Looking at the example

user_analog_project_wrapper.mag

(the one with the example_por cell) I see the analog IO connection to

io_analog[4]

along with the connected

io_clamp_high[0]

. This is what I understand to be the primary ESD protection provided by the "undedicated power/analog pad" (referencing slide 6 of @User’s caravan presentation). Am I getting that right? On magic I can't actually see any ESD circuitry on this pad (attached screenshot) Should I be able to? Sorry if my understanding is plain wrong, but I'm not clear on whether or not I have to manually add my own ESD circuitry for

io_analog[4]

.

The ESD circuitry is underneath the pad, so it is close by but you won't see it in the user project wrapper. As in the example, if you are using any of the analog pins for a 3.3V power supply, you should connect the "clamp high" pin to the power and the "clamp low" pin to ground. This gives a current path to shunt current from the supply to ground during an ESD event.

This might be a better question for #analog-design, but why wouldn't you connect any ol' analog output to this kind of "clamping" structure?

Typically you want just a reverse-biased diode from a signal pin to power and ground. The purpose of a clamp is to ignore a stable DC input, but if it sees a sudden rapid rise in voltage (e.g., caused by an ESD zap), it will suddenly turn on a low-resistance path from power to ground, causing a short and dumping all charge from the event through a path close to the pad and away from all your sensitive circuitry. If you stuck it on a signal line, then any sufficiently fast slope to a signal would trigger the clamp.