Obsidian charts

Obsidian Charts Skill

Assumes the user already has the Charts community plugin (phibr0/obsidian-charts) installed and enabled.

Decide the data source first

Before writing any codeblock, pick the source — it changes the syntax:

Source	Use when	Pattern
Inline literal	Small, hand-typed series	chart codeblock with labels: + series:
Markdown table in same note	Data already lives in a table	chart codeblock with id: <blockId>
Markdown table in another note	Shared data table	chart codeblock with id: + file:
Dataview / Dataviewjs query	Data is computed/aggregated	dataviewjs codeblock calling window.renderChart(...)
Frontmatter values	Comparing notes by property	Dataviewjs + renderChart (Dataview required)

If the user is unsure, look at the note. A table → use table linking. A query → use renderChart. Loose numbers in prose → inline literal.

Quick start — inline data

```chart
type: bar
labels: [Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri]
series:
  - title: Hours focused
    data: [4, 3, 5, 2, 6]
beginAtZero: true
width: 80%
```

Quick start — from a table in the same note

| | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Revenue | 10 | 14 | 12 | 18 |
| Cost    | 8  | 9  | 11 | 13 |
^revenue

```chart
type: bar
id: revenue
layout: rows
beginAtZero: true
```

layout: rows reads each table row as a series; layout: columns reads each column as a series. Add select: [Revenue] to restrict which rows/columns are charted. Add file: <OtherNote> to point at a ^blockId in another note.

Quick start — from a Dataview query

Requires the Dataview plugin with JS enabled.

```dataviewjs
const pages = dv.pages('"Journal"').where(p => p.mood);
window.renderChart({
  type: 'line',
  data: {
    labels: pages.map(p => p.file.name).array(),
    datasets: [{
      label: 'Mood',
      data: pages.map(p => p.mood).array(),
      tension: 0.3,
    }]
  }
}, this.container);
```

Core parameters (chart codeblock)

Key	Values	Notes
type	bar line pie doughnut radar polarArea	Required
labels	[a, b, c]	Required for non-table source
series	list of { title, data }	Required for non-table source
id	block ID	Use instead of labels/series to pull from a table
file	note basename	Pairs with id for cross-note tables
layout	rows | columns	Table-source only
select	[name1, name2]	Filter rows/cols from a table
beginAtZero	bool	Force y-axis to start at 0
stacked	bool	Stack series (bar/line)
tension	0–1	Line curve smoothing
fill	bool	Fill area under line
width	80% etc.	Chart width
legend	bool	Show legend
legendPosition	top bottom left right
bestFit	bool	Draw trend line (line/scatter)
bestFitTitle	string	Label for trend line
bestFitNumber	number	Series index for trend
labelColors	bool	Color labels by series
time	day month year etc.	Treat labels as dates
indexAxis	x | y	y makes horizontal bar chart
xMin xMax yMin yMax	number/date	Axis bounds
xTitle yTitle	string	Axis labels

See REFERENCE.md for the full parameter list, renderChart API, color/styling, multi-series patterns, and troubleshooting.

Workflow when helping the user

1. Locate the data. Read the note, identify whether the data is a table (does it have a ^blockId?), a query result, or loose values.
2. Pick the chart type. Comparing categories → bar. Trend over time → line. Parts of a whole → pie / doughnut. Multi-dimensional → radar.
3. If using a table, confirm there is a ^blockId line beneath it. If not, add one — without it, the chart cannot reference the table.
4. Draft the codeblock inline in the note (don't make a new file unless the user asks).
5. Pick layout carefully — rows vs columns is the most common "why is my chart wrong" issue. If the chart looks transposed, flip it.
6. Tell the user to open the note in Reading view or Live Preview to render the chart; Source view shows the raw codeblock.

Common gotchas

• No render in Source mode — switch to Live Preview or Reading view.
• Table reference fails — the ^blockId must be on its own line immediately after the table, and id: in the codeblock must match exactly (no ^).
• layout mismatch — series and labels look swapped; flip rows ↔ columns.
• Date axis flat / unsorted — set time: day (or month/year) so the plugin treats labels as dates.
• renderChart undefined — the Charts plugin isn't enabled, or the codeblock isn't dataviewjs (it must be — dataview won't work for JS).
• Series with mismatched lengths — every data array must match labels.length (pad with null for missing points).