datasheets - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: datasheets description: Extract structured specifications from electronic component datasheet PDFs — pinouts, electrical characteristics, peripherals, topology, and features. Cache extractions per project for consumption by schematic and PCB analyzers. Primary consumer infrastructure for `kicad`, `emc`, `spice`, and `thermal` analyzers. Use this skill whenever the user asks to extract, verify, or read specs from a component datasheet; when analyzers need verified IC knowledge (EN pin thresholds, PG presence, USB peripheral speed); or when a review mentions datasheet coverage, extraction quality, or per-MPN specifications. Also triggers on "extract this datasheet", "what are the specs for MPN X", "verify datasheet extraction", or "check pin functions for part Y".

Datasheets Skill

Purpose

Extract structured, machine-readable specifications from component datasheet PDFs and make them available to analyzer skills. Works on whatever PDFs are downloaded under <project>/datasheets/ (downloads are owned by distributor skills like digikey, mouser, lcsc, element14).

Scope

This skill owns:

Extraction schema — the canonical JSON structure for per-MPN specs. Versioned via EXTRACTION_VERSION in scripts/datasheet_extract_cache.py.
PDF page selection — heuristics to pick pages most likely to contain pinouts, e-chars, applications, SPICE models.
Quality scoring — weighted rubric (pin coverage, voltage ratings, application info, electrical chars, SPICE specs).
Consumer API — helpers in scripts/datasheet_features.py for other skills to query specific fields (e.g., get_regulator_features(mpn), get_mcu_features(mpn)).
Verification — consistency checks between extracted data and schematic/PCB usage.

Non-goals

No PDF downloading. That is owned by distributor skills (digikey, mouser, lcsc, element14).
No global library. Each project's extractions live in <project>/datasheets/extracted/. There is no shared cross-project cache.

Cache location

<project>/
  design.kicad_sch
  datasheets/
    TPS61023DRLR.pdf        # downloaded by distributor skills
    extracted/
      manifest.json         # extraction manifest (legacy name: index.json)
      TPS61023DRLR.json     # structured extraction (this skill's output)

Reference guides

references/extraction-schema.md — canonical schema, every field defined
references/field-extraction-guide.md — how to find each field in datasheets from common vendors (TI, ST, NXP, Espressif, Microchip)
references/quality-scoring.md — rubric details, score thresholds
references/consumer-api.md — how kicad/emc/spice/thermal consume extractions

Entry-point scripts

scripts/datasheet_extract_cache.py — cache manager, resolver, indexer
scripts/datasheet_page_selector.py — page selection heuristics
scripts/datasheet_score.py — extraction quality scoring
scripts/datasheet_verify.py — cross-check extraction vs schematic usage
scripts/datasheet_features.py — consumer helper API (new in v1.3)

Extraction workflow

User runs an analyzer or requests extraction.
This skill checks the cache (<project>/datasheets/extracted/<MPN>.json).
On cache miss / stale / low score: Claude reads selected PDF pages and extracts structured data.
Extraction is scored; if score ≥ 6.0, cached.
Consumers query via datasheet_features.py.

When to trigger this skill

Immediately after downloading datasheets via sync_datasheets_digikey.py, sync_datasheets_lcsc.py, or equivalent. Without extraction, IC-aware checks (VM-001 rail voltage, PS-001 power-good, PR-004 USB, DP-002 USB speed classification) fall back to heuristics on unknown ICs.
Before running analyzers on a new project where datasheets are present but datasheets/extracted/ is empty — the analyzers won't produce the extractions themselves.
When a review flags low trust level due to missing manufacturer evidence: extracting the ICs referenced by power regulators, MCUs, and high-speed peripherals typically flips trust_level: low → mixed or high.
When a user asks for pin verification ("verify U1 pin names match datasheet") — this skill's cached extraction is the authoritative source.