CLI example

This worked example creates a bar-chart document, applies a reusable theme and exports offline HTML. It shows every command and output, followed by the required fields in both files. For command signatures, all options, defaults and exit codes, use the CLI reference.

The transcript uses ScopeView 0.1.0, a POSIX shell and the macOS ARM64 archive. Its starting directory is /tmp; your absolute output paths will reflect your own directory. Commands exit 0 unless another exit code is shown.

1. Make the CLI available

Start in the directory containing your platform archive. Extract the whole archive and add its launcher directory to PATH:

tar -xzf scopeview-v0.1.0-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
export PATH="$PWD/scopeview-v0.1.0-darwin-arm64/bin:$PATH"

Both commands produce no output. Choose the archive matching your platform; see installation and invocation for other platforms, npm and source-checkout usage. The archive includes Node, so this example does not require a separate Node/npm installation.

scopeview --version

stdout:

0.1.0

2. Create a working directory

mkdir scopeview-demo
cd scopeview-demo

Both commands produce no output. The remaining commands run in this directory:

pwd

stdout:

/tmp/scopeview-demo

3. Generate chart.json

Discover the available examples:

scopeview example --help

stdout:

Usage: scopeview example <name>
  --help, -h  Show usage
Examples: line, area, bar, horizontal-bar, scatter, pie, top-list, treemap, big-number, trace, profile

Generate the bar example:

scopeview example bar > chart.json

No terminal output: stdout was redirected into chart.json. Read the complete file:

cat chart.json

stdout, the complete chart.json:

{
  "version": 1,
  "title": "Requests by service",
  "data": {
    "fields": [
      {
        "name": "service",
        "data_type": "string"
      },
      {
        "name": "requests",
        "data_type": "number"
      }
    ],
    "rows": [
      [
        "api",
        "120"
      ],
      [
        "worker",
        "80"
      ],
      [
        "idle",
        "0"
      ],
      [
        "missing",
        null
      ]
    ]
  },
  "spec": {
    "visualization": "bar",
    "encoding": {
      "x": "service",
      "y": [
        "requests"
      ]
    }
  }
}

data contains fields and rows directly. Numeric cells are strings such as "120" and "0"; the missing value is JSON null. Adding a row requires no separate row count.

4. Validate the document

scopeview validate chart.json

stdout:

Valid metric document: 4 records, 2 fields.

This checks the document only. Rendering also validates it, so this separate step is optional. A theme is validated by render --theme, not by validate.

5. Write theme.json

Create a reusable theme with a base font size of 16, a custom palette and surface colors:

cat > theme.json <<'JSON'
{
  "mode": "light",
  "fontFamily": "Inter, system-ui, sans-serif",
  "fontSize": 16,
  "palette": ["#3979ce", "#16a38d", "#a57ccd", "#c48c23"],
  "colors": {
    "surface": "#f4f6fa",
    "text": "#18212b",
    "mutedText": "#68758a"
  }
}
JSON

No output. Read the complete file:

cat theme.json

stdout, the complete theme.json:

{
  "mode": "light",
  "fontFamily": "Inter, system-ui, sans-serif",
  "fontSize": 16,
  "palette": ["#3979ce", "#16a38d", "#a57ccd", "#c48c23"],
  "colors": {
    "surface": "#f4f6fa",
    "text": "#18212b",
    "mutedText": "#68758a"
  }
}

Every theme field is optional. Keep this file separate from chart.json so the same data can be rendered with different themes. Font size is a base size: text roles scale proportionally rather than all becoming exactly 16px.

6. Export HTML

scopeview render chart.json -o chart.html --theme ./theme.json --fonts

stdout:

/tmp/scopeview-demo/chart.html

chart.json and -o chart.html are required. --theme and --fonts are optional. Open chart.html in a browser. It includes the data, renderer, styles, resolved theme and Inter Latin fonts, and works offline without the JSON files beside it. The caption shows "Requests by service". Focus the plot and use the arrow keys or Home/End to inspect its numeric rows, including the zero value. The missing row remains null in the embedded data and paints no bar; keyboard inspection in this vertical bar example visits the three numeric rows.

--fonts embeds Inter 400/600, while Chinese and other CJK glyphs use available system fonts. A theme's fontFamily does not download or embed additional fonts. Time-series labels, when present, use the viewer browser's local time zone. See time display and fonts.

7. Replace an existing export

Repeating the previous command fails because the output already exists:

scopeview render chart.json -o chart.html --theme ./theme.json --fonts

Exit 4. stdout is empty; stderr:

ERR_SCOPEVIEW_OUTPUT_EXISTS: Output already exists. Use --force to replace the regular file.

The existing file remains intact. Request replacement explicitly:

scopeview render chart.json -o chart.html --theme ./theme.json --fonts --force

stdout:

/tmp/scopeview-demo/chart.html

8. Reuse the document

Export the same data with the default light appearance and system font fallbacks:

scopeview render chart.json -o chart-default.html

stdout:

/tmp/scopeview-demo/chart-default.html

Or create a fragment with the custom theme and fonts, without its caption:

scopeview render chart.json -o chart-fragment.html --format fragment --theme ./theme.json --fonts --no-caption

stdout:

/tmp/scopeview-demo/chart-fragment.html

Fragments are for hosts that permit their inline scripts/styles. See fragment requirements.

9. Use JSON, schema and stdin

Ask for a machine-readable validation receipt:

scopeview validate chart.json --json

stdout is one JSON line, formatted here for readability:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "scopeviewVersion": "0.1.0",
  "input": {
    "path": "/tmp/scopeview-demo/chart.json",
    "bytes": 579,
    "sha256": "6c511bdf1e6ce99149dbdefda0e42e0be9b99560122ecbb46ee2bd3f45db8d06"
  },
  "status": "validated",
  "document": {
    "version": 1,
    "kind": "metric",
    "records": 4,
    "fields": 2
  },
  "diagnostics": []
}

Save the complete document schema for an editor or another validator:

scopeview schema > document.schema.json

No terminal output: stdout is redirected into the schema file. The schema covers chart documents; theme validation remains part of rendering.

Use - to validate a document from stdin:

scopeview example line | scopeview validate -

stdout:

Valid metric document: 5 records, 2 fields.

10. Observe a configuration error

Create a file with a misspelled theme key:

printf '{"fontSzie":16}\n' > invalid-theme.json

No output. Try to use it:

scopeview render chart.json -o invalid.html --theme ./invalid-theme.json

Exit 3. stdout is empty; stderr:

ERR_SCOPEVIEW_THEME: theme.fontSzie: Unknown option.

No invalid.html is created. The error identifies the exact unknown key. Correct it to fontSize, or use the valid theme.json from step 5. Unknown document and nested configuration keys are also errors; they are never silently ignored.

Required fields

chart.json

For the bar document shown above:

Field	Required?	Contract
version	Yes	Number 1
data	Yes	Object containing fields and rows
data.fields	Yes	Nonempty ordered field list
data.fields[].name	Yes	Field name; unique names allow the shorthand used here
data.fields[].data_type	Yes	Exactly string, number or timestamp
data.rows	Yes	Row arrays in field order; may be []
spec	Yes	Visualization and its field-role mappings
spec.visualization	Yes	bar in this example
spec.encoding	Yes	Required roles for the selected visualization
spec.encoding.x	Yes for bar	Field name or full field reference
spec.encoding.y	Yes for bar	Nonempty array of numeric field names/references
title	No	Caption shown by default in the HTML export

Every row must have exactly as many cells as there are fields. Cells are strings or null, including cells in a number column. "0" and null have different meanings. title is the only optional field present in this example; removing it still leaves a valid document. kind defaults to metric when omitted. Other optional document fields and the required roles for other chart types are listed in the data reference.

theme.json

The file itself is optional: omit --theme to use the default light appearance. Within a theme file, no fields are required, and {} is valid.

Field	Required?	Contract
mode	No	light (default), dark or system
fontFamily	No	CSS family list, 1–256 characters; no URLs or CSS variables
fontSize	No	Number from 8 through 32 CSS px; base default 13
palette	No	1–10 opaque hex colors, each #rgb or #rrggbb
colors	No	Object containing only the three optional roles below
colors.surface	No	Opaque #rgb or #rrggbb surface color
colors.text	No	Opaque #rgb or #rrggbb primary text color
colors.mutedText	No	Opaque #rgb or #rrggbb secondary text color

These are the complete allowed theme keys. A theme file has no version field, and putting theme inside chart.json is an unknown document setting. Use render --theme to select it.