graph-cli
A flexible command-line tool for generating graphs and charts from CSV data files.
What is graph-cli?
graph-cli is a Python-based command-line tool that generates graphs and charts directly from CSV files. It solves the problem of quickly visualizing data without writing custom plotting scripts or using heavyweight applications, offering a streamlined, terminal-friendly workflow.
Data analysts, researchers, and developers who need to rapidly visualize CSV datasets from the command line, especially in automated scripts or data processing pipelines.
Developers choose graph-cli for its balance of simplicity and configurability—it provides extensive customization through flags while using sensible defaults, and its chaining feature enables complex multi-file visualizations without extra tooling.
Overview
Flexible command line tool to create graphs from CSV data
Use Cases
Best For
- Quickly visualizing CSV data from terminal commands
- Automating graph generation in data processing scripts
- Creating combined charts from multiple CSV files via chaining
- Generating histograms and line plots from structured datasets
- Resampling and aggregating time-series data for clearer plots
- Embedding data visualization into CLI-based workflows
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring interactive, web-based visualizations with zoom and hover effects
- Teams needing advanced statistical plots like heatmaps, 3D graphs, or custom chart layouts
- Environments where visual editing and real-time tweaking in a GUI are preferred
Pros & Cons
Pros
Offers extensive command-line flags for detailed customization, as shown in the examples with options like --hist, --resample, and the separate OPTIONS.md file for full documentation.
Supports chaining multiple CSV files in commands, enabling complex multi-source visualizations without extra scripting, demonstrated in the sine-cosine example with --chain.
Includes a resampling feature to aggregate or downsample data, making time-series plots cleaner, as evidenced by the avocado.csv example with --resample 1W.
Easy installation via pip and reasonable defaults allow immediate use with minimal arguments, such as in the basic sine.csv example requiring only input and output flags.
Cons
Primarily supports basic chart types like line graphs and histograms, lacking advanced options such as scatter plots or bar charts, which might not meet diverse visualization needs.
Full customization requires consulting separate files like OPTIONS.md, which can be inconvenient for users who prefer integrated, in-depth documentation within the README.
Relies on Python and pip for installation, potentially causing issues in environments without Python or with version conflicts, limiting portability compared to standalone binaries.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
awk by example:zap: From finding text to search and replace, from sorting to beautifying text and more :art:
QSVBlazing-fast Data-Wrangling toolkit
ParaTextA library for reading text files over multiple cores.
Rainbow CSV plugins🌈Rainbow CSV - Vim plugin: Highlight columns in CSV and TSV files and run queries in SQL-like language
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.