Chiplab executes your firmware on a chip-accurate virtual board and returns the UART output you asked to capture, no physical hardware required.
Cross-compilation happens on your side.
Chiplab runs the ELF as-is.
The simulation platform today is Renode, with QEMU and more planned.When to use it
Use a run when you want the printed output. When you need a pass or fail for each test, use test.Ask your agent
Not sure which board fits your firmware? Ask Chiplab about individual board specs; board recommendation tooling is on the way.
What you get back
You get the captured UART output. succeeded means Chiplab completed the run. It does not mean your firmware behaved: a firmware that panics or faults still returns succeeded. Check the uart output for what you expect.A run lasts up to 5 seconds of virtual time.Chip accuracy
Each virtual board runs your exact binary against a chip-accurate model of the target’s peripherals, memory map, and interrupt controller.Peripheral coverage keeps growing. If your firmware depends on a peripheral or timing behavior Chiplab doesn’t model yet, ask Chiplab for the current coverage of your board.
Knowledge corpus
Every run deposits observed behavior into Chiplab’s knowledge corpus. Your firmware code and binaries are not part of it. The agent workflow is a short sequence: resolve a project, upload the ELF, start the run, wait for the job, then download artifacts.
Your agent’s MCP client discovers the exact tool names and parameters live; the shapes below match the platform’s current workflow.Cross-compilation happens on your side.
Chiplab runs the ELF as-is.Project
A project holds the uploads and runs, so the next session can continue the same work. Everyone with access to the project sees it.
The id is server-minted. Your agent resolves it once, from context, from list_projects, or by calling create_project, and passes that same id on every later call.
list_projects returns each project’s project_id, name, and description.create_project takes a name and an optional description.update_project changes the name or the description. Omit either field to leave it unchanged. The id stays the same.delete_project removes that project for everyone who can access it.
Upload
issue_upload_ticket takes the project_id and returns:
upload_url: a presigned URL, valid for 10 minutes. Your agent PUTs the raw ELF to it. The URL needs no auth header.artifact_id: the identifier to pass to run.
The binary must be a compiled ELF for the target chip.
Use an artifact_id with the same project_id it was issued under.Starting a run
The project this run belongs to, from create_project. Ids look like project_....
The firmware to run, from issue_upload_ticket.
The virtual board to boot. This is an object, not a string. model is one of the board slugs on Boards. uarts is required: the list of UART names to capture, for example ["usart2"]. Only those peripherals are written into the captured output. run returns as soon as the simulation has started.Identifier for this simulation run. Later calls refer to it as a job_id.
Waiting for the job
UART output is ready once the job finishes.
Your agent calls wait_for_job with the run_id as job_id.The run_id returned by run, or a job id from an earlier listing.
How many seconds to wait. The server caps this value.
running, succeeded, or failed. succeeded means Chiplab completed the run. It does not mean your firmware behaved: a firmware that panics or faults still returns succeeded. Check the uart output for what you expect.
The artifact and board the job was started with, so a run from an earlier session can be recognized without the call that started it.
Present when status is succeeded. Includes an artifacts list naming the files the run produced, such as uart.
Present when status is failed. What went wrong.
True when status is still running because the wait ended before the job finished.
status: "running" and timed_out: true means the run is still going.
wait_for_job is read-only, so calling it again on a finished run returns the same response immediately.Reading the output
To read an artifact, your agent calls issue_download_ticket with the job_id and an artifact_name from that artifacts list.
The response is a presigned download_url.
A GET of that URL returns the artifact bytes, with no auth header.uart is the captured UART output from the peripherals named in board.uarts.Earlier runs
Earlier runs stay reachable in a later session.
list_jobs takes the project_id and optionally:run to list only runs. Omit it to list every job, including test suite runs.
An RFC 3339 timestamp. Only jobs started before this time are returned. When more_available is true, pass the created_at of the last job in the page to continue.
job_id, a status, and a created_at, most recently started first.
Pass the job_id to wait_for_job to read what that run produced.Limits
A run lasts up to 5 seconds of virtual time. Last modified on October 5, 2026
