I'm a hardware engineer, and I built XKEMA to solve a problem that frustrated me from day one of my professional career:
The tools we use to design hardware haven't caught up with the rest of tech.
Most EDA/documentation tools feel like they were last touched in 1998. The interfaces are clunky, the learning curve steep—not because the domain is complex, but because the UX is an afterthought. You spend more time managing exports, hand-editing spreadsheets, syncing revisions, or deciphering tribal knowledge than doing actual design.
So I started building XKEMA: a minimal, web-based documentation platform focused on connecting all the artifacts of an electronic design in a coherent, navigable way.
What it does:
Link together schematics, BOMs, requirements, interface docs, and gerbers
Control document versions and trace changes
Store everything inside a custom component library (think personal Digi-Key or Mouser DB)
Attach specs, datasheets, notes, and link them to real designs
And all with a simple, modern interface (no Electron, no bloat)
I had zero experience in frontend or backend development when I started, but I taught myself Django, PostgreSQL, and modern frontend tools to bring this idea to life.
XKEMA is now a working MVP — it’s functional, but not perfect. There are rough edges, bugs, and plenty of things to improve.
I’m sharing it here to learn from people who actually design hardware. If any of you are willing to test it and share honest feedback (technical or UX-related), I’d truly appreciate it!!!
Tech stack: Django, MySQL, Bootstrap, Mailgun, HTML/CSS/JS.
This is a tool for small teams, freelancers, or even solo engineers who want to stop tracking everything in PDFs, emails, and spreadsheets.
Would love your thoughts. Brutal honesty welcome!!. Happy to answer anything, and thanks for reading :)