OpenBB Charting
Plotly-based charting for the OpenBB Platform. Installing this package registers a charting accessor on every OBBject command result and enables the chart=True argument on Platform endpoints that have a chart.
Installation
pip install openbb-charting
To display charts in a native desktop window, install the PyWry extra:
pip install "openbb-charting[pywry]"
On Linux, PyWry requires system WebKit/GTK libraries:
- Debian / Ubuntu / Mint:
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev - Arch / Manjaro:
sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk - Fedora:
sudo dnf install gtk3-devel webkit2gtk3-devel
Usage
Pass chart=True to an endpoint that has a chart, then call show() on the result:
from openbb import obb
data = obb.equity.price.historical("AAPL", provider="yfinance", chart=True)
data.show()
The same chart is reachable through the charting accessor on any result, without chart=True:
res = obb.equity.price.historical("AAPL", provider="yfinance")
res.charting.show()
Which commands have a chart
Charts are contributed by the installed extensions. List the registered routes:
from openbb_charting import Charting
Charting.functions()
Technical-analysis overlays — to_chart
to_chart rebuilds the chart of a time-series (OHLCV) result with indicator overlays. Indicators and their parameters are passed through the indicators argument:
res = obb.equity.price.historical("AAPL", provider="yfinance")
res.charting.to_chart(
indicators=dict(
sma=dict(length=[20, 50]),
rsi=dict(length=14),
macd=dict(fast=12, slow=26, signal=9),
)
)
res.show()
List every available indicator and its parameters:
res.charting.indicators() # from a result
Charting.indicators() # standalone
Building charts directly from data
The accessor exposes builders that accept a DataFrame or a list of Data (such as OBBject.results) and return an OpenBBFigure. Their input signatures differ; create_line_chart and create_bar_chart also display the chart by default — pass render=False to build it without displaying.
res = obb.equity.price.historical("AAPL", provider="yfinance")
df = res.to_dataframe()
fig = res.charting.create_line_chart(data=res.results, target="close", render=False)
fig = res.charting.create_bar_chart(
data=res.results, x="date", y="volume", render=False
)
fig = res.charting.create_correlation_matrix(data=res.results, method="pearson")
fig = res.charting.create_3d_surface(X=df["open"], Y=df["high"], Z=df["close"])
fig.show()
Adding a chart to a command
Register a charting-view class through the openbb_charting_extension entry-point group in your pyproject.toml:
[project.entry-points."openbb_charting_extension"]
my_extension = "openbb_my_extension.my_extension_views:MyExtensionViews"
A view method is matched to an endpoint by replacing the route's slashes with underscores: /equity/price/historical → equity_price_historical, /technical/ema → technical_ema. Each method receives the command output as **kwargs and returns a tuple[OpenBBFigure, dict[str, Any]] — the interactive figure plus the JSON content the API serializes.
"""Views for MyExtension."""
from typing import Any
from openbb_charting.charts.price_historical import price_historical
from openbb_charting.core.openbb_figure import OpenBBFigure
class MyExtensionViews:
"""MyExtension Views."""
@staticmethod
def my_extension_price_historical(**kwargs) -> tuple[OpenBBFigure, dict[str, Any]]:
"""My Extension Price Historical Chart."""
return price_historical(**kwargs)
The chart is then produced by setting chart=True on the command, or via result.charting.show().
Replacing the engine, hooks, and backend
The Platform interfaces (Python, API, CLI, MCP) do not depend on openbb-charting by name; they resolve the active engine from whichever OBBject extension registers the charting accessor. Three things are pluggable through entry points alone.
Replace the engine
Ship an OBBject extension that registers the charting accessor:
[project.entry-points."openbb_obbject_extension"]
my_charting = "openbb_my_charting:ext" # ext = Extension(name="charting")
If openbb-charting is uninstalled, your engine is used automatically. When both are installed, select one with system_settings.charting_extension (or the OPENBB_CHARTING_EXTENSION environment variable). An engine must expose the functions() classmethod, and get_backend_class() to be usable from the CLI.
Chart lifecycle hooks
Register a ChartingHook subclass under the openbb_charting_hooks group. Hooks run inside chart creation, so they fire for every interface:
[project.entry-points."openbb_charting_hooks"]
my_hook = "openbb_my_pkg.hooks:MyHook"
from openbb_core.app.charting import ChartingHook
class MyHook(ChartingHook):
"""Watermark every figure after it is built."""
routes = () # empty matches all routes
priority = 100 # lower runs first
def post_figure(self, context):
context.figure.add_annotation(text="INTERNAL", opacity=0.1)
return context
Stages: resolve_data, pre_figure, post_figure, pre_render, post_render. A hook mutates context in place and/or returns a new one.
Backend override
Swap the rendering backend (PyWry / browser / custom) without replacing the engine, via the openbb_charting_backend group:
[project.entry-points."openbb_charting_backend"]
my_backend = "openbb_my_pkg.backend:MyBackend"
A backend is constructed with a single charting_settings argument. The override is opt-in: set system_settings.charting_backend (or OPENBB_CHARTING_BACKEND) to the registered name. Without a selection, the engine keeps its built-in backend.