plotly/plotly.js · warning

unrecognized GUI edit: ${key}

Error message

unrecognized GUI edit: ${key}

What it means

This warning is emitted by Plotly.relayout when a GUI-edit key stored in layout._preGUI cannot be matched to a recognized relayout edit handler. The edit is skipped: the pre-GUI value is not restored/applied and the key is discarded. It almost always indicates a malformed attribute path or stale internal pre-GUI bookkeeping.

Source

Thrown at src/plot_api/plot_api.js:2458

                        // Only read the input layout once and stash the result,
                        // so we get it before we start modifying it
                        if (!(head in newAutorangeIn)) {
                            var newContainer = nestedProperty(layout, head).get();
                            newAutorangeIn[head] =
                                newContainer &&
                                (newContainer.autorange ||
                                    (newContainer.autorange !== false &&
                                        (!newContainer.range || newContainer.range.length !== 2)));
                        }
                        if (newAutorangeIn[head]) {
                            newNP.set(undefinedToNull(nestedProperty(oldFullLayout, key).get()));
                            continue;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            Lib.warn('unrecognized GUI edit: ' + key);
        }
        // if we got this far, the new value was accepted as the new starting
        // point (either because it changed or revision changed)
        // so remove it from _preGUI for next time.
        delete layoutPreGUI[key];

        if (match && match.tail.slice(0, 6) === 'range[') {
            newRangeAccepted[match.head] = 1;
        }
    }

    // More special logic for `autorange`, since it interacts with `range`:
    // If the new figure's matching `range` was kept, and `autorange`
    // wasn't supplied explicitly in either the original or the new figure,
    // we shouldn't alter that - but we may just have done that, so fix it.
    for (var i = 0; i < bothInheritAutorange.length; i++) {
        var axAttr = bothInheritAutorange[i];
        if (newRangeAccepted[axAttr]) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 1d090e0b5f)

Solutions

  1. Check the key passed to Plotly.relayout for typos and verify it is a valid layout attribute path via Plotly.PlotSchema.
  2. Re-render the figure with Plotly.react or Plotly.newPlot to clear stale _preGUI state instead of reusing the long-lived graph div.
  3. If you extend interaction code, only write keys to pre-GUI state that the relayout dispatcher recognizes, or remove them before calling relayout.

Example fix

// before
Plotly.relayout(gd, 'xaxis.rang', [0, 10]);
// after
Plotly.relayout(gd, 'xaxis.range', [0, 10]);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function isValidLayoutKey(gd, key) {
  const parts = key.split(/[\[\].]/).filter(Boolean);
  let node = gd._fullLayout || {};
  for (const p of parts) {
    if (node == null || typeof node !== 'object' || !(p in node)) return false;
    node = node[p];
  }
  return true;
}
// usage: if (isValidLayoutKey(gd, 'xaxis.range')) Plotly.relayout(gd, key, val);

Type guard

function isStringKey(v) {
  return typeof v === 'string' && v.length > 0 && !v.startsWith('_');
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Plotly.relayout(gd, key, val) with a key that is not a recognized layout attribute path or known GUI edit (typo'd path, unrecognized nested/arrayed key, or an internal _preGUI key the dispatcher cannot classify).

Common situations: Typos in programmatic relayout calls (e.g. 'xaxis.rang'); custom interaction code writing unexpected keys into layout._preGUI; modebar/custom drag handlers interacting with relayout after traces or layout were regenerated.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of plotly/plotly.js@1d090e0b5f (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9848f04f0ec34483. Report an issue: GitHub.