Scientific figures

Figures are drawn in the background and usually take a minute or two. Here is how creating, fetching and editing work.

Your agent can draw scientific figures from a description: mechanism and pathway diagrams, workflows, study designs, graphical abstracts and schematics. The figure tools are part of the General research pack, so they are always available.

Figures are for illustrations. For charts of numeric data, ask your agent to write plotting code instead.

Asking for a figure

Describe what the figure should show: the parts, how they relate, and the order of events. The more precise the description, the better the result. For example:

Make a graphical abstract for my paper: TGF-β drives fibroblast activation, which stiffens the matrix and recruits macrophages. Clean white background, Nature style.

You can also say:

the type: mechanism, workflow, graphical abstract, schematic or poster panel;
the style: Nature, Cell, minimal line art, flat colour or textbook;
the exact labels that should appear in the figure;
the shape: 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 3:4 or 9:16.

Figures take a minute or two

A figure is drawn in the background. It usually takes one to two minutes and occasionally up to three. This is how it works behind the scenes:

Your agent calls create_figure. If the figure is ready quickly, the image link comes back straight away.
If it is still being drawn, your agent gets a figure_id instead.
Your agent calls get_figure with that figure_id a little later to fetch the finished image.

Your agent handles these steps by itself. If it tells you the figure is still rendering, just wait a moment and ask it to check again. Please do not ask for the same figure a second time, because that would start a new one.

Changing a figure

Ask for the change in plain language, such as "make the arrows thicker" or "rename the label X to Y". Your agent calls edit_figure with the figure_id and your instruction. One or two changes at a time work best.

An edit produces a new image. The original is kept.

Where your figures are

Every figure appears on your Files page, where you can download it. Your agent also gives you the link to the image.

Credits

A figure uses more credits than a data lookup. Credits are taken only when the figure is finished. If a figure cannot be generated, nothing is charged. An edit is charged like a new figure. Fetching a figure with get_figure is free. See Credits.

Check before you publish

Figures are made by an AI model. They can contain mistakes: a wrong arrow, a misspelled label, a detail that does not match your science. Check every figure carefully yourself before you put it in a paper, poster or talk, and follow your journal's rules on AI-generated images.