Publication-Ready TDA Figure Spec

VerifiedSafe

Scaffold matplotlib figure code for TDA figures following codebase conventions. Uses style constants and figure templates for publication-ready output.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentIntermediate
007/26/2026
Claude Code
#tda#matplotlib#figure-generation#publication-ready#visualization

Recommended for

Our review

Scaffolds matplotlib figure code for publication-ready topological data analysis (TDA) figures following project conventions.

Strengths

  • Enforces consistent style constants and predefined figure sizes.
  • Generates figures ready for submission (PDF/PNG).
  • Uses coherent color palettes and avoids problematic colormaps like jet.

Limitations

  • Requires familiarity with the project's visual conventions.
  • Limited to the figure types listed in the specification.
  • Does not cover entirely novel figure designs.
When to use it

When you need to quickly produce a TDA figure that adheres to the project's publication standards.

When not to use it

For exploratory visualization or when the project's conventions are not applicable.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

The skill provides code generation templates and style guidelines for matplotlib figures, with no executable shell commands, destructive actions, or data exfiltration risks.

No concerns found

Examples

Persistence diagram
/tda-figure-spec persistence-diagram P01-B
Null hypothesis histogram
/tda-figure-spec null-histogram P01-A
Interactive figure selection
/tda-figure-spec

/tda-figure-spec — Generate Publication-Ready TDA Figures

Scaffold matplotlib figure code following the established trajectory_tda/viz/ conventions. Uses PUBLICATION_RC, DPI, FIGSIZE_*, STATE_COLORS, and _save_figure from the codebase — never ad-hoc sizes or colours.

Usage

/tda-figure-spec [figure-type] [paper-number]

Example: /tda-figure-spec persistence-diagram P01-B Example: /tda-figure-spec null-histogram P01-A Example: /tda-figure-spec (interactive)


Style constants (always import from trajectory_tda/viz/constants.py)

from trajectory_tda.viz.constants import (
    DPI, FIGSIZE_FULL, FIGSIZE_WIDE, FIGSIZE_HALF, FIGSIZE_SQUARE,
    PUBLICATION_RC, STATE_COLORS, STATES, STATE_LABELS, REGIME_LABELS,
)
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.rcParams.update(PUBLICATION_RC)

Figure size guide

| Use case | Constant | Size | |---|---|---| | Single full-width plot | FIGSIZE_FULL | 190mm × 120mm | | Wide two-panel | FIGSIZE_WIDE | 190mm × 104mm | | Half-width single panel | FIGSIZE_HALF | 90mm × 120mm | | Square heatmap | FIGSIZE_SQUARE | 90mm × 90mm |

Save function (always use this pattern)

def _save_figure(fig, output_dir: Path, name: str) -> None:
    output_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
    fig.savefig(output_dir / f"{name}.pdf", format="pdf")
    fig.savefig(output_dir / f"{name}.png", format="png", dpi=DPI)

Colour rules

  • State space: always STATE_COLORS dict — never tab10 or default cycle
  • Observations: #2d6a2e (green); Null: steelblue; Dim 0: green; Dim 1: #1a237e
  • Regimes: plt.cm.tab10 with REGIME_LABELS order
  • Sequential/diverging: viridis, plasma, RdBu_rnever jet

Annotation standards

  • p-values: write p=0.003, not p<0.01
  • Axes: remove top and right spines; keep bottom and left
  • Legends: frameon=False
  • Subplot labels: ax.text(0.02, 0.97, "(a)", transform=ax.transAxes, ...)

Figure templates available

| Template | When to use | |---|---| | plot_persistence_diagram(diagram, dim, ax) | Scatter birth-death pairs | | plot_barcode(diagram, dim, ax) | Feature lifetimes sorted by persistence | | plot_null_histogram(observed, null_dist, p_value, dim, ax) | Permutation test result | | plot_landscape_comparison(obs, null, grid, ax) | L² landscape distance (mandatory) |


Output paths

| Context | Path | Naming | |---|---|---| | Production paper figure | papers/PXX/figures/ | fig{N}_{desc}.{pdf\|png} | | Supplement | papers/PXX/figures/ | figS{N}_{desc}.{pdf\|png} | | Working / exploratory | figures/{domain}/ | YYYYMMDD_{desc}.png |

Working figures must not be saved to papers/PXX/figures/ — that is for production only.

Related skills