openlane-guide

Read this repository and stop breaking your OpenLane environment forever.

This repository is a battle-tested, failure-driven guide for running OpenLane
in a stable, reproducible, and disaster-proof way.

This is not a quick start.
This is not a feature reference.

This repository exists because real environments were broken.

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📦 What this repository is

This repository documents the entire OpenLane reality, including:

• 🐧 WSL2 + Docker environment survival
• 🧊 OpenLane1 vs OpenLane2 coexistence (strict separation)
• 🧬 PDK asset management (sky130 / gf180)
• 🧱 Full physical design flow
• 📐 Placement / CTS / Routing
• 📊 DRC / LVS / STA
• 📦 GDS signoff
• 🔍 GLS (functional & SDF)
• 🧪 Caravel hardening
• 🔁 RTL → GDS → GLS → MPW
• 💥 Failure cases and irreversible mistakes
• ♻️ Disaster recovery via WSL export/import

Nothing here is theoretical.
Every file exists because something failed before.

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🧭 How to read this repository

This repository is linear.

You are expected to read files in order.
Skipping steps guarantees failure.

👉 Start here:

• index.md

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⚠️ Core rules

• Do not fix. Roll back.
• Do not update. Clone.
• Do not rebuild. Export & import.
• Your environment is an asset, not a workspace.

If you violate these rules, failure is expected.

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🎯 Scope

Included

• OpenLane1 (stable / production)
• OpenLane2 (evaluation-only)
• sky130 / gf180
• WSL2 + Docker Desktop
• GLS (Icarus Verilog)
• OpenROAD / OpenSTA
• Magic / KLayout
• Caravel / MPW flow

Excluded by design

• Verilog tutorials
• ASIC theory textbooks
• Option encyclopedias
• “Latest version” workflows

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If this repository saves you even one full reinstall,
it has already done its job.