> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://alphacastio.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create a Chart

> Turn pipeline output into a chart and customize it without leaving the pipeline.

**Create a Chart** is one of the pipeline's output steps. It charts the data as it stands at that point and lets you customize the result.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/alphacastio/ttF_U-V9HDrmrPbo/images/steps/chart-data-1.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=ttF_U-V9HDrmrPbo&q=85&s=228299afb18a5f671ccdd54823cbcb9b" alt="Chart Data step in the pipeline editor" width="657" height="165" data-path="images/steps/chart-data-1.png" />
</Frame>

Select the **Create a chart** step and save. The pipeline then asks which variables to chart — either from the pipeline itself or from another dataset:

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/alphacastio/ttF_U-V9HDrmrPbo/images/steps/chart-data-2.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=ttF_U-V9HDrmrPbo&q=85&s=2b0579351ea0080c91be8dd403510a9c" alt="Selecting variables to chart" width="1366" height="552" data-path="images/steps/chart-data-2.png" />
</Frame>

Once the variables are chosen, configure the chart:

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/alphacastio/ttF_U-V9HDrmrPbo/images/steps/chart-data-3.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=ttF_U-V9HDrmrPbo&q=85&s=c6f70de902cf6723729ad411f77c7fa1" alt="Configuring the chart" width="1366" height="551" data-path="images/steps/chart-data-3.png" />
</Frame>

## Customizing

Customization is split across five tabs — **Basic**, **Data**, **Texts**, **Customize** and **Annotations** — each covering a different set of options. [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IU_o6WGLmI\&t=1s) walks through them.

<Note>
  Chart configuration is also available to AI agents: the MCP server exposes the full chart config reference and a validator. See [Grapher tools](/mcp/tools/grapher).
</Note>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Publish dataset" icon="upload" href="/steps/publish">
    Save the underlying data as an auto-updating dataset.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Data snapshot" icon="camera" href="/steps/data-snapshot">
    Produce a downloadable, embeddable snapshot.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>