TDA Figure Specification

VerifiedSafe

Scaffold publication-ready TDA figures using matplotlib, following strict style conventions from the trajectory_tda codebase.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
Data & AIIntermediate
007/28/2026
Claude Code
#tda#matplotlib#visualization#publication#trajectory

Recommended for

Our review

Scaffolds publication-ready matplotlib code following the strict trajectory_tda project conventions, including style constants, standardized figure sizes, and save functions.

Strengths

  • Ensures visual consistency across all figures in a project
  • Eliminates common styling errors by automating color and size choices
  • Directly integrates high-resolution PDF and PNG saving functions

Limitations

  • Requires the trajectory_tda project to be installed and available
  • Templates are limited to TDA figure types (persistence diagram, barcode, histogram, landscape)
  • Only works within the Claude Code context unless adapted
When to use it

When producing topological data analysis figures for a research paper or formal report within the trajectory_tda project.

When not to use it

For quick exploratory visualizations or non-TDA plots (e.g., standard time series or bar charts).

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score92/100

The skill provides only static guidance for generating matplotlib figure code following established conventions; it contains no destructive commands, network calls, or unauthorized data access.

No concerns found

Examples

Persistence diagram
/tda-figure-spec persistence-diagram P01-B
Null histogram
/tda-figure-spec null-histogram P01-A
Interactive choice
/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.

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