How do I share an Observable Framework project?

Run `npm run build`, which writes a static `dist/`, then drag that folder into Comma. `index.html` becomes the report body and the data loaders' outputs, bundles and styles upload alongside it with references rewritten.

Do the interactive charts still work?

Yes. Report HTML renders with scripts enabled inside a sandboxed iframe, so Plot and D3 visualizations, inputs and cross-filtering behave as they do in the local preview.

Can I keep the data private?

Reports are private by default and access is set per report — private, team, domain-gated, or a named reviewer list. A build whose data loaders baked in internal numbers should stay on one of those.

How do I refresh it on a schedule?

Rebuild in CI and PATCH the same report id, or use a routine to re-run and republish on a cadence. Either way the URL is stable and each refresh is kept as a revision.

Can stakeholders comment on a chart?

Yes. Anchored threads sit on the rendered chart, so "why does this dip in week 3?" is attached to the dip instead of describing it in a message.

Share an Observable Framework build

Observable Framework is a static site generator for data apps: markdown pages, data loaders that run at build time, and Plot / D3 visualizations that stay interactive in the output. npm run build writes a dist/ that needs no runtime — which is exactly the shape that should be easy to share, and mostly is not, because the moment you need it behind a login you are standing up a host.

Build

npm run build          # → dist/

The data loaders execute during the build, so dist/ contains the results — no database credentials travel with it, and no server is needed to serve it.

Publish dist/

Drag dist/ (or a zip of it) into the app:

index.html becomes the report body.
The generated data files, JS bundles, styles and fonts upload as assets, and their references are rewritten to the uploaded copies.
Scripts run inside a sandboxed iframe (allow-scripts, no allow-same-origin), so charts render, inputs respond and cross-filtering works.

Private by default, and access is set per report — private, team, domain-gated, or a named reviewer list. See the sharing model.

Refresh on a schedule

A data app that shows last month's numbers is worse than no data app. Rebuild and PATCH the same report id:

npm run build

curl -fsS -X PATCH "https://commareports.com/api/v1/reports/$REPORT_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COMMA_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "$(jq -n --rawfile html dist/index.html \
        --arg title "Metrics — week of $(date +%Y-%m-%d)" \
        '{title: $title, html: $html}')"

Or let a routine do it: same report id, same URL, a revision per refresh, and nobody has to remember.

What review adds

Anchored threads on the chart — the question about the anomaly attached to the anomaly. See commenting on HTML.
Revisions, so week-over-week movement is visible in the report's own history rather than reconstructed from screenshots.

Limits

Entry HTML: 5 MB. Assets: 25 MB per file, 250 MB and 500 files total. A build that bakes in a large dataset is the one to watch — pre-aggregate in the loader.
60 requests/minute per token.

Try it

Comma is free — unlimited reports, unlimited commenters, unlimited revision history.

Publish a data report →