Extending DIMS

DIMS is open source. Adding a tab, an analysis, or a feature doesn't require a fork of the dashboard shell — a tab is one self-registering file and an analysis is one Python class, both discovered rather than listed, so adding either changes no existing file. This page is the map for doing either: the contracts a tab, an analysis, or a study must satisfy; the APIs available to code you add; the CLI and how to test a change; and how the pieces fit together.

Contracts

Writing a tab	one self-registering file
Writing an analysis	one Python class
A study repository	what a study is
config.json	every key
Asset layout	the directory layout and the CSV rules
Analysis output	what a payload must contain, and why
Public and private data	what private turns on, and how to keep recordings out of git

APIs

window.DIMS	the browser API a tab may use
The host runtime	the shared time axis, the tab lifecycle, the video
figure-geometry.js	the body the network is drawn on
dims_analysis.common	the machinery the analysis steps share
The builder's HTTP API	if you are working on the wizard itself

CLI & testing

dims-analysis	run the analyses, list steps, check the manifest
dims-case	create a study, vendor the core, verify the pin
dims-builder	start the wizard
Testing	the suites and the CI jobs

Explanation

Architecture	why a monorepo, why no build step, why everything self-registers
Versions, vendoring and the pin	how one fix reaches every study, and why a study can be archived

If a study needs a different parameter, it belongs in config.json under analysis — never in a copied script. Studies keep their data and their config.json; the code lives here, once, and a study takes a fix by bumping the version it pins.

Where things live

packages/dims-core/          the page: config, video, the time bus, the tab registry
packages/dims-tabs/          every tab, one self-registering file each
packages/dims-analysis/      the analyses, a pip package
packages/dims-case/          creating a study and keeping its core honest
packages/dims-case-scaffold/ what a new study starts from
packages/dims-notebooks/     notebooks that check a study's data is sound
apps/builder/                the no-code wizard
tests/reference/             the analyses, checked against known answers