Household Finance Dashboard Builder

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Output shape
• Input contract
• Workflow
• The six panels
• Cognitive principles applied
• Storytelling overlay
• HTML scaffold
• Guardrails

Overview

This is the static-output cousin of the more general d3-visualization skill. It produces a single self-contained HTML file that opens in any browser without a server, with all data and chart code inlined. The dashboard is designed to be regenerated weekly from the household's JSON data store and committed to reports/dashboards/YYYY-MM-DD-weekly.html.

The skill assumes a JSON store conforming to the household-finance schema (accounts, transactions, balances, recurring, goals, investments, mortgage, alerts).

Output shape

A single HTML file containing:

• Inline <style> block (no external CSS).
• Inline data block: <script id="dashboard-data" type="application/json">{...}</script>.
• D3 v7 vendored inline (or via a single <script> tag with integrity hash if offline-rendering is acceptable).
• Six panels rendered in CSS Grid.
• A short narrative header generated via visual-storytelling-design.
• A footer with generation timestamp and source data versions.

File size target: < 1 MB. If the data exceeds this, downsample time-series before embedding (daily → weekly aggregation is usually enough).

Input contract

The caller provides:

• data_root — path to the household-finance data/ directory.
• output_path — where to write the HTML.
• generated_for — weekly or monthly (changes the time scope and headline).
• as_of — ISO date for the snapshot.
• prior_snapshot_path (optional) — a previous dashboard's data block for week-over-week deltas.

The skill reads:

• accounts.json
• balances.json
• transactions.json (filtered to relevant window)
• recurring.json
• goals.json
• investments.json
• mortgage.json
• recent files in reports/alerts/
• the most recent reports/monthly/*.json for narrative context.

Workflow

Dashboard Build Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Read data; validate completeness; compute snapshot
- [ ] Step 2: Compute the six panel datasets
- [ ] Step 3: Apply cognitive-design principles to layout choices
- [ ] Step 4: Generate narrative header via visual-storytelling-design
- [ ] Step 5: Render HTML scaffold + inline data + D3 code per panel
- [ ] Step 6: Run cognitive-fallacies-guard self-check on charts
- [ ] Step 7: Write to output_path; emit data quality footer

Step 1 — Snapshot

Compute the headline numbers:

• net_worth_cents — sum of cash + invested + home equity estimate − liabilities (mortgage + other).
• delta_vs_prior_cents — vs. the prior snapshot if available.
• month_to_date_spend_cents, month_to_date_income_cents, month_to_date_savings_rate.
• goals_on_track, goals_behind, goals_ahead counts.
• alerts_open count.

If any required file is missing, fall back gracefully: hide that panel and surface a data_gap line in the footer.

Step 2 — Panel datasets

Compute exactly the data each panel needs (see The six panels). Keep arrays small — pre-aggregate to the resolution the chart needs.

Step 3 — Cognitive principles

Apply these defaults (delegate detailed reasoning to cognitive-design):

• Visual hierarchy. The single most important number on the page is the net-worth delta. Render it largest, top-left.
• Chunking. Six panels organized into 3×2 grid; each panel has a single insight.
• Encoding hierarchy. Position > length > slope > area > color hue (per Cleveland & McGill). Use position for comparison panels; reserve color for categorical encoding only.
• Working memory. No panel asks the user to compare more than 7 things. Aggregate small categories into "Other."
• Recognition over recall. Label every series directly on the chart. No legend-only encodings.

Step 4 — Narrative header

Invoke visual-storytelling-design to generate a 3–5 line narrative:

• Lead with the insight, not the topic ("Net worth grew $4,200 this week, driven by 401k contributions and equity gains" not "Weekly Update").
• One sentence of context (vs prior week / month / year).
• One sentence flagging anything that needs attention from the alerts feed.

Step 5 — Render

Build the HTML scaffold (see HTML scaffold). Inline:

• The data block.
• A small D3 v7 bundle (or external CDN with integrity hash).
• One renderPanel*() function per panel.

Each render function follows the standard D3 data-join pattern from d3-visualization.

Step 6 — Self-check

Before writing, run a cognitive-fallacies-guard pass on the rendered SVGs (or their data + axis configurations):

• No truncated axes that exaggerate change.
• No 3D effects.
• Donut chart: total displayed inside.
• Pie / donut: max 6 slices, rest aggregated.
• Time-series: include zero baseline UNLESS doing so hides the signal — in which case annotate the baseline change explicitly.

If the self-check finds issues, fix and re-render.

Step 7 — Write

Write to output_path. Emit a footer with generation timestamp, schema version, last-drop date, and any data gaps.

The six panels

Panel 1 — Net worth over time

Data: monthly net worth points from balances.json + investments.json + mortgage.json (current_principal as liability) + home equity estimate (home value - current_principal).

Chart: line chart with annotated key events (mortgage origination, large contributions, market dislocations). Y-axis starts at 0 (this is a net-worth scale where 0 matters); X-axis covers the full history.

Headline annotation: latest value + delta vs prior snapshot.

Panel 2 — Monthly cash flow

Data: per-month income (positive bars) and spending (negative bars) over the trailing 12 months, with a line showing the rolling 6-month savings rate.

Chart: diverging bar chart (income up, spending down) with savings-rate line overlay. Color: muted teal for income, muted coral for spending.

Drill-down (optional, hover): top 5 spending categories for the latest month.

Panel 3 — Recurring & subscriptions

Data: every active row from recurring.json, sorted by annualized_cost_cents descending.

Chart: horizontal bar chart of the top 15 by annualized cost. Each bar labeled with merchant + cadence + monthly equivalent.

Annotation: total annualized cost across all active recurring at the top. Highlight any with status: suspected_dormant or amount-changed events.

Panel 4 — Goals progress

Data: every entry in goals.json with current_cents, target_cents, target_date.

Chart: horizontal stacked bar — completed vs. remaining — one row per goal. Annotate "On track / Behind / Ahead" per goal based on linear pacing to target date.

Headline: "X of Y goals on track."

Panel 5 — Asset allocation

Data: aggregated holdings by asset_class from investments.json (across taxable + 401k + HSA), plus the target allocation.

Chart: two donuts side by side (current vs target) OR a single donut with a target ring overlay. Label each slice directly with asset class + percentage.

Annotation: max drift in percentage points; flag if > 5pp.

Panel 6 — Vigilance feed

Data: most recent 10 entries from reports/alerts/, severity-tagged.

Chart: a styled list — not a chart. Each entry: severity badge + one-line evidence + suggested action.

This panel is intentionally text-heavy. The dashboard is informational and operational; the user should be able to scan it and find things to do.

Cognitive principles applied

Principle	Application in this dashboard
Pre-attentive attributes	Severity badges in the vigilance panel use color hue; everything else uses position
Gestalt proximity	Each panel is bounded with whitespace, then a thin border, then a header
Gestalt similarity	All numeric labels use the same monospaced font; all charts use the same axis style
Reading order (F-pattern)	Net worth top-left; vigilance bottom-right (the actionable end of the read)
Working memory	Max 6 categories per chart; rest aggregated
Recognition over recall	Direct labeling — no legend-only charts
Data-ink ratio	No 3D, no chartjunk, no decorative gradients
Mental models	Cash flow chart uses the universally-recognized green-up/red-down convention

Storytelling overlay

The narrative header follows: Context → Change → Drivers → What needs attention.

Example:

Net worth $1,247,300 — up $4,200 this week. The increase came mostly from a $3,800 401k contribution and a small market gain in your taxable brokerage. Spending was steady at $7,840 month-to-date, slightly under your $8,500 target. One thing to watch: your portfolio drifted to 62.5% US equity, 7.5pp above your 55% target — a rebalance proposal is queued in this week's alerts.

HTML scaffold

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8" />
  <title>Household Finance — [date]</title>
  <style>
    /* layout: 3x2 grid; max-width 1280px; light theme */
    /* typography: Inter for text, JetBrains Mono for numbers */
    /* colors: muted, accessible, single accent for "needs attention" */
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <header>
    <h1 class="net-worth-headline">$<!-- net worth --></h1>
    <p class="net-worth-delta">[+/-]$<!-- delta --> this <!-- week|month --></p>
    <p class="narrative">[generated narrative]</p>
  </header>

  <main class="grid">
    <section id="panel-net-worth"></section>
    <section id="panel-cash-flow"></section>
    <section id="panel-recurring"></section>
    <section id="panel-goals"></section>
    <section id="panel-allocation"></section>
    <section id="panel-vigilance"></section>
  </main>

  <footer>
    <p>Generated [timestamp] from data/ as of [last-drop-date]. Schema version [X].</p>
    <p>Data gaps: [if any].</p>
  </footer>

  <script id="dashboard-data" type="application/json">
    { /* inlined data */ }
  </script>
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/d3@7" integrity="sha384-..." crossorigin></script>
  <script>
    /* renderPanelNetWorth(), renderPanelCashFlow(), renderPanelRecurring(),
       renderPanelGoals(), renderPanelAllocation(), renderPanelVigilance() */
  </script>
</body>
</html>

For full offline use, vendor D3 inline rather than via CDN. The dashboard agent decides per-environment.

Guardrails

• Self-contained file. No external data fetches. The user can email the file or save to disk and it still works.
• Honest charts. Zero baselines on bar charts; no truncated y-axes; no 3D; no chartjunk.
• Privacy. This dashboard contains the household's finances — embed account masks (****1234), never full account numbers. No SSNs, no full names where masks suffice.
• Reproducibility. Same input data + same generation date should produce byte-identical HTML (modulo timestamp). Sort all arrays deterministically before rendering.
• Performance. Down-sample series so the file stays under 1 MB. The dashboard renders in < 200ms on a typical laptop.
• Accessibility. All charts have title + summary aria-labels; tabular data alternative for each chart accessible via a "Show data" toggle.
• Mobile-friendly. Grid collapses to single column under 768px width; font sizes scale.
• Versioning. Footer carries the schema version and the generation script version so future regenerations are traceable.