Apache ECharts 6.0

Luck nudged me into the ECharts orbit nearly ten years ago as a fresh intern. Today I speak not just as a user, but as a ten-year contributor and someone who grew up alongside Apache ECharts. ECharts was first open-sourced on GitHub in 2013. What began as an internal charting library quietly slipped into the wild, polished by engineers who simply wanted better charts for everyone. By 2015 I was an intern on the team, fixing tiny bugs, then dreaming bigger. My first love letter to the project was the liquid-fill chart—water that rises like hope in a glass. In that moment I realized code can be poetry; data, story. In 2018 we ferried ECharts across an ocean and offered it to the Apache Software Foundation. Two years later it graduated. During incubation we learned that healthy software is not built by heroes but by habits—clear governance, welcoming docs, and the grace to let people leave and return without drama. Last month we shipped ECharts 6.0.0. Beneath the calm surface: a new default theme that feels confident, modern, and versatile. Responsive dark-mode that listens to your OS. Chord charts, swarm charts, jittering scatter charts, enhanced stock charts, broken axes, and a matrix coordinate system that lets any chart nest inside any other. We turned custom series into truly registerable components ready to reuse. Yet the code is only half the story. The heart of ECharts beats in its people: midnight reviewers, weekend contributors, students sending their first pull request and greeted like old friends. In every design debate we argue more about architecture than features, because—as my mentor once said—“adding a feature is the easiest part.” That sentence still walks beside me, reminding me that the kindest thing we can build is room for the next idea. If you need to turn numbers into meaning, come stand with us. The water is still rising, and there is always space for one more ripple.

Apache ECharts has been around for 12 years. But with version 6.0, it feels completely new again. This release comes with a ton of new features — from layout improvements to better theming, AI integration, and more. But if I had to choose just one favorite, it would be the freedom of composition. Even in its early days, ECharts was known for its powerful customization and extensibility. I’ve seen developers use it to create stunning visualizations — even something as wild as a Hogwarts Castle. But deep customization used to take time and effort. Now, with 6.0, it’s much easier to build exactly what you want — faster, and with fewer limitations. It’s a real upgrade for anyone who wants to tell clear, expressive stories with data. Another highlight is the completely redesigned theme color system. The new look is clean, modern, and professional — your charts just look better, straight out of the box. Apache ECharts 6.0 also brings something exciting for the AI community. They’ve open-sourced ECharts MCP, which allows large language models to directly generate beautiful, high-quality charts. It’s a forward-thinking move, and I can’t wait to see what comes next at the intersection of visualization and AI. There’s a lot more under the hood, and I’m sure developers will keep discovering new gems in this version. Personally, I’m really looking forward to what the community builds — I expect to see some truly impressive visual work. And finally, a big shoutout to the amazing team behind this release: 100pah, plainheart, sz-p, konrad-amtenbrink, Lruler, Justin-ZS, jqqin, joakimono, tassosgeo, mortalYoung, seaheart, SihongShen, ribeirompl, mustcanbedo, andrearoota, robin-gerling, lzl0304, souhailaS, SchnWalter, jbampton, and shaymolcho (list from GitHub) — thank you. This is open-source at its finest. And last but not least — to Ovilia, who gave everything for Apache ECharts 6.0 — you're a legend.

From real-time dashboards to story-telling infographics, Apache ECharts 6 turns complex data into intuitive, interactive visuals—faster, smoother, and more beautifully than any other library I’ve tried.