Seeed Xiao Series: development platform for PlatformIO

The Seeed Studio XIAO Series is a collection of thumb-sized, powerful microcontroller units (MCUs) tailor-made for space-conscious projects requiring high performance and wireless connectivity.

• Home (home page in PlatformIO Platform Registry)
• Documentation (advanced usage, packages, boards, frameworks, etc.)

Usage

1. Install PlatformIO
2. Create PlatformIO project and configure a platform option in platformio.ini file:

[env:development]
platform = https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/platform-seeedboards.git
board = ...
framework = arduino
...

Versioning

Pick the ref that matches how you use the platform. The spec is the lock: PlatformIO re-resolves it only on pio pkg update, never during a build.

• Pinned tag (production): append #X.Y.Z for a reproducible build. Tags carry no v prefix and map 1:1 to GitHub Releases.
• Bare URL (stable, moving): tracks main, the stable branch -- fixes from the last shipped release as they land, but no unreleased features.
• #dev (preview): tracks the integration branch; unreleased boards and fixes show up here first.

platform = https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/platform-seeedboards.git#1.1.0  ; pinned
platform = https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/platform-seeedboards.git        ; stable, moving
platform = https://github.com/Seeed-Studio/platform-seeedboards.git#dev    ; preview

A pinned tag stays put until you change the spec yourself; the moving refs advance only when you run pio pkg update.

Branch and release model

Development happens on dev (all PRs target it), and platform.json's top-level version there always names the release being built toward. A release is simply a dev -> main PR: CI checks on the PR that version names a release that has no tag yet, and merging it cuts the X.Y.Z tag on the merge commit and publishes the GitHub Release automatically. Right after a release ships, the next change on dev must bump version past the new tag (CI on dev pushes enforces this too).

Configuration

Please navigate to documentation.

Attribution (ESP32)

The ESP32-related platform/build integration in this repository is based in part on work from the pioarduino project:

• https://github.com/pioarduino/platform-espressif32

We acknowledge and thank the pioarduino maintainers and contributors.

Factory Reset for XIAO nRF54L15

For XIAO nRF54L15 boards, a factory reset script is provided to recover the board from a bad state (e.g., when it's can not upload due to the internal NVM write protection). This script will perform a mass erase of the flash and program a factory firmware.

Location

The scripts are located in the scripts/factory_reset/ directory.

Usage

The script will automatically create and manage a local Python virtual environment to install the necessary tools, so it can be run out-of-the-box.

• For Windows: Navigate to the scripts/factory_reset directory and run:

  .\factory_reset.bat

• For Linux and macOS: Navigate to the scripts/factory_reset directory and run:

  bash factory_reset.sh

Mass Erase Only (Recover Mode)

If you only need to remove APPROTECT and wipe the device (without programming factory firmware), use the "Recover Only" scripts.

Usage Examples

Windows:

cd scripts\factory_reset
./recover_only.bat

Linux / macOS:

cd scripts/factory_reset
bash recover_only.sh

Recovery Firmware for XIAO nRF54LM20A

For XIAO nRF54LM20A boards, use the dedicated recovery scripts to remove APPROTECT, erase application flash, and program a known-good Zephyr blink firmware. This is a recovery image, not the factory test firmware and not a full restoration of manufacturing data.

The recovery image is built from examples/zephyr-blink using the seeed-xiao-nrf54lm20a environment. Its SHA-256 checksum is recorded in scripts/factory_reset/firmware_lm20a_blink.sha256.

The scripts reuse PlatformIO Core's tool-openocd package. If it is not already present, PlatformIO installs that package; no separate pyOCD virtual environment is created.

Windows:

cd scripts\factory_reset
.\factory_reset_lm20a.bat

Linux / macOS:

cd scripts/factory_reset
bash factory_reset_lm20a.sh

When more than one CMSIS-DAP probe is connected, pass its unique ID as the first argument to the script.

Zephyr board definitions

Zephyr board definitions are organized as per-family board roots, zephyr/<family>/boards/seeed/<board>/:

Family root	Boards	Usable as a Zephyr board root
zephyr/nrf	xiao_nrf54l15, xiao_nrf54lm20a, xiao_nrf54lm20b	Yes — SoCs are present in NCS and upstream Zephyr
zephyr/stm32	xiao_stm32c5	No — PlatformIO builds only; STM32C5 SoC/driver support is carried by this platform's fixes (zephyr/fixes.yml), not by upstream SDKs

Using the boards with nRF Connect SDK (NCS)

In VS Code with the nRF Connect extension, add zephyr/nrf — not the repository root and not zephyr/ — as an additional Board Root (nRF Connect: Board Roots in VS Code settings), then restart VS Code. A board whose SoC is missing from the SDK breaks the extension's SoC cache for every board under the same root, which is why non-Nordic boards are kept out of zephyr/nrf.