Better Graphs – Teach agents to stop making plain Matplotlib slop

Name: Better Graphs – Teach agents to stop making plain Matplotlib slop
Availability: InStock
Author: tem_alThor

by tem_alThor·Jun 28, 2026·6 points·1 comment

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AI Analysis

●●SolidBig BrainNiche GemCozy

Encodes Tufte's visualization rules into CLAUDE.md so agents stop making default matplotlib slop.

Strengths

•CLAUDE.md encodes visualization rules so agents reproduce quality without re-explanation
•Tufte-inspired principles with actual reusable style files, not just theory
•Each module extracts one durable rule folded back into project artifacts

Weaknesses

•Visualization education space is crowded with existing resources like data-to-viz
•Agent-focused angle may become outdated as AI capabilities evolve quickly

Post Description

I want to teach good Matplotlib taste to agents and humans. This repo contains: 1. Agent instructions + design motifs (Claude Code skills + a CLAUDE.md). 2. An online "blog" tutorial of the same skills, for people. 3. minerva.mplstyle, my opinionated sane matplotlib defaults.

Inspired by Tufte's book: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (a gift from my boss!), plus data-to-viz.com and the python-graph-gallery. Aiming for halfway to the gorgeous plots in the paid matplotlib-journey.com, but free and open to share with friends. :)