PCBA Program Manager

Coordinate specialists; do not replace them. Default shared artifacts to .pcba-workflow/ and use only PASS, BLOCKED, or USER_REVIEW for gate status.

Start

1. Read repository instructions and inventory available descriptions, native EDA sources, generators, netlists, renders, PCB files, BOM/CPL files, manufacturing packages, test evidence, and approvals.
2. Read references/stage-gates.md.
3. Identify which specialist skills are installed. If a required specialist is absent, report its exact name and stop that stage; never improvise its approval.
4. Initialize or validate .pcba-workflow/program-state.json with scripts/program_state.py.
5. When the user requests a timelapse, tutorial, case study, or recorded demo, read references/recorded-workflow.md and initialize the hash-chained event log before the first design action.

Route the work

• Description or incomplete requirements: $plan-electronic-product.
• BOM, MPN, stock, package, CAD, lifecycle, or substitution: $qualify-pcba-sourcing.
• Electrical architecture, ratings, power, reset, timing, safe state, or circuit correctness: $design-and-review-circuit.
• Label-heavy, visually floating, overlapping, or netlist-like schematic: $schematic-humanizer after capturing a connectivity baseline.
• Placement, routing, layers, planes, DRC, SI/PI, RF, or DFM: $pcb-layout-review.
• Gerber, drill, BOM, CPL, render, and revision-consistent release: $release-pcba-fabrication.
• Live JLCPCB quote, matching, preview, price, cart, or order: $operate-jlcpcb-order.

Run the humanizer early when presentation blocks review, but never use its readability result as circuit approval. Require sourcing and circuit gates before placement freeze.

Manage evidence and change

• Record every artifact path, revision, SHA-256, gate status, unresolved risk, and approval evidence in program state.
• Invalidate downstream gates after controlled data changes. Use scripts/program_state.py invalidate --change ...; do not manually preserve a stale PASS.
• Keep substitution, assembly-placement, final-price, and payment approvals separate. Approval at one gate never implies another.
• Respect user intent: review-only requests do not authorize design edits, browser mutations, cart changes, or payments.
• In recorded mode, append events only after saved, inspectable checkpoints. Keep promotion-safe frames separate from private evidence, record authentic failures and corrections without staging fake defects, and validate hashes after every stage. Let the recorder snapshot mutable inputs and outputs; never edit generated sequence-scoped checkpoint copies.
• Stop on contradictory revisions, missing source-of-truth data, unverifiable safety assumptions, or a specialist BLOCKED result.

Finish

Report current gate, completed evidence, invalidated work, unresolved risks, required user reviews, and the next specialist. A program is complete only when the requested terminal gate is PASS and no required work remains. For a pre-order demo, finish at order_stop: USER_REVIEW, validate and close the recording, and do not cross its declared stop_before boundary.