everywhere you did not touch it. We built the tool we wanted on the bench, and kept going.