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name: visualization-reporting description: "Guide MNE-Python plotting, visualization backends, topomaps, source visualization routing, and Report creation for Researcher." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: BSD 3-Clause

Visualization and Reporting Router

Use this sub-skill when the task is to make, save, debug, or package MNE-Python visual outputs after the data object already exists: Raw/Epochs/Evoked browsers, static Matplotlib figures, topomaps, source-visualization routing, optional 3D backend decisions, and mne.Report HTML/HDF5 reports.

Route first

• Continuous data browser: Raw.plot(...), mne.viz.plot_raw(...), event/annotation coloring, channel grouping, bad-channel inspection, and non-interactive exports. See workflows and backend choices.
• Epoch review and summary plots: Epochs.plot(...), Epochs.plot_image(...), Epochs.plot_drop_log(...), Epochs.plot_topo_image(...), and PSD/topomap summaries. See workflows.
• Evoked figures and comparisons: butterfly/image/joint/topomap/topo/white plots, comparison overlays, and publication-style figure saving. See workflows and API reference.
• Standalone topomaps: mne.viz.plot_topomap(data, info_or_pos, show=False) with channel positions, masking, interpolation, vlim/cnorm, and axes/colorbar handling. See topomap workflow and troubleshooting.
• 3D/source visual outputs: choose PyVistaQt or notebook rendering for already-computed source estimates, alignments, BEM, sensors, and screenshots. Route inverse modeling, forward model math, and source-estimate creation to source-modeling-inverse; return here only for plotting and export choices. See backend compatibility.
• Reports: build mne.Report, add Raw/Epochs/Evoked/custom figures/images/HTML, parse folders when appropriate, and save with open_browser=False for automation. See report workflow and API reference.
• CLI report commands: route command discovery and shell-facing mne CLI help to cli-datasets-config; this sub-skill only covers Python mne.Report and the plotting/report APIs.
• Preprocessing choices: filtering, epoching, rejection, baselining, ICA, annotations, and averaging belong to preprocessing-epochs-evoked; this sub-skill assumes the object to visualize is ready or gives only visualization-safe validation.

Operating rules

1. Prefer show=False in scripts, notebooks that must run unattended, tests, and reports; explicitly save and close Matplotlib figures.
2. Set a non-interactive backend before importing matplotlib.pyplot in headless automation.
3. Use browser/Qt/PyVista interactivity only when a display and optional dependencies are intentionally available.
4. Keep generated reports reproducible: choose an output file, set open_browser=False, and pass overwrite=True only when replacing that exact output is desired.
5. For topomaps, verify channel locations before changing interpolation or color scaling; missing montage/digitization is the common failure, not a colormap issue.
6. Use the bundled plotting backend probe before promising GUI, notebook, or 3D behavior in an unknown runtime.

Quick commands

python sub-skills/visualization-reporting/scripts/plotting_backend_probe.py --format text
python sub-skills/visualization-reporting/scripts/plotting_backend_probe.py --output mne-topomap.png --report-output mne-report.html

Run the script from any project where MNE-Python is importable. It does not require original repository files or datasets.

Evidence provenance

This sub-skill distills public API stubs, source signatures, visualization/report API pages, visualization tutorials/examples, visualization/report tests, dependency metadata, and an installed signature report. Provenance paths include mne/viz, mne/report, mne/viz/__init__.pyi, mne/report/__init__.pyi, doc/api/visualization.rst, doc/api/report.rst, tutorials/visualization, examples/visualization, mne/viz/tests, mne/report/tests, and pyproject.toml.