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

# Figures & Diagrams

> Ask Bird for a publication-grade figure or a mermaid diagram and get it back in the conversation as something you can use.

Bird can draw two different things in a conversation: **figures**, which are
generated image files suitable for taking away, and **mermaid diagrams**, which
render from a fenced block and suit anything structural.

They are different tools for different jobs, and Bird picks based on what you
ask for.

## Figures

A figure is a plot of data: a chart of your results, a comparison across
conditions, a distribution.

Ask in plain language, and say what you want plotted:

* *"Plot the pH readings from this note against time"*
* *"Compare the yields across the three conditions in this table"*

Figures come back as real image files rather than as something drawn on screen
and lost, so you can take one away and put it where it needs to go.

<Tip>
  Point Bird at the note or attachment holding the numbers before you ask, using
  a context chip or by attaching the file. A figure is only as good as the data
  it was handed.
</Tip>

## Mermaid diagrams

A mermaid diagram is structural rather than numerical: a workflow, a decision
tree, a sample-handling chain, an experimental design.

* *"Draw the workflow for this protocol"*
* *"Diagram how these samples were split across the two arms"*

These render inline in the conversation from a fenced block.

## Which one you get

Ask for a plot of numbers and you get a figure. Ask for a workflow, a process or
a relationship between things and you get a diagram. If you get the wrong one,
say which you wanted; Bird takes the correction.

## Limits worth knowing

Bird draws what your data says. It will not invent points to fill a gap, and a
figure built from a sparse or ambiguous source is a sparse figure rather than a
confident-looking wrong one.

Scientific illustration, meaning drawings of apparatus, organisms or anatomy,
is deliberately out of scope. Bird refuses those rather than producing something
that looks authoritative and is not.

A figure is an assistive output. Check it against your source before it goes
into anything that matters.

## Related

* [Bird](/ai-and-search/bird-ai-assistant), including how to attach a file to a
  conversation
* [Image annotations & diagrams](/capture/annotations-and-diagrams) for drawing
  and marking up by hand, which is a different tool
* [Code in Bower](/ai-and-search/code-in-bower) if you would rather have the
  script than the picture