1. The free checker
Before You Fab provides a free, browser-based tool that analyses KiCad netlists and schematics against a published set of rules. You may use it for personal, educational and commercial projects at no cost. Please do not attempt to disrupt the site or use it to distribute harmful content.
2. Informational use only - not engineering advice
The checker applies automated heuristics based on public vendor documentation. Its findings may be incomplete or wrong for your design, and the absence of findings does not mean a design is correct. Nothing on this site - checker output, guides or reviews - is professional engineering advice, a certification, or a guarantee that a board will work, meet a standard or be safe. You are responsible for your design, for verifying it against the relevant datasheets and standards, and for testing it.
3. No warranty
The site and the checker are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose. We may change or discontinue features at any time.
4. Limitation of liability
To the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential loss - including the cost of boards, components, assembly, rework or delays - arising from use of the site, the checker or a review. For paid reviews, our total liability is limited to the fee you paid for that review.
5. Paid human reviews
- Scope. Each tier's scope is described on the pricing page and confirmed in the quote you receive. Work outside that scope is quoted separately.
- Quote and payment. After you submit a request you receive a reply with a price, a delivery date and a payment link. The review starts once payment is received and the files are accessible. Payment is processed by a third-party provider.
- Delivery. Turnaround is counted in business days from when payment and files are both received. If we cannot deliver by the agreed date, you may cancel for a full refund.
- Follow-up. Each tier includes the follow-up described on the pricing page (one round of questions and a look at your fixes; the Pre-Fab Sign-off includes one full re-check of the revised files).
- What you receive. A written report. It reflects a reasonable, good-faith review of the files you provided at that time; it cannot cover information you did not provide.
- Refusal. We may decline designs that are outside the reviewer's competence or that involve high voltage, safety-critical, medical or weapons applications.
6. Your files and your IP
You keep all rights to your designs. For a paid review, we use your files only to perform the review, do not share them with third parties, and delete them after the engagement unless you ask us to keep them for a follow-up. If you need a confidentiality agreement, ask before sharing files. The report we deliver is yours to use as you like.
7. Content on this site
Guides and rule descriptions are original works summarising public documentation, with links to the primary sources. Trademarks such as KiCad, ESP32, STM32 and USB-C belong to their respective owners and are used only to describe compatibility. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the KiCad project, Espressif, STMicroelectronics, NXP, Raspberry Pi or the USB Implementers Forum.
8. Changes and contact
We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the latest version. Questions or disputes: please use the contact page first - most things can be sorted out with a message.
These terms are written in plain language for a small independent service and are not legal advice.