kiln

What This Skill Does

Kiln is a powerful, comprehensive agent skill designed to bridge the gap between AI agents and physical 3D printing hardware. It provides full-stack control over your 3D printer fleet, transforming an AI agent into an autonomous manufacturing assistant. Kiln exposes over 430 MCP tools and 114 CLI commands, allowing agents to perform tasks ranging from simple status checks and temperature management to complex workflows like text-to-3D generation, model slicing, and automated print queue management. By utilizing Kiln, your agent can intelligently manage multi-printer fleets, enforce pre-print safety protocols, and even facilitate outsourced manufacturing when local resources are unavailable.

Installation

To begin, ensure you have the OpenClaw environment configured. Install the skill via the hub using the command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/codeofaxel/kiln. Once installed, you must initialize the printer interface. Run kiln setup to trigger the interactive wizard, which will discover printers on your network and generate the necessary configuration at ~/.kiln/config.yaml. Always verify your installation by running kiln verify to ensure the slicer, printer connection, and database are operational.

Use Cases

1. Autonomous Prototyping: Convert a user's textual description into a 3D model, automatically slice it into G-code, and push it to the printer.
2. Fleet Management: Monitor dozens of printers simultaneously, load balancing print jobs based on printer readiness, temperature status, and material availability.
3. Quality Assurance: Use integrated webcam snapshots and historical data to check for print failures or anomalies during the build process.
4. Remote Manufacturing: Delegate complex jobs to external manufacturing partners when local hardware is busy or unavailable.

Example Prompts

1. "Check the current status of all printers in the fleet and start printing the 'gear_housing.stl' file on the first available printer using PLA."
2. "I need a 20mm calibration cube. Please generate the model, slice it for my printer, run a preflight check, and start the print."
3. "The current print on printer-01 looks like it might be failing. Can you take a snapshot and then pause the print if it looks bad?"

Tips & Limitations

• Safety First: Physical 3D printing involves high temperatures and mechanical movement. Always run kiln preflight to check for hardware collisions or safety issues before initiating a job.
• Interface Selection: Use the CLI interface if you require a quick, scriptable environment. Use the MCP interface if you need deep integration and access to the full catalog of 430+ tools for complex agentic workflows.
• JSON Output: Always include the --json flag when using the CLI to ensure the AI agent can parse the results correctly.
• Irreversibility: Remember that actions taken through Kiln are physical and irreversible. Avoid hard-coding automated print commands without a human-in-the-loop verification step for production-critical items.