Chartwright

A dashboard compiler for Apache Superset. The chartwright command line builds a dashboard from a small deterministic file, updates it from that file later, and decompiles an existing dashboard back into one. Every dataset, column, and metric is checked against your own Superset first. An AI can write the file for you, or revise it, from a request in plain words.

3.9 million yellow-taxi trips (NYC TLC trip records, May 2026), 11 verified charts, three filters, one chartwright apply. An AI wrote the spec from a one-paragraph request: the request and rebuild steps.

A dashboard that lives in a file gets the workflow code already has: review it in a pull request, rebuild it identically, and bring it back after a bad change. chartwright plan diffs the file against the live dashboard and exits non-zero when they differ, so drift fails a CI check. chartwright decompile covers the other direction, and lists anything it could not carry over.

Write the file yourself, or describe the dashboard you want and have an AI write it. The same checks run either way. After the build, each chart's query runs once to prove it shows data, and chartwright advise reviews the layout for readability.

What a spec looks like

The file is called a spec:

{
  "spec_version": "1",
  "dashboard": {"title": "Sales Overview", "slug": "sales-overview"},
  "charts": [
    {
      "name": "Total Sales",
      "type": "big_number_total",
      "dataset": {"database": "examples", "table": "cleaned_sales_data"},
      "metric": "SUM(sales)"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sales Over Time",
      "type": "timeseries_line",
      "dataset": {"database": "examples", "table": "cleaned_sales_data"},
      "metrics": ["SUM(sales)"],
      "time_column": "order_date"
    }
  ],
  "layout": {"rows": [["Total Sales"], ["Sales Over Time"]]}
}

chartwright apply on this file signs in to your Superset, confirms the cleaned_sales_data table and the sales and order_date columns exist, builds a KPI card above a line chart, and finishes by running each chart's query once to prove it shows data. A misspelled column or a missing table is a clear error naming the problem, before anything is created.

Creating dashboards with AI

The spec is typed, and every reference in it is checked before anything is created. Whatever a model proposes has to survive the same verification your own specs do.

• Claude Code skill: from a clone of this repo, run python install-skill.py; the model writes the spec from your request, and the tool verifies and builds it.
• MCP server: chartwright-mcp (installed with pip install "chartwright[mcp]") exposes ten tools covering the whole lifecycle, usable from any MCP client.
• Open contract: chartwright schema prints the spec's JSON Schema, so any LLM or tool can generate valid specs.
• Guardrails: the AI proposes; the tool verifies, using your own Superset login. Verification reads names (datasets, columns, metrics), not rows.

Quick start

pip install chartwright

Python 3.11 or newer; three dependencies; Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Create ~/.config/chartwright/profiles.toml pointing at your Superset:

[prod]
base_url = "https://superset.your-company.com"
username = "your-username"
password_env = "CHARTWRIGHT_PROD_PASSWORD"

Point the example spec's dataset lines at a table your Superset already knows, save it as sales_overview.json, then:

chartwright check sales_overview.json --profile prod   # read-only: verify every reference
chartwright apply sales_overview.json --profile prod   # build, import, verify

No Superset to point at? Clone this repo: sandbox/up.sh boots a disposable Superset 6.1.0 with example data on localhost:8098 (Docker required; sign-in is admin/admin), and tests/fixtures/kitchen_sink.json applies to it as-is.

What you get

• Deterministic dashboards: the same spec always produces the identical dashboard. Diff it in git, review it in a PR.
• Verified at every step: every reference is checked before anything is written, and every chart's query runs once to prove it shows data; failures say what went wrong and where.
• Dashboards as code, in both directions: chartwright decompile turns any live dashboard into a spec; chartwright plan shows what differs between the spec and the live dashboard, ready as a CI gate; chartwright compile builds the import bundle offline, no server needed.
• Recoverable by default: every apply backs up the previous state first, and a failed apply restores it. Dashboards Chartwright did not create are never overwritten; to bring a hand-built one under a spec, decompile it first.
• What a spec can express: 14 chart types, metrics as you write them, per-chart filters, a native filter bar, tabs, markdown notes, and layouts you can draw as ASCII sketches.
• Environment promotion: specs name their data (connection, schema, table), so the same file applies to dev, staging, and production unchanged.

Every capability, with the CLI verb reference: docs/FEATURES.md.

The design brain

A spec can import perfectly and still produce a dashboard nobody can read: a pie squeezed into two columns, a KPI buried under three tables, a bar chart with forty category labels Superset silently drops. The design brain covers size and scroll budgets, chart-choice limits, and layout composition. It arrives as a brief the AI reads before authoring, and a critic that reviews the result:

chartwright brief --audience executive        # the guidance, before writing a spec
chartwright advise spec.json --fix            # the critique, with safe auto-repairs
chartwright redesign old-dash --profile prod  # audit + repair a live dashboard

You stay in charge of it: suppress any rule for one chart in the spec, tune the thresholds per audience or per deployment in design.yaml, and feed the heights you drag in the UI back into the recommendations with chartwright calibrate. Pass --design off and the output is byte-identical to a build that never had it. The full rulebook and architecture: docs/DESIGN-BRAIN.md.

Drawing layouts as text

The spec's sketch is the dashboard's shape, drawn with characters that you and a model can both write: each letter is a chart, and repeating a sketch line makes its charts taller.

KKKK LLLLLLLL
.... LLLLLLLL

L spans both lines, so it renders twice as tall as K; the dots keep the space under K deliberately empty. Every rule, drawn and explained: docs/LAYOUT-GUIDE.md.

Testing and evidence

Every push and every pull request runs the full offline suite on Linux and Windows, plus the full pipeline (apply, lifecycle soak, stale-tab adversary, fault injection) against real Superset 4.1.4, 5.0.0, and 6.1.0 containers. Chart options are checked against Superset's own source for every supported version, so a Superset change surfaces here before it reaches your dashboards.

Full evidence: docs/VERIFICATION.md.

docs/CONTRACTS.md records how Superset itself behaves: what its importer accepts, how dashboard settings are stored, what its chart plugins expect. Every behavior is cited to its source line at 4.1.4, 5.0.0, and 6.1.0. Release tags are immutable, so any line of it can be checked against a fresh checkout of that tag.

Documentation

• docs/FEATURES.md: every capability, with the CLI verb reference
• docs/LAYOUT-GUIDE.md: drawing layouts as text, every rule illustrated
• docs/DESIGN-BRAIN.md: the design rulebook, every rule and threshold, and how to tune or switch them off
• docs/VERIFICATION.md: what is tested, what it caught, and how to reproduce it
• docs/CONTRACTS.md: how Superset behaves on import, on dashboard storage, and in chart options, cited to its source line at each supported release
• docs/COMPARISON.md: what Chartwright, preset-cli, sup, and the Terraform provider each automate, so you can pick by the job

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