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Matplotlib Visualization Guide

A skill that steers Claude toward idiomatic Matplotlib code for publication-quality figures.

Data & AnalyticsIntermediate★ 33,030⑂ 3,248AI score 9/10Last updated: Aug 9, 2026

What it does

  • Explains the Figure/Axes/Artist hierarchy and both interfaces, pushing the object-oriented fig, ax = plt.subplots() pattern for real code.
  • Ships ready snippets for line, scatter, bar, histogram, heatmap, contour, box, violin and 3D plots, plus subplots / subplot_mosaic / GridSpec layout patterns.
  • Codifies colormap choice (sequential, diverging, qualitative; avoid jet), rcParams styling, annotations, and PNG/PDF/SVG export options (dpi, bbox_inches, transparent).
  • Covers common gotchas: overlapping elements (constrained_layout), figure memory leaks (plt.close), large-data rasterization.
  • Bundles scripts/plot_template.py, scripts/style_configurator.py and four reference docs (plot_types, styling_guide, api_reference, common_issues).

Who it's for

  • Researchers and grad students needing 300 dpi or vector figures for papers.
  • Data analysts turning pandas/NumPy results into reproducible plots.
  • Developers who need fine control over axes, ticks and legends beyond seaborn's high-level API.

Examples

  1. "Plot these CSV time series in a 2x2 grid and export 300 dpi PNG plus PDF" → script using the OO API, constrained_layout and correct savefig args.
  2. "Make a correlation heatmap with a colorblind-safe colormap and labeled colorbar" → imshow + colorbar code with colormap rationale.
  3. "Unify fonts and styling across all figures in my manuscript" → rcParams/style-sheet setup and use of style_configurator.py.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/HEAD/skills/matplotlib/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the skills/matplotlib folder from the GitHub repo K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/matplotlib/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git /tmp/sas && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/sas/skills/matplotlib ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal and clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills.git
  2. Create the skills folder if needed: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  3. Copy just this skill: cp -r scientific-agent-skills/skills/matplotlib ~/.claude/skills/
  4. Verify the references/ and scripts/ subfolders came along: ls ~/.claude/skills/matplotlib
  5. Prepare Python 3.10+ and install the library: uv add matplotlib (add ipympl for interactive Jupyter widgets).
  6. Restart Claude Code, then ask something like "plot this dataset with matplotlib" to trigger the skill.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT