SciTeX Plt (scitex-plt)

Publication-ready plotting with auto CSV export — sys.modules alias for figrecipe

Full Documentation · uv pip install scitex-plt[all]

Problem and Solution

Installation

pip install scitex-plt

This installs figrecipe as a dependency. scitex-plt is a sys.modules alias: scitex_plt is figrecipe evaluates to True after import.

Architecture

flowchart LR
    user["user code\nimport scitex_plt as plt"] -->|"sys.modules alias"| fr["figrecipe\n(actual implementation)"]
    fr --> mpl["matplotlib"]
    fr --> save["stx.io.save(fig, 'plot.png')"]
    save --> png[("plot.png")]
    save --> csv[("plot.csv\n(auto-tracked data)")]
    save --> yaml[("plot.yaml\n(recipe / params)")]

4 Interfaces

scitex-plt exposes the same four-interface surface as the rest of the SciTeX ecosystem (delegated to figrecipe):

import scitex_plt as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 4, 9])
plt.save(fig, "figure.png")  # writes figure.png + figure.csv

scitex-plt --help
scitex-plt info

Demo

flowchart LR
    data[("session.csv")] --> load["stx.io.load"]
    load --> arr["NumPy / DataFrame"]
    arr --> ax["ax.plot_line(...)\nax.set_xyt(...)"]
    ax --> fig["fig"]
    fig --> savefig["stx.io.save(fig, 'plot.png')"]
    savefig --> png[("plot.png")]
    savefig --> sidecar[("plot.csv\nplot.yaml")]

Quick Start

import scitex_plt as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3], [1, 4, 9])
plt.save(fig, "figure.png")  # writes figure.png + figure.csv

Part of SciTeX

scitex-plt is part of SciTeX — a Python framework for reproducible scientific computing. It is the namespace alias for figrecipe, used by sibling packages such as scitex-stats, scitex-io, and scitex-clew.

Install via pip install scitex[plt], then use scitex.plt from Python or scitex plt from the CLI.

pip install scitex[plt]   # pulls scitex-plt as part of the umbrella

import scitex as stx
stx.plt.subplots()        # routed through scitex.plt → figrecipe

scitex plt --help         # umbrella subcommand

The SciTeX system follows the Four Freedoms for Research below, inspired by the Free Software Definition:

Four Freedoms for Research

0. The freedom to run your research anywhere — your machine, your terms.
1. The freedom to study how every step works — from raw data to final manuscript.
2. The freedom to redistribute your workflows, not just your papers.
3. The freedom to modify any module and share improvements with the community.

AGPL-3.0 — because we believe research infrastructure deserves the same freedoms as the software it runs on.