Show Chart

Show_Chart renders standard inline charts for simple exploratory visuals inside chat. It supports exactly 3 chart kinds: trend, comparison, and leaderboard.

When To Use

• Use trend for ordered time or sequence data where caller-provided row order matters.

• Use comparison for grouped vertical-bar comparisons across short categorical labels.

• Use leaderboard for a single ranked metric shown as horizontal bars.

• Do not use Show_Chart for bespoke graphics, heavy annotations, multi-panel layouts, or presentation polish. Use the shell graphics path for those cases.

Contract

• Required top-level keys:

  • id

  • kind

  • rows

  • labelKey

  • series

• Optional top-level keys:

  • title

  • description

  • fullLabelKey

  • valueFormat

  • maxItems

  • footnote

Row And Series Rules

• Every row must contain the field named by labelKey.

• If fullLabelKey is provided, every row must contain that field too.

• Every series.key must exist in every row.

• Every series.key value must be numeric.

• Numeric values should be JSON numbers, not quoted strings like "12" or text like "N/A".

• Validation failures should be fixed in the payload, not ignored or retried with the same shape.

Mode Behavior

• trend

  • preserves caller-provided row order

  • supports 1-4 series

  • renders a standard line chart

  • does not auto-sort rows

• comparison

  • preserves caller-provided row order

  • supports 1-4 series

  • renders grouped vertical bars

  • does not stack bars

• leaderboard

  • requires exactly 1 series

  • sorts rows descending by that series key

  • applies maxItems after sorting

  • defaults maxItems to 10

  • renders ranked horizontal bars

valueFormat

• valueFormat is an optional strict object, not a shorthand string.

• Use "compact": true for large money or count values so axes and direct value labels remain readable in compact inline cards. Hover tooltips can still expose the full value.

• Valid shape:

{
  "kind": "currency",
  "currency": "USD",
  "compact": true
}

• kind values:

  • number

  • currency

  • percent

• basis values for percent formatting:

  • fraction

  • unit

Minimal Examples

Trend:

{
  "id": "monthly-revenue-trend",
  "kind": "trend",
  "rows": [
    {"monthLabel": "Jan", "revenue": 4200, "expenses": 2100},
    {"monthLabel": "Feb", "revenue": 5100, "expenses": 2600}
  ],
  "labelKey": "monthLabel",
  "series": [
    {"key": "revenue", "label": "Revenue"},
    {"key": "expenses", "label": "Expenses"}
  ],
  "valueFormat": {"kind": "currency", "currency": "USD", "compact": true}
}

Comparison:

{
  "id": "buyer-comparison",
  "kind": "comparison",
  "rows": [
    {"buyer": "Air Force", "awards": 42, "obligations": 58000000},
    {"buyer": "Army", "awards": 35, "obligations": 47000000}
  ],
  "labelKey": "buyer",
  "series": [
    {"key": "awards", "label": "Awards"},
    {"key": "obligations", "label": "Obligations"}
  ],
  "valueFormat": {"kind": "number", "compact": true}
}

Leaderboard:

{
  "id": "vendor-leaderboard",
  "kind": "leaderboard",
  "rows": [
    {"vendor_short": "Booz Allen", "vendor_full": "Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.", "awardValue": 842000000},
    {"vendor_short": "Leidos", "vendor_full": "Leidos, Inc.", "awardValue": 774000000}
  ],
  "labelKey": "vendor_short",
  "fullLabelKey": "vendor_full",
  "series": [
    {"key": "awardValue", "label": "Award Value"}
  ],
  "maxItems": 10,
  "valueFormat": {"kind": "currency", "currency": "USD", "compact": true}
}

Rendering Constraints

• Best for standard inline charts in chat, not custom-designed graphics.

• Large currency and count charts should use compact magnitude formatting such as $2.4B, $844.4M, or 1.2K.

• comparison is best when category labels are short enough to remain readable in grouped vertical bars.

• leaderboard is the right inline choice for top-N ranked categories.

• If the chart needs custom annotations, dense long-label art direction, multi-panel layout, or presentation styling, use the shell graphics path instead of Show_Chart.