dbt Labs open-sourced a YAML-based charting language that lets AI agents generate dashboards as code instead of UI-bound reports, solving the friction between messy code generation and restrictive BI tool interfaces. The accompanying dbtCharts.com platform adds hosting, access control, and conversational analytics on top of the open standard.

• Current AI-generated reports create sprawling file structures across multiple languages, making audits slow and token-expensive; dbt Charts consolidates everything into a single readable YAML file that agents can modify efficiently
• Charts defined in code live in Git alongside dbt models, so schema changes and chart updates ship together in one CI run and fail before reaching production
• The language includes 1,100+ config options across 16 chart types with cascading styles and inheritance, designed to look intentionally crafted rather than dashboard-grid generic