# Visual Reporting

Use a visual dashboard when it helps a reader compare evidence or make a decision. Do not generate one merely to decorate a trivial result.

## Render a Dashboard When

- making a release decision;
- comparing at least three metrics, slices, risks, findings, or failure classes;
- showing a distribution, confidence interval, disagreement pattern, or trend;
- summarizing an incident with several affected components or timeline events;
- presenting evidence to stakeholders who need a scan-friendly view.

Skip it for a single check, a short initialization result, a small prose correction, or an action with no meaningful comparison.

## Required Behavior

1. Preserve the underlying evidence in its native files.
2. Write `.confidence/dashboard.json` using the bundled dashboard template as a guide.
3. Run:

   ```bash
   <carbon-plugin-root>/bin/carbon-confidence-dashboard \
     --input .confidence/dashboard.json \
     --output .confidence/dashboard.html
   ```

   Resolve `<carbon-plugin-root>` from the active skill location rather than assuming a fixed installation directory.
4. Inspect the generated HTML for truthful labels, readable text, and missing or misleading values.
5. Show the dashboard in the host when HTML preview is supported. Otherwise, link directly to `.confidence/dashboard.html`.

## Visual Standards

- Use the CARBON marketing identity on every generated HTML report: pure black
  canvas, high-contrast white typography, restrained gray structure, and the
  white geometric cut-C mark with the `CARBON / ENGINEERING CONFIDENCE`
  lockup. Keep testers.ai as ownership attribution, not the primary report
  masthead.
- Reserve color for evidence semantics such as supported, uncertain, and
  blocked states. Do not reintroduce decorative amber, cyan, gradients, or a
  competing product mark.
- Use the CARBON custom inline-SVG icon family for every primary report section
  and contained information block. Icons describe the evidence type or
  decision role; do not use emoji or repeat one generic symbol everywhere.
- Render remaining risk and risk-led decisions in CARBON orange (`#ff9f43`) so
  risk reads as important without being confused with a confirmed failure.
- Prefer editorial spreads, ledgers, timelines, stepped choices, and grouped
  context bands over uniform grids of equally weighted cards.
- Lead with the decision or priority, not a vanity score.
- Use status colors consistently: green for supported, amber for uncertain or partial, red for blockers, and cyan for neutral information.
- Show severe failures and unknowns prominently.
- Prefer distributions, intervals, bars, and category comparisons over one oversized average.
- Use concise labels and plain language.
- Never fabricate a percentage to fill a chart.
- Never hide a blocker because another metric improved.
- Keep the dashboard responsive, printable, and usable with reduced motion.

The dashboard is a view of evidence, not the evidence itself.
