cuthulhu

Free, open-source (GPLv3), cross-platform desktop cutting software for vinyl cutters and craft plotters — a modern, no-lock-in alternative to the proprietary software that ships with these machines.

Status: a working desktop app (Tauri + React over a Rust engine) and a CLI that shares its planning path. Design, trace, plan and cut on the machines below. Hardware-verified behaviour is tracked in apps/desktop/MANUAL-CHECKLIST.md; anything not ticked there is source-derived and awaiting a run on real hardware.

Target machines

Machine	Link	Status
Silhouette Cameo 5 Alpha (3844:0001/0002)	USB, GPGL	Verified on hardware (SP4 checklist)
Silhouette Cameo (Cameo 1) (0b4d:1121)	USB, GPGL	Source-derived from inkscape-silhouette; awaiting hardware verification — docs/protocol/silhouette-cameo1.md
GCC Puma IV	HPGL over serial/USB	Supported

Other non-Cricut HPGL/DMPL cutters are on the roadmap (docs/roadmap/supported-machines.md). Cricut is out of scope (closed platform).

What it does

• Design: rectangles, ellipses, text in any installed font, SVG import, boolean operations, align and distribute, snapping, and bitmap tracing.
• Cut planning: group passes by colour, stroke, fill or material preset; per-pass material presets (speed, force, passes, track enhancing, pen/blade); preflight refuses anything the machine or the loaded media cannot cut — off the bed, past the machine's own speed ceiling, meant for another machine.
• Two layouts: a simple LightBurn-style window (colour palette under the canvas; docked Cuts / Layers and Cutter panels with Start / Stop, test cut, media size, mirror for HTV, cut preview, time estimate and a beginner mode), and the classic layers/properties window with the full cut dialog. Switch with the button at the right of the top bar.
• Projects save the design and the cut job — each layer's settings, the cut order, mirror and media — in one file.
• Cut Hosts: cut through a Raspberry Pi next to the machine (docs/cut-host.md).

Getting started

cargo test --workspace --locked                 # engine and desktop tests
cargo run -p cli -- list-devices                # attached cutters
cargo run -p cli -- cut design.svg --device cameo1 --dry-run   # the bytes, without cutting
(cd apps/desktop && cargo tauri dev)            # the desktop app

Linux makerspace setup — udev rule, packaging, a walk-through of the simple window — is in docs/linux/makerspace-quickstart.md. Contributor commands and the CI gates are in CLAUDE.md.

Layout

• crates/ — the engine: geometry, document, cutplan (passes, preflight, presets), driver-core (traits and the device manager), driver-silhouette, driver-hpgl, driver-registry, fileio, trace, cut-host, and the cli.
• apps/desktop/ — the Tauri app; its React UI is in apps/desktop/ui/.
• docs/protocol/ — machine protocol notes, with cited sources (ported GPL driver code + public docs).
• docs/superpowers/ — design specs and implementation plans.
• tools/ — the frozen Python protocol spike (USB decoder, square senders); research tooling, not the product.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE. Reuses the GPL drivers inkscape-silhouette and robocut; attribution and source citations live in docs/protocol/.