Skill

element14

Search Newark, Farnell, and element14 for electronic components — find parts by MPN or distributor part number, check pricing/stock, download datasheets, analyze specifications. One unified API covers all three storefronts (Newark for US, Farnell for UK/EU, element14 for APAC). Free API key, simple query-parameter auth, no OAuth. Datasheets download directly from farnell.com CDN with no bot protection. Sync and maintain a local datasheets directory for a KiCad project, or use batch MPN-list seeding (`--mpn-list`) for bulk workflows without a project. Use this skill when the user mentions Newark, Farnell, element14, needs parts from a non-US distributor, wants to compare pricing across regions, or needs datasheets from a source that doesn't require complex API auth. For package cross-reference tables and BOM workflow, see the `bom` skill.

Invocation

How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both

Slash command

/cherryhardware:element14

User invocable

Model invocable

Inline context

Default effort

Context Preview

The summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill

| Skill | Purpose |

Supporting Files

scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.pyscripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py

SKILL.md

274 lines · ~2.7k tokens

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LanguagePython

Stars0

MaintenanceGood

Last CommitMay 14, 2026

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element14 / Newark / Farnell — Component Search, Datasheets & Ordering

Related Skills

Skill	Purpose
`kicad`	Schematic analysis — extracts MPNs for part lookup
`bom`	BOM management — orchestrates sourcing across distributors
`spice`	Uses element14 parametric data for behavioral SPICE models

One API covers three regional storefronts — same catalog, same datasheets, only pricing/stock vary by region:

Storefront	Region	Store ID
Newark	North America	`www.newark.com`
Farnell	UK / Europe	`uk.farnell.com`
element14	Asia-Pacific	`au.element14.com`

For BOM management and export workflows, see bom.

Key Differences from DigiKey/Mouser

Simple auth — API key as a query parameter, no OAuth flow
Free API key — register at partner.element14.com, courtesy usage allowance
Global coverage — same API covers US (Newark), EU (Farnell), APAC (element14)
Unprotected PDFs — datasheets hosted on farnell.com CDN, download freely with no bot protection
Datasheet URL in API response — responseGroup=medium includes datasheets[].url

API Credential Setup

Register at partner.element14.com/member/register
- Free account — just username, email, password. No credit card needed.
- Provides a "courtesy usage allowance" (2 calls/sec, 1,000 calls/day — sufficient for normal use)
Register an application — after logging in, go to My API Keys and click "Get API Keys"
- App name: anything (e.g., "cherryhardware")
- Type: "Desktop application"
- Users: "1-10"
- Commercial: No
- Advertising: No
- Check "Issue a new key for Product Search API" → select "Basic" tier
- Agree to Terms of Service and click "Register Application"
Copy your API key — a 24-character alphanumeric string shown on the My API Keys page
Set the environment variable ELEMENT14_API_KEY before running the scripts:
```
export ELEMENT14_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
```
If credentials are stored in a central secrets file (e.g., ~/.config/secrets.env), load them first:
```
export $(grep -v '^#' ~/.config/secrets.env | grep -v '^$' | xargs)
```

Product Search API

Base URL: https://api.element14.com/catalog/products

All requests use GET with query parameters. Authentication is via callInfo.apiKey.

Search Modes

The term parameter supports three search types:

Mode	Format	Example
Keyword	`any:<keywords>`	`term=any:100nF 0402 X7R`
MPN	`manuPartNum:<mpn>`	`term=manuPartNum:GRM155R71C104KA88D`
Distributor PN	`id:<sku>`	`term=id:94AK6874`

Full Example

GET https://api.element14.com/catalog/products
  ?term=manuPartNum:GRM155R71C104KA88D
  &storeInfo.id=www.newark.com
  &resultsSettings.offset=0
  &resultsSettings.numberOfResults=10
  &resultsSettings.responseGroup=medium
  &callInfo.responseDataFormat=JSON
  &callInfo.apiKey=YOUR_KEY

Response Groups

Group	Fields
`small`	SKU, displayName, brandName, MPN, attributes
`medium`	+ datasheets[], prices[], stock
`large`	+ images, related products, country of origin
`prices`	Tiered pricing only
`inventory`	Stock levels by warehouse/region

Response Format

With responseGroup=medium, the response looks like:

{
  "manufacturerPartNumberSearchReturn": {
    "numberOfResults": 5,
    "products": [
      {
        "sku": "94AK6874",
        "displayName": "Murata GRM155R71C104KA88D",
        "translatedManufacturerPartNumber": "GRM155R71C104KA88D",
        "brandName": "Murata Electronics",
        "datasheets": [
          {
            "type": "TechnicalDataSheet",
            "description": "Datasheet",
            "url": "https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/74273.pdf"
          }
        ],
        "prices": [
          {
            "from": 1,
            "to": 9,
            "cost": 0.156
          }
        ],
        "stock": {
          "level": 45000,
          "leastLeadTime": 0,
          "status": 4,
          "statusMessage": "In Stock"
        },
        "attributes": [
          {"attributeLabel": "Capacitance", "attributeUnit": "", "attributeValue": "100nF"},
          {"attributeLabel": "Voltage Rating", "attributeUnit": "V", "attributeValue": "16"}
        ],
        "rohsStatusCode": "YES"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Key fields:

sku — Newark/Farnell/element14 part number
translatedManufacturerPartNumber — MPN
brandName — manufacturer
datasheets[].url — direct PDF URL (farnell.com CDN, no bot protection)
datasheets[].type — usually TechnicalDataSheet
prices[] — tiered pricing with from, to, cost
stock.level — quantity in stock
stock.statusMessage — human-readable availability
attributes[] — parametric specs (label, unit, value)
rohsStatusCode — RoHS compliance (YES/NO)

Store IDs

Common store IDs for the storeInfo.id parameter:

Store ID	Region
`www.newark.com`	US (default)
`uk.farnell.com`	UK
`www.farnell.com`	EU
`au.element14.com`	Australia
`sg.element14.com`	Singapore
`in.element14.com`	India

Rate Limits

No documented rate limits beyond the courtesy usage allowance. Be respectful — use 0.5s delays between calls.

Filters

Add to query parameters:

resultsSettings.refinements.filter=rohsCompliant — RoHS parts only
resultsSettings.refinements.filter=inStock — in-stock only

Pagination

resultsSettings.offset — starting index (0-based)
resultsSettings.numberOfResults — max 50 per page
Only the first 100 results are reliably pageable

Datasheet Download & Sync

element14's farnell.com CDN serves datasheet PDFs directly — no bot protection, no special headers needed. Datasheet URLs come from the API response (datasheets[].url).

Datasheet Directory Sync

Use sync_datasheets_element14.py to maintain a datasheets/ directory alongside a KiCad project. Same workflow and manifest.json format as the DigiKey, Mouser, and LCSC skills.

# Sync datasheets for a KiCad project
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch>

# Preview what would be downloaded
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --dry-run

# Retry previously failed downloads
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --force

# Use a specific store (default: www.newark.com)
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --store uk.farnell.com

# Custom output directory
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> -o ./my-datasheets

# Parallel downloads (3 workers)
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py <file.kicad_sch> --parallel 3

# Batch mode — sync from a plain MPN list (no KiCad project required)
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/sync_datasheets_element14.py --mpn-list mpns.txt --output ./datasheets

MPN-list batch mode (KH-312) — when you have a list of MPNs but no KiCad project to point at. One MPN per line; blank lines and # comments (full-line and inline) are skipped; generic values are filtered via is_real_mpn() and de-duplicated. Output defaults to ./datasheets/ in the current working directory when --output is omitted. Note: ELEMENT14_API_KEY is still required even in dry-run mode; see the v1.4 follow-up in the issue tracker if dry-run credential-independence matters for your workflow.

The script:

Runs the kicad schematic analyzer to extract components, MPNs, and distributor PNs
Accepts any identifier — MPN, Newark/Farnell PN, or other distributor PNs from KiCad symbol properties
Prefers MPN search (manuPartNum:) for exact match — falls back to keyword search
Downloads from farnell.com CDN — direct PDF URLs, no bot protection
Writes manifest.json manifest — same format as DigiKey/Mouser/LCSC skills
Verifies PDF content — checks MPN, manufacturer, and description keywords
Rate-limited — 0.5s between API calls (configurable with --delay)
Saves progress incrementally — safe to interrupt

Single Datasheet Download

Use fetch_datasheet_element14.py for one-off downloads.

# Search by MPN
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py --search "GRM155R71C104KA88D" -o datasheet.pdf

# Search by Newark/Farnell part number
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py --search "94AK6874" -o datasheet.pdf

# Direct URL download
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py "https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/74273.pdf" -o datasheet.pdf

# JSON output
python3 <skill-path>/scripts/fetch_datasheet_element14.py --search "GRM155R71C104KA88D" --json

The script:

OS-agnostic — uses requests → urllib → playwright fallback chain
Validates PDF headers — rejects HTML error pages
Falls back to alternative manufacturer sources when element14 URL fails
Exit codes: 0 = success, 1 = download failed, 2 = search/API error
Dependencies:
- pip install requests (recommended; urllib fallback works fine for element14)
- pip install playwright && playwright install chromium (optional; rarely needed)

Web Search Fallback

If the API is unavailable, search by fetching product pages directly:

https://www.newark.com/search?st=<query>
https://uk.farnell.com/search?st=<query>

Tips

Use responseGroup=medium — includes datasheets and pricing without the overhead of large
Use manuPartNum: prefix for exact MPN matches; any: for keyword search
Cross-reference using translatedManufacturerPartNumber (MPN) across DigiKey/Mouser/LCSC
Useful for international users where DigiKey/Mouser shipping is expensive

element14

Invocation

Context Preview

Supporting Files

SKILL.md

element14

Invocation

Context Preview

Supporting Files

SKILL.md

element14 / Newark / Farnell — Component Search, Datasheets & Ordering

Related Skills

Key Differences from DigiKey/Mouser

API Credential Setup

Product Search API

Search Modes

Full Example

Response Groups

Response Format

Store IDs

Rate Limits

Filters

Pagination

Datasheet Download & Sync

Datasheet Directory Sync

Single Datasheet Download

Web Search Fallback

Tips

Similar Skills

element14 / Newark / Farnell — Component Search, Datasheets & Ordering

Related Skills

Key Differences from DigiKey/Mouser

API Credential Setup

Product Search API

Search Modes

Full Example

Response Groups

Response Format

Store IDs

Rate Limits

Filters

Pagination

Datasheet Download & Sync

Datasheet Directory Sync

Single Datasheet Download

Web Search Fallback

Tips

Similar Skills