origin-plotting (Codex skill)

A Codex skill that drives an already-open OriginLab Origin / OriginPro over Windows COM Automation to build, style, and export figures - no clipboard, no manual clicking.

Verified end-to-end on Origin 64-bit (Origin 2021+) on Windows with Python 3.12 + pywin32.

What it does

• Connects to the running Origin instance via Origin.ApplicationSI
• Writes data into a worksheet with PutWorksheet and reads it back to verify
• Creates stacked XRD patterns, bar/column, line, scatter, and line+symbol plots
• Styles axes, legends, curve colors, and text annotations through LabTalk
• Exports a PNG with expGraph and checks the file was actually written
• Never saves .opju (you press Ctrl+S) and treats source data as read-only

Repository layout

skills/origin-plotting/
├── SKILL.md
├── agents/openai.yaml
├── references/
│   ├── plot-types.md
│   └── xrd-recipe.md
└── scripts/
    └── origin_plot.py

Install

Option A - copy into your Codex skills folder

git clone https://github.com/mayufei666/origin-plotting-skill.git
Copy-Item -Recurse -Force `
  .\origin-plotting-skill\skills\origin-plotting `
  "$env:USERPROFILE\.codex\skills\origin-plotting"

Reload or restart Codex, then invoke it with $origin-plotting.

Option B - install straight from GitHub

If your Codex build supports the skill-installer:

python scripts/install-skill-from-github.py `
  --repo mayufei666/origin-plotting-skill `
  --path skills/origin-plotting

Use the generic plotting script directly

python skills\origin-plotting\scripts\origin_plot.py `
  --data "E:\data\sample.csv" `
  --x-col 1 --y-cols 2,3 `
  --plot-type bar `
  --out "C:\OriginData\bar.png" `
  --xlabel "Category" --ylabel "Value"

--plot-type accepts line, scatter, line+symbol, bar.

Requirements

• Windows
• OriginLab Origin / OriginPro installed and already running
• Python 3.9+ with pywin32 (pip install pywin32)

Verified gotchas baked into the skill

Problem	What works here
originpro package hangs	Use raw win32com COM instead
Origin.Application unreliable	Use Origin.ApplicationSI
Bar chart plot:=300 / 310 gives an empty graph	Use plot:=203
Clipboard export fails	Use LabTalk expGraph
.opju save via COM crashes the connection	Let the user press Ctrl+S
Raw color numbers fail silently	Resolve via color(r,g,b)
LabTalk eats parentheses in labels	Quote the annotation text

License

MIT - see LICENSE.