Designing boards or mechanical parts with Claude Code requires connecting external tools, writing scripts, and purchasing licenses for each tool. Every engineer runs a separate agent, sharing updates through git. In Flux, hardware tools are built in, so your engineers and AI engineers collaborate in a single live project.
Flux is an autonomous hardware engineer for your team. Give it a requirement. It plans the design, picks parts, draws schematics, routes the board, creates mechanical parts, and writes firmware. It verifies its work through simulation and design rule checks, then gives your engineers files ready for manufacturing.
Claude Code is the coding agent from Anthropic. You give it a bug fix, a test, or a multi-day migration. You steer and review the work from your terminal, your code editor, Slack, or the web.[1]
Claude Code is included in the Claude Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans.[2]
Claude Code maps and explains a whole codebase. It finds the project structure and dependencies itself.[1]
Claude Code reads issues, writes code, runs tests, and opens pull requests. It works with GitHub, GitLab, and your command line tools.[1]
Claude Code follows imports across the repository, runs your tests, and keeps going when something breaks.[1]
Claude Code can generate scripts for hardware tasks. You then choose external tools, write integration code, check results, and keep the system working. This requires time and expertise. Every script is an additional item that can break. Each external tool also requires an individual account or license. For example, to connect with Fusion 360, you must have a Fusion 360 license. Flux operates the same frontier models within a complete hardware platform: an editor for CAD and EDA, inspection utilities, simulation, design rule checks, 734,000+ public parts showing live distributor data, import support for common CAD and EDA formats, manufacturing files, and one shared live project for the whole team. All features are built in and tested. They are included in your Flux plan. They are ready on the first prompt. Claude Code executes Claude models. Flux remains model agnostic. This ensures you are not locked into one model provider. Flux operates inside your web browser. No installation is needed, and your projects reside in the cloud.
| Feature | Flux | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| Requirements and specification | The AI engineer turns your idea into requirements and a product specification, and checks the design against them. | Writes documents and code from your prompt.[7] |
| What it is | AI hardware engineer equipped with native design tools | General AI coding agent[1] |
| Where it runs | Runs inside your web browser. No software to install. Your projects stay in the cloud. | Your terminal, code editor, the Claude desktop app, Slack, or the web[1] |
| Who does the design work | The Flux agent. Your engineers review and edit. | Developers give the coding agent software tasks.[7] |
| Schematic and parts | Built in. Chooses from 734,000+ public parts. | Not built in. You connect outside tools and part data with scripts.[1] |
| Board layout and routing | Built in | Not built in. You connect an outside board tool with scripts.[1] |
| Placement and routing | The AI engineer places the parts and routes the board like an experienced designer. Your engineers review and edit. | No built-in PCB trace-routing tools.[7] |
| High-speed design | The AI engineer plans DDR topology and timing budgets, routes differential pairs and length-matched buses, tunes length and skew, fans out BGAs with blind, buried, and microvias, and sets trace impedance from your stackup. It checks the routed board with S-parameters, TDR, eye diagrams, crosstalk analysis, and a signal integrity, power integrity, and EMC review. Your engineers review and edit. | No built-in PCB signal-integrity analysis.[7] |
| Parts and sourcing | 734,000+ public parts, with live prices and stock from distributors | No built-in electronics parts library.[7] |
| Simulation and design rule checks | SPICE, power delivery network, full-wave electromagnetic simulation, and signal integrity simulation, plus thermal and mechanical simulation and design rule checks. | Not built in. You connect outside simulators with scripts.[1] |
| Firmware | Writes firmware for each board it designs | Writes code, including firmware[1] |
| Wiring harnesses | Built in. Flux designs the wiring harnesses between the boards: connectors, pinouts, and wires, in the same project. | No built-in wire-harness design tools.[7] |
| Manufacturing files | Flux prepares Gerber, ODB++, IPC-2581, bill of materials, pick-and-place, and more. Flux can check the files before you order by checking copper gaps, silkscreen, board outline, BOM, and pick-and-place files. | Not built in. Your scripts or outside tools write the files.[1] |
| Quotes and orders | Quotes and orders for boards, 3D printing, CNC machining, and wire harnesses, from the project. | No built-in hardware quoting or ordering workflow.[7] |
| Import from other tools | Imports complete projects from Altium, OrCAD and Allegro, KiCad, PADS and Xpedition, CADSTAR, Eagle, Fusion Electronics, EasyEDA, DipTrace, and SOLIDWORKS PCB. Flux imports Labcenter Proteus SDF netlists with Specctra board exports. IPC-2581 revision B and C files become board projects with reusable footprint parts. IDF 2.0 and 3.0 board files become board projects with the outline, cutouts, drilled and mounting holes, part placements, and 3D part heights. | No built-in EDA project importer.[7] |
| Versions, branches, and merges | Full change history. The AI engineer forks a design into a second version, keeps both, and merges the changes that you pick. | No native hardware design version history.[7] |
| Who reviews the work | The entire team in one live browser project: electrical, layout, mechanical, and firmware engineers. | Developers review the code changes[1] |
| Product images, videos, and documents | Product images, product videos, datasheets, and regulatory documents, made from the design in the project. | Writes product documentation and code from your prompt.[7] |
| Mechanical CAD | Built in, kernel agnostic. From a single enclosure to a full robotic arm. | Not built in. You connect an outside CAD kernel with scripts.[1] |
| Mechanical simulation | Finite-element stress, thermal, and airflow simulation | No mechanical simulation workspace.[7] |
| Mechanical manufacturing | STEP, STL, and 3MF files, plus quotes for 3D printing, CNC machining, sheet metal, and laser cutting | No CNC manufacturing workspace.[7] |
| CNC toolpaths and G-code | The AI engineer writes the toolpaths, the G-code, a toolpath preview, and a setup sheet for the parts that it designed. | No CNC toolpath or G-code workflow.[7] |
| AI models | Frontier models across multiple providers, including Claude and OpenAI models | Claude models[2] |
| Tool licenses | Your Flux plan includes the editor, mechanical CAD, parts data, simulation, and manufacturing files. No other purchases needed. | Each outside tool needs its own license or account, for example a Fusion 360 license[6] |
| Team knowledge and rules | Define rules once for your whole organization. Every AI engineer applies them across every project, and Flux verifies each design against your rules. | CLAUDE.md files in each code repository, shared through version control[3] |
| Parallel work | A lead AI engineer divides a product into workstreams across projects, runs them in parallel, and reports back. Major changes pause for your approval. | Subagents and agent teams for code tasks[4] |
Start a Flux project free and turn your hardware requirements into a complete device.
Orchestration
Submit a full product concept to Flux. An AI engineer divides requirements into active streams across projects, coordinates them simultaneously, and delivers status updates.
Each workstream progresses independently. The baseboard, daughterboards, and physical enclosure develop at the same time.
The lead AI engineer starts tasks in other projects and tracks everything from one location.
It monitors each stream, corrects work that strays from the brief, and compiles the results.
Edits that shift an interface or change board dimensions pause for your approval.
For each board, Flux writes a brief that lists the outline, the mounting holes, the connectors, and the enclosure openings that match them. Every board gets a separate project and a separate AI engineer, and Flux designs the three boards in parallel. When they are done, Flux puts them into the main assembly and checks clearances and connector alignment, in millimeters.
Built for teams
Flux runs inside your browser so everyone works in the same live project: engineers, reviewers, and AI agents side by side. No local CAD software installation needed.
Every design, revision, and comment stays in a single cloud workspace your whole team can access.
Parts libraries, design rules, and past decisions stay with the team, keeping the AI informed on every task.
Launch AI agents, inspect their output, and continue where any teammate left off.
Open a link to begin designing. No seats to manage and no workstations to configure.
Speak with your AI engineer instead of typing, from your computer or phone.
Customizable
Every team builds hardware differently. Show Flux your standards, connect your existing tools, and let it create the custom apps each project requires.
Onboard Flux like a new hire. Record your design guidelines, approved parts, and lessons learned once, and every AI engineer in your company applies them on every assignment.
Define layout constraints and fabricator capabilities once. Flux checks each design against them every single time.
Connect any MCP server or supply web API keys. Push firmware to your repository, read field crash reports, or run custom tools built by your team.
Admins add API keys once for your entire organization. The AI engineer uses credentials without seeing them. Flux includes keys only in requests sent to services you approve.
Ask for a custom utility, and Flux builds a live page inside the project: a power budget updating as loads change, a bring-up tracker, or an interactive 3D model you can rotate and disassemble.
Use Flux through Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible agent. Your agents can inspect and modify Flux projects, handing design tasks to the Flux AI engineer.
Connects with the services your team uses today.
Onshape 
Autodesk Fusion 
PTC Windchill 
Siemens Teamcenter 
Arena PLM 
OpenBOM 
Duro 
GitHub 
GitLab 
Memfault 
Golioth 
Particle 
Nordic nRF Cloud 
Edge Impulse 
NI SystemLink 
SimScale 
Octopart 
SiliconExpert Give Flux a requirement. The agent plans and finishes design tasks on its own in the cloud. Progress continues even with your laptop closed, and your engineers review the results.
Each AI engineer operates on a dedicated Linux or Windows cloud computer with a desktop and a browser. It runs Flux's engineering software and the commercial tools your team brings, writes scripts to check its work, and saves each setup for the whole team.
A coding agent can write scripts for schematics, simulation, and factory outputs. You must then test and maintain them, and purchase licenses for every connected tool. Flux includes a CAD and EDA editor, inspection tools, simulation, imports, and manufacturing files, all tested and part of your plan. The agent moves straight to design work.
An agent can script a simulator wrapper in an afternoon. It cannot build a library of 734,000+ public parts or live distributor feeds. Flux checks every part against its datasheet and live distributor data, then retrieves quotes from fabricators.
In software, you patch a bug and deploy again. In hardware, an incorrect footprint or missed check means a new board order and weeks of delay. Flux tests the design with simulation and design rules before your engineers review it.
Produces videos of designed hardware for design reviews, customer updates, and product launches.
Model-agnostic AI
You do not need to choose between Claude Code and Flux. Flux remains model agnostic. It runs frontier models from multiple providers, including Anthropic Claude models. Adaptive model selection routes each task to the most capable model for its price. Frontier performance at 30% lower cost.
Adaptive separates each engineering job into tasks and assigns each task to the most capable model for the price. Complex design choices go to frontier models. Routine tasks go to fast, economical models. Independent tasks run in parallel, helping complete devices come together faster. Your team works with one AI engineer, and Flux handles coordination behind the scenes.
Use the frontier models your team already trusts, directly inside Flux.
All models receive dedicated Flux engineering tools, project memory, and standard flows.
As updated models launch, your engineers adopt them without changing design environments.
Prevent reliance on an individual model vendor for technical deliverables.
Adaptive matches every engineering step to the most suitable model, from critical design choices to routine checks.
One platform
Flux is not a set of disconnected CAD programs. It provides a unified AI-native engineering platform where every discipline shares a single project, unified data, and the same AI engineer.
Project requirements, component selection, schematic design, and simulation.
Placement, routing, layer stackups, design rule checks, and wiring harnesses between the boards.
Parametric enclosures, brackets, and mounts matched to the physical board mounting holes and connectors. Import your own STEP models. Use one parts library for the entire product: chips and connectors, off-board devices, and mechanical hardware like screws and standoffs.
Firmware code for the board designed by Flux, such as Arm Cortex-M, RISC-V, AVR, or Pico, then built, analyzed, and unit tested.
Live parts sourcing, pricing, quotes for boards, parts, and cables, plus production-ready files.
Verification lab
Flux does not stop at generating designs. The AI engineer simulates and verifies its work using professional solvers, then presents the results to you.
SPICE simulation for analog, power, and mixed-signal circuits, run and analyzed by the AI engineer.
Full-wave simulation of the routed board, covering impedance, S-parameters, crosstalk, and antennas.
Thermal and airflow simulation for boards and enclosures before physical fabrication.
Airflow and cooling models inside the enclosure, ensuring vents, fans, and heat sinks perform before the first prototype.
Finite-element stress analysis for brackets, enclosures, and mounts.
Electrical and manufacturing rule checks across every schematic and board.
Reads the datasheet for each part and checks the design against pinouts, ratings, and operating limits.
Sourcing
Flux integrates directly with leading electronic and mechanical distributors. The AI engineer selects in-stock chips, ports, screws, and standoffs, evaluates pricing between suppliers, and substitutes obsolete components before your hardware enters production.
Digi-Key 
LCSC 
Mouser 
Arrow 
Verical 
TME 
HQonline 
McMaster-Carr 
MISUMI 
JLCMC Manufacturing
Flux requests live pricing from vendors for PCB fabrication, assembly, plastic and metal 3D printing, CNC machining, sheet metal, laser cutting, injection molding, casting, and cable harnesses. The AI engineer evaluates costs and lead times, verifies fabricator constraints, and updates quotes as designs change.
JLCPCB 
PCBWay 
OSH Park 
AISLER 
Craftcloud JLC 3D printing PCBWay 3D printing 
Shapeways 
OSH Cut 
SendCutSend 
MiniProto You do not have to choose. Claude Code connects to MCP servers, and Flux has one. Claude Code can read and edit Flux projects and hand design jobs to the Flux AI engineer. Your developers keep Claude Code for the software, and the hardware work goes to Flux.[5]
For learning and evaluation, with light AI usage and unlimited manual editing.
For active hardware projects, with included AI usage and additional usage available.
For larger projects and heavier AI usage, with hands-on support from experienced electrical engineers.
For teams on shared projects, with pooled AI usage, member seats, and priority support.
Eligible individual plans include a free trial. Teams subscriptions start paid; trial and pricing terms depend on your current offer. See all plans
Not ready to pick a plan? Start for free
Use Claude Code for software development in your repositories. Choose Flux when your deliverables include a board, mechanical parts, and firmware ready for manufacturing.
Review individual plan options, or schedule a demo with our team.
