Quick Start Plot

Create a bar chart of letter frequencies, add a title and caption, and share it.

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This guide creates the following bar chart using the public novem_demo letter-frequency dataset:

Prerequisites

A novem account — see the introduction if you don't have one yet.
For the CLI steps: the novem CLI installed and authenticated (pipx install novem && novem --init, details in the CLI guide).
For the API steps: an API token (novem --init creates one, or use an existing Bearer token).

1. Create a plot

Create a plot named letter_freq. The name must be unique among your plots.

novem -p letter_freq -C

2. Add some data

For this chart, supply two columns: a letter and its percentage frequency in English text. Novem accepts pipe-delimited data as well as CSV. Save the following as letters.csv:

A | 8.167
B | 1.492
C | 2.782
D | 4.253
E | 12.702
F | 2.228
G | 2.015
H | 6.094
I | 6.966
J | 0.153
K | 0.772
L | 4.025
M | 2.406
N | 6.749
O | 7.507
P | 1.929
Q | 0.095
R | 5.987
S | 6.327
T | 9.056
U | 2.758
V | 0.978
W | 2.361
X | 0.15
Y | 1.974
Z | 0.074

Then write it to the plot's data endpoint:

novem -p letter_freq -w data @letters.csv

# or pipe it straight from another tool
cat letters.csv | novem -p letter_freq -w data

Plot data is stored at data and settings under config/. Use -w path value to write a setting through the CLI. The API guide explains the corresponding HTTP requests.

3. Make it a bar chart

The config/type value decides how your data is drawn. Set it to bar:

novem -p letter_freq -w config/type bar

You can reuse the data with another compatible chart type. For example, hbar draws horizontal bars. See the chart reference for supported types.

4. Add a title and caption

novem -p letter_freq -w config/title \
"Frequency of letters in the English language"

novem -p letter_freq -w config/caption \
"Source: Concise Oxford Dictionary, via Robert Lewand's Cryptological Mathematics."

5. View the plot

Render the plot in your terminal or read its web URL:

# ANSI render, right in the terminal
novem -p letter_freq -x

# the shareable web URL
novem -p letter_freq -r url

The URL has the form https://novem.io/u/<your_username>/p/letter_freq. Open it in a browser while signed in. The plot's files/ path provides downloads such as PNG, PDF, CSV, and ANSI.

New plots are private. To make this plot public, run the following command or request. Your novem profile must also be public.

novem -p letter_freq -C -s public

Anyone with the URL can now view the plot. You can also embed it in an e-mail or a document.

Next steps

Style it — colors, axes, legends and more under plot config.
Try other chart types — the bar chart reference shows stacked and grouped variants; tables, maps and more in the chart overview.
Run code on a schedule — follow the jobs quick start.
Use an MCP client — connect an assistant using the introduction.

Introduction

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