mosaickit

A domain-neutral toolkit for assembling two-dimensional diagrams from reusable scenes, layers, styles, parameters, and renderers.

Domain libraries define their own models and semantic roles; MosaicKit composes their visual layers and renders the result. It knows nothing about any domain and does not depend on a model package or a curve-fitting library.

Installation

Add MosaicKit to a project with uv:

uv add mosaickit

A plain pip install mosaickit also works. MosaicKit supports Python 3.10–3.13.

Python API

from mosaickit import (
    Canvas,
    Fill,
    FillLayer,
    MarkerLayer,
    PathLayer,
    Stroke,
    TextLayer,
    quadrant_axes,
)

canvas = Canvas().extend(quadrant_axes(10, 10))
canvas.add(
    FillLayer(
        [(1, 1), (1, 7), (8, 1)],
        fill=Fill(color="#377EB8", opacity=0.12),
        z_index=-1,
    )
)
canvas.add(
    PathLayer(
        [(1, 8), (2, 5), (4, 3), (7, 1.5), (9, 1)],
        stroke=Stroke(color="#984EA3", width=2),
        id="curve",
    )
)
canvas.add(MarkerLayer([(4, 3)], id="point"))
canvas.add(TextLayer((4, 3), "A", offset=(8, 8)))
canvas.save("diagram.svg")

Canvas.add(), extend(), remove(), and clear() are fluent builder operations. snapshot() returns an immutable Scene; copy() and bind() produce a new canvas without changing the original. Public layers never contain Matplotlib artists, and importing mosaickit does not import Matplotlib.

Scenes and layers

The scene graph is deliberately small:

• PathLayer joins ordered finite (x, y) coordinates with straight segments.
• FillLayer describes filled regions.
• MarkerLayer, TextLayer, and ArrowLayer add annotations.
• RegionLabelLayer names a filled region (inside it, or as a callout), and PointLabelLayer names a point with text placed right beside it. Both are placed after everything else is drawn so they cover no line, marker, filled region, or other text; a LayoutWarning names any label that cannot avoid everything.
• LegendLayer builds legends from stable layer IDs.
• AxisMarkLayer, AxisNoteLayer, and BraceLayer annotate values and spans on an axis.
• GroupLayer groups layers without adding renderer-specific state.

AxisSpec and build_axes() construct axes from the same ordinary path and text layers. quadrant_axes(), crosshair_axes(), and box_frame() cover common layouts. CanvasSpec owns ranges, physical size, DPI, labels, and title.

Curve construction and TikZ export intentionally live outside MosaicKit. Domain packages can call a geometry package such as BezierKit directly, then pass the resulting coordinates or renderer-specific output to their own export pipeline.

Axis marks, notes, and braces

from mosaickit import AxisMarkLayer, AxisNoteLayer, BraceLayer, Canvas, quadrant_axes

canvas = Canvas().extend(quadrant_axes(10, 10))
for value, symbol, note in [(7, "a_1", "Upper\nvalue"), (5, "a_0", "Lower\nvalue")]:
    canvas.add(AxisMarkLayer("y", value, symbol, math=True))
    canvas.add(AxisNoteLayer("y", value, note))
canvas.add(BraceLayer("y", 5, 7, "Span", side="outside"))

The y axis is the plot's left edge and the x axis its bottom edge; the space outside them is the gutter. Columns run outward from the axis: marks, then outside braces, then notes, each as wide as its widest text. Marks and notes are spread along the axis so none overlap, keeping their order and moving as little as possible. An "inside" brace sits just inside the plot and its label is placed so it covers no line, point, region, or text. Notes use the axes.note role, which the default theme sets smaller and lighter than marks.

Saving grows the canvas just enough to include text drawn past its edges and never crops; pass expand=False to save() to keep the exact CanvasSpec size. Axis titles from build_axes() sit past the arrow tips: the x title to the right, the y title above.

Styles and themes

from mosaickit import Config, Stroke, StyleBundle, Theme, use_config

paper = Theme(
    "paper",
    {"mypkg.boundary": StyleBundle(stroke=Stroke(color="#984EA3", width=2))},
)

with use_config(Config(theme=paper)):
    canvas = Canvas()

Style resolution proceeds from layer style to canvas role override, configuration role override, theme, and finally primitive defaults. A field set to None inherits; falsey values such as opacity=0, width=0, and LegendStyle(visible=False) remain explicit overrides.

Colors by name

Style color and edge_color fields take a Color, a "#hex" string, or a palette name such as "blue". Names stay names in themes and styles; they are looked up in the active palette (Config.palette, default DEFAULT_PALETTE) when a canvas renders, so renderers only ever receive concrete colors. The built-in default theme names its colors (primary is "blue", secondary is "red", accent is "teal", neutrals are the grey-* names), so changing a color once in the palette recolors every role that names it:

from mosaickit import (
    DEFAULT_PALETTE,
    Canvas,
    Config,
    Palette,
    Stroke,
    StyleBundle,
    Theme,
    use_config,
)
from mosaickit.themes import default

palette = Palette("brand", {**DEFAULT_PALETTE.colors, "blue": "#0072B2", "accent": "#984EA3"})

# A domain package can name colors in its theme without knowing the palette.
mypkg = Theme(
    "mypkg",
    {
        **default.roles,
        "mypkg.line": StyleBundle(stroke=Stroke(color="blue", width=2)),
        "mypkg.boundary": StyleBundle(stroke=Stroke(color="accent")),
    },
)

with use_config(Config(theme=mypkg, palette=palette)):
    canvas = Canvas()  # primary and mypkg.line draw in #0072B2

A name the palette does not define raises ConfigurationError at render time, naming the role, the style field, and the palette. A Python Palette replaces the default palette, so start from DEFAULT_PALETTE.colors (as above) to keep the names the built-in theme uses.

Domain packages register dotted role names through ThemeRegistry. Typed RolePack dataclasses and expand_roles() let those packages author themes without making MosaicKit import their domain types.

Configuration can also be loaded from TOML:

[canvas]
x_range = [0, 20]
dpi = 150

[palette]
blue = "#0072B2"     # override a default color
accent = "#984EA3"   # add a new name

[styles."mypkg.boundary".stroke]
color = "accent"     # a palette name or a "#hex" value
width = 2
dash = "dashed"

[styles."mypkg.line".stroke]
color = "blue"

The [palette] table layers named hex colors over DEFAULT_PALETTE, and the loaded palette is available as config.palette. Overriding blue there recolors the built-in primary role and any theme or style that names blue, with no styles needed. Style color and edge_color values accept palette names as well as hex; an unknown name raises ConfigurationError naming the file and key when the file is loaded.

Use Config.load(path) to validate it. Runtime defaults are isolated with contextvars, while explicit constructor arguments always take precedence.

Grids, parameters, and animation

from mosaickit import Animation, Canvas, CanvasGrid, Parameter, TextLayer

position = Parameter("position", value_type=float)
template = Canvas().add(TextLayer((position, 5), "moving"))
values = position.values([1.0, 3.0, 5.0])

CanvasGrid.sweep(template, values, cols=3).save("sweep.svg")
Animation.sweep(template, values, fps=2).save("sweep.gif")

CanvasGrid accepts flat canvases, nested rows, None cells, and Span(canvas, rows=..., cols=...). A flat list infers a roughly square grid; explicit rows and cols may leave trailing cells empty.

Parameters and expressions support arithmetic, ordered comparisons, partial binding, and stable structural equality. Animation.frames() yields backend-neutral scenes. GIF output uses Pillow; MP4 output requires ffmpeg.

Rendering

PNG, SVG, and PDF use the built-in Matplotlib renderer:

result = canvas.render()
try:
    result.show()
finally:
    result.close()

canvas.save() closes its temporary render result automatically. The public Renderer protocol and RendererRegistry allow other backends without placing backend state in the scene graph. Render plans and contexts remain private while the built-in backends evolve.

Each render, grid, or animation job owns its cache. Pass an explicit RenderCache to reuse work across jobs. Non-hashable models bypass caching and emit one warning per model type and cache.

Scope

MosaicKit owns domain-neutral scene composition, styles, themes, parameter binding, grid layout, animation frames, renderer contracts, and static/animated output. Domain semantics belong to the packages that build on it. Mathematical curve construction and native TikZ path generation belong to geometry packages such as BezierKit.

Development

uv sync --locked
uv run pre-commit install
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run mypy
uv run lint-imports
uv build

The lockfile pins all development dependencies.