# RNL (Rich Netlist)

> RNL writes the drawing of a schematic into a SPICE or Spectre netlist as comment records (`@RNL`), so the netlist alone is the source of the schematic. This file tells an AI agent how to install the RNL skill, a folder that teaches reading, writing, checking and drawing RNL 0.3, and where the rest is.

## Install the skill

The skill is the folder `rnl/` (Agent Skills format: `rnl/SKILL.md` and the files it points to). Download https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl-skill.zip and unpack it where your agent keeps skills, so that `rnl/SKILL.md` ends up there. For Claude Code that is `~/.claude/skills/` (all projects) or `.claude/skills/` in a project; other agents that read Agent Skills folders have a skills directory of their own.

macOS, Linux, Git Bash:

    mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && curl -fL https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl-skill.zip -o /tmp/rnl-skill.zip && unzip -o /tmp/rnl-skill.zip -d ~/.claude/skills

Windows PowerShell:

    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null; Invoke-WebRequest https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl-skill.zip -OutFile "$env:TEMP\rnl-skill.zip"; Expand-Archive -Force "$env:TEMP\rnl-skill.zip" "$HOME\.claude\skills"

Or clone the repository and copy `skills/rnl/`: https://github.com/rich-netlist/rnl

If you cannot unpack or write files, read the files below as they are; they are plain text. Start with SKILL.md. https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/manifest.json lists every file with its size and SHA-256, and https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/SHA256SUMS.txt has the sums of the zip and the files.

## The files of the skill

- [SKILL.md](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/SKILL.md): start here: what RNL is, a complete example, how to work, the rules that save time
- [references/language.md](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/references/language.md): the short guide to the language RNL 0.3
- [references/packages.md](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/references/packages.md): the standard packages of series 0.3: definitions and their roles, symbols and pins, which symbol an instance gets, sets, the alias package `rnl-zh` (generated from the package files)
- [references/tools.md](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/references/tools.md): how to check and draw files: the `rnl` command, the npm package `@rich-netlist/runtime`, the web viewer, the desktop viewer
- [examples/ota5t.sp](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/examples/ota5t.sp): a five-transistor OTA in SPICE, structure written, nothing placed
- [examples/ota5t.scs](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/examples/ota5t.scs): the same circuit in Spectre
- [examples/ota5t-placed.sp](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/examples/ota5t-placed.sp): the same circuit placed and wired, so that it draws completely
- [LICENSE.md](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/skill/rnl/LICENSE.md): the licences of what the package holds (MIT, CC-BY-4.0, CC0-1.0)

## Check and draw what you write

- The `rnl` command: download the archive for Windows, Linux or macOS from the latest core release (https://github.com/rich-netlist/rnl/releases/latest), or build it from source (Rust 1.85 or later): `git clone https://github.com/rich-netlist/rnl`, then `cargo build --release -p rnl-cli`; `rnl check FILE` prints the diagnostics and exits 1 on errors, `rnl render FILE -o DIR` writes an SVG for each drawing level.
- The npm package `@rich-netlist/runtime` (`npm i @rich-netlist/runtime`, Node 18 or later): the same core as WebAssembly; a complete checker script is in references/tools.md.
- The web viewer, for a person with a browser: https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/viewer/
- The desktop viewer for Windows, Linux and macOS: the newest `viewer-v…` release at https://github.com/rich-netlist/rnl/releases

## The language and the packages

- [Language standard 0.3, English (normative)](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/en/spec/0.3/): with PDF and Markdown downloads
- [Language standard 0.3, Chinese](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/zh/spec/0.3/)
- [The standard packages, with every symbol drawn](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/en/packages.html)
- [A tour of the language](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/en/language.html)
- [For agents, this page's longer form](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/en/agents.html)

## Optional

- [Introduction for circuit designers](https://rich-netlist.github.io/rnl/en/)
- [The repository](https://github.com/rich-netlist/rnl): the toolkit, the standard, the packages, the viewers