plotly/plotly.js

[FEATURE]: Add modebar button to download figure JSON

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#7,917 opened on Jul 6, 2026

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Description

Hi Plotly team, Could Plotly add a built-in modebar button to download the current figure as Plotly JSON?

Use case: in scientific visualizations, users often generate a plot in a web app, then want to customize it further by editing the underlying figure definition. Vega users can inspect/export a Vega spec and modify it directly; it would be useful to have a similar path for Plotly figures.

Ideally the button would export the current figure as JSON containing data, layout, and optionally config. This can be implemented today with a custom modebar button, but built-in support would standardize the behavior and avoid every project reimplementing it.

Thanks for considering it.

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