chart-builder
Use this skill whenever the user asks to visualize, chart, plot, or graph data (bar, line, scatter, histogram, pie) from a CSV, table, or DataFrame. It gives the agent prebuilt, parameterized matplotlib functions so charts are produced faster and more reliably — with consistent styling and sane defaults — instead of hand-writing matplotlib each time.
Generate charts from tabular data via the bundled scripts/charts.py toolkit.
Each function takes a DataFrame or a file path plus the columns to plot, and
saves a PNG (returning the path). It handles theming, figure sizing, label
rotation, NaN dropping, legend placement, and saving.
Instructions
- Provide the data source: a pandas DataFrame, or a path to a
.csv/.tsv/.jsonfile. - Call the function for the chart you need, passing the column names:
bar(data, x, y)— one value per category (horizontal=Truefor barh)grouped_bar(data, x, y, group)— value per category split bygroup(stacked=Trueto stack)line(data, x, y, group=None)— value over an ordered axis, one line pergroupscatter(data, x, y, group=None, size=None)— two numeric columnshistogram(data, y, bins=20, group=None)— distribution of one columnpie(data, x, y, donut=False)— share ofyper categoryx
- Optional keyword args on every chart:
title,xlabel,ylabel(derived from column names if omitted),out(default"chart.png"; passNoneto skip saving),dpi(default150),figsize,palette. - The function returns the saved image path. See
references/cheatsheet.mdfor full signatures and a chart-selection table.
Usage
Import:
from charts import bar, line, pie
bar("sales.csv", x="region", y="revenue", title="Revenue by region",
out="revenue.png")
CLI:
python scripts/charts.py grouped_bar sales.csv \
--x region --y revenue --group quarter --stacked --out by_quarter.png
Bundled files
scripts/charts.py— the toolkit:load_data,apply_theme,save_fig, and six chart functions (bar,grouped_bar,line,scatter,histogram,pie), plus a CLI. Depends onmatplotlibandpandas; runs headless.references/cheatsheet.md— chart-selection table, full signatures, and copy-paste CLI examples.assets/sample_sales.csv— a small demo dataset that exercises every chart.
Defaults
- Colorblind-friendly palette and a shared theme across charts.
- Figure size, x-label rotation, and legend placement adapt to the data.
- Rows with missing values in the plotted columns are dropped before drawing.
- Output is a saved PNG at 150 DPI by default (override
outanddpi).
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microsoft/cat-agent-skills · MIT · Revision 4f0fce5a9951
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