How to handle variable PCB layer stacks (e.g. In*.Cu) across projects using a shared KiBot config?

[RaiZiStyle]

Hello, and thank you for the great work on KiBot!

I'm trying to maintain a shared KiBot configuration (.kibot.yml) that I can reuse across multiple projects. However, each project may have a different layer stack — some have inner layers like In2.Cu, while others are simple 2-layer boards and don’t include those.

In my global config, I define a pcb_print section that includes inner layers like In2.Cu. This works fine for projects that have them, but for simpler boards I get this error:

ERROR:In section 'basic_pcb_print_pdf' (pcb_print): Inner layer `In2.Cu (6 'Inner layer 2' In2_Cu)` is not valid for this board

What I tried :

I attempted to use global.filters with a regex to ignore this error:

global:
  filters:
    - filter: "Catch all"
      error: "dummy"
      regex: ".*valid for this board"

But the error still shows up and blocks the execution and as you can see, the error don't have an ID. I also tried more specific regexes (escaped dots, parentheses, etc.), but none had an effect.

So my questions are:

1. Are global.filters applied early enough to catch configuration-level errors like invalid layers? It seems like this particular error is raised before filters are evaluated.

2. Is there a recommended way to write a portable configuration that works regardless of the number of layers in the project?

The issue is that I can't really use the default layer (“all”, “selected”, “copper”, “technical”, “user”, “inners”, “outers”) because I want only specific layer in the output.

4. I noticed KiBot supports something called groups: — could that help here?
   Unfortunately, I didn't find any usecase that suit my need , so I’m unsure how to use groups to make the output conditional based on layer existence. Or perhaps use group to split my configuration.

My goal :

I would like to avoid creating separate .kibot.yml files for 2-layer and 4-layer boards, and avoid logic branching in CI (since I'm ussing kibot via CI/CD and so we call the kibot config in the CI/CD) .
Ideally, I want a config that "just works" for all cases — skipping invalid outputs silently, or making them conditional.

Any help or example would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again

PS : Kibot is ussed in a docker img.
Image docker : kicad9_auto_full:dev_1.8.5-558f52b_k9.0.1_d12.7_b4.2.4lts
Kibot version : KiBot 1.8.5

[set-soft]

So my questions are:

1. Are global.filters applied early enough to catch configuration-level errors like invalid layers? It seems like this particular error is raised before filters are evaluated.

Filter option is for warnings, not errors.

2. Is there a recommended way to write a portable configuration that works regardless of the number of layers in the project?
   The issue is that I can't really use the default layer (“all”, “selected”, “copper”, “technical”, “user”, “inners”, “outers”) because I want only specific layer in the output.

The simple way is to use copper and/or inners. You don't explain why you can't use them, did you try using copper? Did you try using repeat_for_layer and repeat_layers: copper? Take a look at the tests/yaml_samples/pcb_print_repeat.kibot.yaml file in the repo.
You can also use https://kibot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration/substitution.html

4. I noticed KiBot supports something called groups: — could that help here?
   Unfortunately, I didn't find any usecase that suit my need , so I’m unsure how to use groups to make the output conditional based on layer existence. Or perhaps use group to split my configuration.

Groups are just to make easier to run a group of outputs without specifying them one by one. Not directly related to layers.

[RaiZiStyle]

Filter option is for warnings, not errors.

Oh okay, the documentation kind of suggested otherwise. (https://kibot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration/global.html)

* filters : KiBot and KiCost warnings to be ignored. Add 1000 to KiCost warnings (WCnnn).
    * Valid keys:
        * error : (default: '') Error id we want to exclude.

The simple way is to use copper and/or inners. You don't explain why you can't use them, did you try using copper? Did you try using repeat_for_layer and repeat_layers: copper? Take a look at the tests/yaml_samples/pcb_print_repeat.kibot.yaml file in the repo.

Okay thanks, I took a look and found what I wanted to do.

I'm just having a small issue with "sheet" and "title".
Right now, all my pages have the same title ("PCB") and no sheet text. I want to display some information about the layer.
I tried using the '%' pattern but none of them worked. Do you have an idea why ?

This is my .yaml :

outputs:
  - name: "layer_prints2"
    comment: "empty"
    type: pcb_print
    options:
      force_edge_cuts: true
      drill: true
      format: PDF
      pages:
      - sheet: '%ll'    # %ll, %ls, %ld not working. 
        layers:
        - layer: F.Cu
        - layer: Edge.Cuts
        repeat_for_layer: 'F.Cu'
        repeat_layers:  copper
      - layers:
        - layer: F.Courtyard
        - layer: F.Silkscreen 
        - layer: Edge.Cuts
        title: Front courtyard area

[set-soft]

Filter option is for warnings, not errors.

Oh okay, the documentation kind of suggested otherwise. (https://kibot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration/global.html)

* filters : KiBot and KiCost warnings to be ignored. Add 1000 to KiCost warnings (WCnnn).
    * Valid keys:
        * error : (default: '') Error id we want to exclude.

Errors are for KiCad E/DRC. How could KiBot ignore an error?

The simple way is to use copper and/or inners. You don't explain why you can't use them, did you try using copper? Did you try using repeat_for_layer and repeat_layers: copper? Take a look at the tests/yaml_samples/pcb_print_repeat.kibot.yaml file in the repo.

Okay thanks, I took a look and found what I wanted to do.

I'm just having a small issue with "sheet" and "title". Right now, all my pages have the same title ("PCB") and no sheet text. I want to display some information about the layer. I tried using the '%' pattern but none of them worked. Do you have an idea why ?

I can see the title for the courtyards changing. About sheet you must use a worksheet that contains the SHEETNAME KiCad variable, the default doesn't currently have it.