# Makie.jl keyword argument recipes (v0.24)

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** question, makie, recipe\
**Created:** [September 23, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603 "2025-09-23T18:02:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrbaxter0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@jrbaxter0](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jrbaxter0)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603/1 "2025-09-23T18:02:27Z")

</div>

I would like to request some help updating some of my plotting recipes to the new v0.24 style. I know the issue lies with the new attribute system and the computational graph (and no longer being able to manipulate it like a `Dict`), but I can’t figure out how to make them work.

For reference, I’m doing something in-between a simple argument conversion recipe and a full-blown recipe. I’m not defining a new plotting function, but I am needing something more complex than argument conversion, so that I can pass through keyword arguments.

Minimum working example:

```julia-auto
struct Foo
       x::Vector{Float64}
       y::Vector{Float64}
       color::Symbol
end

Makie.convert_arguments(::PointBased, foo::Foo) = (foo.x, foo.y)

# I can plot x vs y like this, but it does not set the color automatically
foo = Foo(1:10, 1:10, :red)
scatter(foo)

# therefore, I overload the plot! function, like a full @recipe would
function Makie.plot!(plot::Plot(Foo))
    map!(plot.attributes, [:arg1], [:scatter, :color]) do foo
        return (foo, foo.color)
    end
    scatter!(plot, plot.attributes, plot.scatter, color=plot.color)
end

# I can plot x vs y with correct color like this
plot(foo)

# however, I can't figure out how to make this work
plot(foo, markersize=10)

```

In the past, keyword arguments would get passed through, but it seems now that they aren’t. I could also manipulate the dictionary of attributes in my `plot!` function (could check to see if certain arguments were set, overwrite them, etc…); I don’t need that currently, but it could also be nice to know how to do that.

I think the issue stems from [Recipes | Makie](https://docs.makie.org/v0.24/explanations/recipes#Attribute-Passthrough) noting that the child plot will pick out the relevant attributes, but I’m perhaps not setting them for my overloaded `Plot(foo)` type. I tried the following, but it did not work:

```julia-auto
Makie.documented_attributes(::Type{Plot(Foo)}) = Makie.documented_attributes(Scatter)

```

so tl;dr, in Makie v0.24, what is the correct way to inherit default attributes and pass them through to the child for an overloaded `plot!` function? Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aplavin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/aplavin/32/222056_2.png) [@aplavin](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/aplavin)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603/2 "2025-09-23T19:01:29Z")

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Try a simpler approach, without overloading `plot!`:

```julia-auto
Makie.convert_arguments(::Type{Scatter}, foo::Foo) =
    Makie.SpecApi.Scatter(foo.x, foo.y; foo.color)

```

---

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**Author:** ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603/3 "2025-09-23T19:41:48Z")

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> [@jrbaxter0](#):
>
> the child plot will pick out the relevant attributes

sounds like [Unable to pass attributes if re-directed by recipe · Issue #3904 · MakieOrg/Makie.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/MakieOrg/Makie.jl/issues/3904) ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrbaxter0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@jrbaxter0](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jrbaxter0)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 7:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603/4 "2025-09-23T19:43:15Z")

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Thanks for the suggestion! I had no idea that API existed, and it seems perfect for what I need. How can I make it work in 3D though?

```julia-auto
struct Bar
       x::Vector{Float64}
       y::Vector{Float64}
       z::Vector{Float64}
       color::Symbol
end

Makie.convert_arguments(::Type{Scatter}, bar::Bar) =
    [Makie.SpecApi.Scatter(bar.x, bar.y, bar.z; color=bar.color)]
Makie.plottype(::Bar) = Scatter
Makie.preferred_axis_type(::Plot(Bar)) = LScene

bar = Bar(1:10, 1:10, 1:10, :red)
plot(bar)

```

It seems that preferred axis type isn’t taking effect. It may be possible to create the `LScene` in the spec, but I’d like to be able to plot into existing axes (if I have multiple `Bar`s for example)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrbaxter0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@jrbaxter0](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jrbaxter0)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603/5 "2025-09-23T20:18:00Z")

</div>

Yes, that does seem related. I noticed the same initial issue, so I switched to just passing in the `plot.attributes` directly, since the documentation stated the child plot would only use the ones that are applicable to it (or at least I interpreted it to say that)

When set `used_attributes` like you did:

```julia-auto
Makie.used_attributes(::Type{Plot{plot}}, ::Foo) = (:markersize, )

```

I can get the intended functionality with my original `plot!` overload. However, if I don’t specify it in the plot call, it is set to nothing and does not plot correctly.

So it seems the current issue with that approach is that I need a way to set defaults (ideally inheriting most of them from the child I call). However, I tried several variants of using `documented_attributes`, `plot_attributes`, `default_attribute_values`, `default_theme`, which appear in the `@recipe` source and couldn’t figure how to get them called when plotting.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jrbaxter0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@jrbaxter0](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jrbaxter0)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-keyword-argument-recipes-v0-24/132603/6 "2025-09-24T13:43:19Z")

</div>

I figured out how to make this work. I embed the following in my `plot!` overload. It parses the keywords (available in `plot.kw`), determines if they’re relevant (meaning I set a default), does default substitution, and adds them to the compute graph.

Here is an example for a `Surface` recipe:

```julia-auto
    # set default arguments and parse keywords
    default_kwargs = Dict(
        :shininess => 0f0,
        :specular => 0.0,
        :ssao => true,
        :alpha => 1.0)
    for (key, val) in default_kwargs
        if key in keys(plot.kw)
            val = plot.kw[key]
        end
        Makie.add_input!(plot.attributes, key, val)
    end

```

I think the issue stems from the fact that default arguments are set per-function (meaning `plot`, `surface`, `myhist`), not per-type (meaning `Type{Plot(Foo)}` or `Type{Plot(Bar)}`). So there is nowhere for me to overload a function to tie into existing mechanims for default argument substitution since I was trying to dispatch on the latter (which doesn’t enter the function call).

Also, @jling, in all my other recipes I was able to removed `shared_attributes(plot.attributes)` and just directly pass in `plot.attributes` directly. I think in the past it would complain about extraneous arguments if you didn’t do that, but it seems to work fine without that now.