Visualizing data

How Flax turns a query result into a saved chart — the role-based chart grammar and the chart editor.

A chart in Flax is a saved visualization of a query result. You build a query in Explore (or a sheet), pick a chart type, and Flax draws it. The chart stores how to draw the result, not the data itself — so it stays live against your semantic model and survives library upgrades.

#The chart grammar

Every chart is a small, declarative config (a "viz config") that maps result columns to visual roles — which column is the category axis, which are the values, which is the series breakdown. This grammar is versioned and independent of the underlying rendering engine, so a saved chart renders the same way years later.

The common roles are:

Role Meaning Used by
x Category or time axis bar, line, area, scatter, combo
y One or more value columns bar, line, area, combo
series A column that splits values into one series per distinct value bar, line
value / category A single value and its label pie, donut, funnel, KPI, gauge, map

Because the config references columns by name, changing the query (adding a filter, swapping a dimension) updates the chart automatically.

#The chart editor

Open the chart editor from any Explore result or from a saved chart. It has three parts:

  1. Type picker — choose a chart type (see Chart types).
  2. Roles — assign result columns to the roles that type needs. A guided empty state tells you what is still missing (for example, a box plot needs all five summary columns before it draws).
  3. Options — legend position, number format, value labels ("Show numbers"), and per-chart colors. See Formatting & theming.

Saved charts are org-scoped and carry a visibility of private, team, or org. Place them on a dashboard to lay several out together.

#Next steps