Using Git with the Lovely Library

🎓 Best Practices 🧑‍🔧 Community Tips
1

A shared KiCad library is only as trustworthy as your ability to see what changed, when, and by whom. Git gives you that for free. Here’s the whole workflow; from a folder on your disk to a repo your whole team can clone.

Your Lovely Library lives here (KiCad 10):

~/Documents/KiCad/10.0/3rdparty/symbols/com_github_aislerhq_lovely-library

Part 1 — Initialise the local repo

# 1. Navigate into the library folder
cd ~/Documents/KiCad/10.0/3rdparty/symbols/com_github_aislerhq_lovely-library

# 2. Initialise Git
git init

# 3. Add a .gitignore (optional but clean — skips macOS clutter)
echo ".DS_Store" >> .gitignore

# 4. Stage everything
git add .

# 5. First commit
git commit -m "Initial commit: KiCad symbol library"

Part 2 — Commit changes

Every time you add, edit or remove symbols:

# See what changed
git status

# Stage all changes (or a specific file)
git add .
git add MyPart.kicad_sym

# Commit with a message that means something
git commit -m "Add: STM32H7A3 symbol with correct footprint link"

Good messages read like a changelog: start them with Add: / Fix: / Update: / Remove: and name the part.

Part 3 — Share with a team (remote repo)

Create a repo on GitHub / GitLab / Gitea, then:

git remote add origin https://github.com/yourorg/kicad-library.git
git branch -M main
git push -u origin main

Team members clone it once and point KiCad at it (Preferences → Manage Symbol Libraries):

git clone https://github.com/yourorg/kicad-library.git \
  ~/Documents/KiCad/10.0/3rdparty/symbols/company-library

Keeping in sync:

# Pull the latest before starting a new design
git pull

# Push your additions
git add .
git commit -m "Add: LM5180 flyback controller"
git push

That’s it — one source of truth, and no more final_v3_REALfinal. :upside_down_face:

Want to skip the upkeep entirely? Point KiCad straight at the AISLER Lovely Library — it’s already on GitHub and we maintain it for you: GitHub - AislerHQ/lovely-library: A carefully curated collection of symbols and footprints · GitHub

:television: See it in action — our 3-part KiCad series with #ThatKiCadGuy. Part 2 walks through this exact checklist on a real part:

1 Like