Creating issues#

Bug reports and feature requests in Bokeh’s issue tracker are the foundation of almost all improvements implemented in Bokeh. Bokeh’s issue tracker is part of the Bokeh GitHub repository.

Before opening an issue#

As a first step, you should always check Bokeh’s GitHub issue tracker and the Bokeh Discourse for similar or identical issues. There are lots of issues, and it’s possible to miss duplicates even after searching. If a team member closes your issue as a duplicate, you can always add your input and thoughts to the linked issue.

It is also possible that the issue you want to report has already been resolved in a newer version of Bokeh. Update Bokeh to the most recent stable version available with conda or pip and try to reproduce the issue.

You can format any text you enter when filing an issue. To learn more about your formatting options, see Writing on GitHub in the GitHub documentation.

Kinds of issues#

Bokeh’s issue tracker accepts two kinds of issues:

Bug report: Please use this kind of issue to report anything that does not work as it should. This can be an unexpected error, a fault in the code, or a discrepancy between the documentation and the actual behavior of the code, for example.
Feature request: Please use this kind of issue to propose a new feature or anything else that expands Bokeh’s current capabilities.

When you create a new issue, you can choose between creating these two types of issues. When creating either type of issue, GitHub will present you with a form. Please follow the instructions in those forms closely and provide all necessary information.

Note

The issue tracker is not the place for general support. For questions and technical assistance, visit the Bokeh Discourse. When you are unsure, post a question to the Discourse first before opening an issue.

Reporting bugs#

To file a new bug report, you should have the following information ready. This will help with resolving your issue as quickly as possible:

Title

Add a short, descriptive title for your bug report. The form field already contains [BUG], add your title after that.

Software version info

To find the version of packages such as Bokeh, Python, IPython, and Node.js, use the following command in the environment where you have Bokeh installed:

bokeh info

This provides you with a list of the versions of relevant software packages. Copy and paste this information into your bug report.

Issue details

Describe the behavior you would have expected and the behavior you observed instead.

Complete, minimal, self-contained example code that reproduces the issue

Provide a code example that follows the definition of a minimal, reproducible example at stackoverflow.com. For more details, see Craft Minimal Bug Reports at matthewrocklin.com.

Stack traceback and/or browser JavaScript console output

Optionally, add any error messages or logs that might be helpful in reproducing and identifying the bug.

Screenshots or screencasts of the bug in action

If possible, add additional information that might help understand what your bug report is about. This can be screenshots or screencasts that demonstrate the behavior you are filing an issues about, for example.

Feature requests#

To file a new feature request, you should have the following information ready. This will help with reaching a decision on your proposed feature as quickly as possible:

Title: Add a short, descriptive title for your feature request. The form field already contains [FEATURE], add your title after that.
Description of the problem you’d like solved: A clear and concise description of what problem you would like to solve with the suggested feature..
Description of the solution you’d like: A clear and concise description of what you want to happen.
Description of alternatives you’ve considered: A clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you’ve considered.
Additional context: Add any additional information about your feature request. This can be screenshots or screencasts that illustrate the functionality you would like to see in Bokeh, for example.

Next steps#

When you create a new issue, GitHub will automatically add the label TRIAGE.

Once you create an issue, a member of the Bokeh core team will review your issue and update the label. This might also include requesting further information from you. Reviewing issues is a time-consuming, manual process, so be aware that it might take a while for your issue to be processed.

See the section “Issues” in BEP 1: Issues and PRs management for more information about labels and the issue management process.