diff --git a/bored-charts/README.md b/bored-charts/README.md
index 5273b50..a079767 100644
--- a/bored-charts/README.md
+++ b/bored-charts/README.md
@@ -22,19 +22,18 @@ pip install bored-charts uvicorn
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import plotly.express as px
+import plotly.graph_objects as go
 from boredcharts import BCRouter, boredcharts
-from boredcharts.jinja import to_html
-from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
 
 pages = Path(__file__).parent.absolute() / "pages"
 figure_router = BCRouter()
 
 
-@figure_router.chart("usa_population")
-async def usa_population() -> HTMLResponse:
-    df = px.data.gapminder().query("country=='United States'")
+@figure_router.chart("population")
+async def population(country: str) -> go.Figure:
+    df = px.data.gapminder().query(f"country=='{country}'")
     fig = px.bar(df, x="year", y="pop")
-    return HTMLResponse(to_html(fig))
+    return fig
 
 
 app = boredcharts(
@@ -52,7 +51,7 @@ pages/populations.md:
 
 USA's population has been growing linearly for the last 70 years:
 
-{{ figure("usa_population") }}
+{{ figure("population", country="United States") }}
 ```
 
 ### Run your app
diff --git a/bored-charts/boredcharts/__init__.py b/bored-charts/boredcharts/__init__.py
index 38e66d8..eeb5b29 100644
--- a/bored-charts/boredcharts/__init__.py
+++ b/bored-charts/boredcharts/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-__version__ = "0.2.0"
+__version__ = "0.3.0"
 
 from boredcharts.router import BCRouter
 from boredcharts.webapp import boredcharts
diff --git a/bored-charts/boredcharts/router.py b/bored-charts/boredcharts/router.py
index 266e08f..695abfb 100644
--- a/bored-charts/boredcharts/router.py
+++ b/bored-charts/boredcharts/router.py
@@ -1,16 +1,74 @@
 from collections.abc import Callable
+from typing import Any
 
+import plotly.graph_objects as go
 from fastapi import APIRouter
+from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
 from fastapi.types import DecoratedCallable
+from pydantic import GetCoreSchemaHandler
+from pydantic_core import CoreSchema, core_schema
+
+from boredcharts.jinja import to_html
+
+
+def validate_figure(fig: Any) -> go.Figure:
+    assert isinstance(fig, go.Figure)
+    return fig
+
+
+class HTMLFigure(go.Figure):  # type: ignore[misc]
+    """A Plotly Figure that Pydantic can understand and serialize.
+
+    This allows us to return a Plotly Figure from a FastAPI route.
+    """
+
+    @classmethod
+    def __get_pydantic_core_schema__(
+        cls, _source_type: Any, _handler: GetCoreSchemaHandler
+    ) -> CoreSchema:
+        return core_schema.json_or_python_schema(
+            json_schema=core_schema.any_schema(),
+            python_schema=core_schema.union_schema(
+                [
+                    core_schema.is_instance_schema(go.Figure),
+                    core_schema.any_schema(),
+                ]
+            ),
+            serialization=core_schema.plain_serializer_function_ser_schema(
+                lambda instance: to_html(instance)
+            ),
+        )
 
 
 class BCRouter(APIRouter):
+    """A FastAPI APIRouter that is specifically designed for creating chart routes.
+
+    Usage:
+
+    ```py
+    from boredcharts import BCRouter
+    import plotly.graph_objects as go
+
+    router = BCRouter()
+
+    @router.chart("my_chart")
+    async def my_chart() -> go.Figure:
+        return go.Figure()
+    ```
+    """
+
     def chart(
         self,
         name: str,
     ) -> Callable[[DecoratedCallable], DecoratedCallable]:
+        """
+        Creates a GET route for a chart, just a shorter form of the FastAPI get decorator,
+        your function still has to return a HTMLResponse
+        """
         path = f"/figure/{name}"
-        return self.api_route(
+        return self.get(
             path=path,
             name=name,
+            response_model=HTMLFigure,
+            response_class=HTMLResponse,
         )
diff --git a/examples/full/bcexample/figures.py b/examples/full/bcexample/figures.py
index 66d7e5c..a5dc63d 100644
--- a/examples/full/bcexample/figures.py
+++ b/examples/full/bcexample/figures.py
@@ -3,13 +3,12 @@
 import numpy as np
 import plotly.express as px
 from boredcharts import BCRouter
-from boredcharts.jinja import to_html
-from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
 from plotly.graph_objects import Figure
 
 router = BCRouter()
 
 
+@router.chart("population")
 async def example(report_name: str, country: str) -> Figure:
     df = px.data.gapminder().query(f"country=='{country}'")
     fig = px.bar(df, x="year", y="pop")
@@ -30,17 +29,12 @@ async def example(report_name: str, country: str) -> Figure:
     return fig
 
 
-# TODO: pass functions into framework, auto generate these routes
-@router.chart("example_simple_usa")
-async def fig_example_simple(report_name: str) -> HTMLResponse:
-    return HTMLResponse(to_html(await example(report_name, "United States")))
-
-
-@router.chart("example_params")
-async def fig_example(report_name: str, country: str) -> HTMLResponse:
-    return HTMLResponse(to_html(await example(report_name, country)))
+@router.chart("usa_population")
+async def fig_example_simple(report_name: str) -> Figure:
+    return await example(report_name, "United States")
 
 
+@router.chart("elasticity_vs_profit")
 async def elasticity_vs_profit(
     report_name: str, margin: float | None = None
 ) -> mplfig.Figure:
@@ -96,11 +90,3 @@ async def elasticity_vs_profit(
     ax.grid(True)
 
     return fig
-
-
-# TODO: pass functions into framework, auto generate these routes
-@router.chart("elasticity_vs_profit")
-async def fig_elasticity_vs_profit(
-    report_name: str, margin: float | None = None
-) -> HTMLResponse:
-    return HTMLResponse(to_html(await elasticity_vs_profit(report_name, margin)))
diff --git a/examples/full/bcexample/pages/example.md b/examples/full/bcexample/pages/example.md
index 1bc8531..9f88919 100644
--- a/examples/full/bcexample/pages/example.md
+++ b/examples/full/bcexample/pages/example.md
@@ -11,21 +11,21 @@ The USA's population has been growing linearly:
 
 <pre>
 {%- raw %}
-{{ figure("example_simple_usa") }}
+{{ figure("usa_population") }}
 {% endraw -%}
 </pre>
 
-{{ figure("example_simple_usa") }}
+{{ figure("usa_population") }}
 
 South Africa's growth is a bit weirder looking according to this chart:
 
 <pre>
 {%- raw %}
-{{ figure("example_params", country="South Africa") }}
+{{ figure("population", country="South Africa") }}
 {% endraw -%}
 </pre>
 
-{{ figure("example_params", country="South Africa") }}
+{{ figure("population", country="South Africa") }}
 
 We can put two charts side by side:
 
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ We can put two charts side by side:
 {%- raw %}
 {{
   row(
-    figure("example_params", country="United Kingdom"),
-    figure("example_params", country="France"),
+    figure("population", country="United Kingdom"),
+    figure("population", country="France"),
   )
 }}
 {% endraw -%}
@@ -42,8 +42,8 @@ We can put two charts side by side:
 
 {{
   row(
-    figure("example_params", country="United Kingdom"),
-    figure("example_params", country="France"),
+    figure("population", country="United Kingdom"),
+    figure("population", country="France"),
   )
 }}
 
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ And we can add custom tailwind classes to the figures:
 {%- raw %}
 {{
   row(
-    figure("example_params", country="Canada", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
-    figure("example_params", country="Australia", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
+    figure("population", country="Canada", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
+    figure("population", country="Australia", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
   )
 }}
 {% endraw -%}
@@ -62,8 +62,8 @@ And we can add custom tailwind classes to the figures:
 
 {{
   row(
-    figure("example_params", country="Canada", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
-    figure("example_params", country="Australia", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
+    figure("population", country="Canada", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
+    figure("population", country="Australia", class="h-[300px] min-w-[300px]"),
   )
 }}
 
@@ -73,15 +73,15 @@ We can also dip into html when we need to
 <pre>
 {%- raw %}
 &lt;div class="flex flex-wrap"&gt;
-  {{ figure("example_params", country="United Kingdom") }}
-  {{ figure("example_params", country="France") }}
+  {{ figure("population", country="United Kingdom") }}
+  {{ figure("population", country="France") }}
 &lt/div&gt;
 {% endraw -%}
 </pre>
 
 <div class="flex flex-wrap">
-  {{ figure("example_params", country="United Kingdom") }}
-  {{ figure("example_params", country="France") }}
+  {{ figure("population", country="United Kingdom") }}
+  {{ figure("population", country="France") }}
 </div>
 
 Or a matplotlib char
diff --git a/examples/minimal/main.py b/examples/minimal/main.py
index 13773bc..3cadfdb 100644
--- a/examples/minimal/main.py
+++ b/examples/minimal/main.py
@@ -1,19 +1,18 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import plotly.express as px
+import plotly.graph_objects as go
 from boredcharts import BCRouter, boredcharts
-from boredcharts.jinja import to_html
-from fastapi.responses import HTMLResponse
 
 pages = Path(__file__).parent.absolute() / "pages"
 figure_router = BCRouter()
 
 
-@figure_router.chart("usa_population")
-async def usa_population() -> HTMLResponse:
-    df = px.data.gapminder().query("country=='United States'")
+@figure_router.chart("population")
+async def population(country: str) -> go.Figure:
+    df = px.data.gapminder().query(f"country=='{country}'")
     fig = px.bar(df, x="year", y="pop")
-    return HTMLResponse(to_html(fig))
+    return fig
 
 
 app = boredcharts(
diff --git a/examples/minimal/pages/populations.md b/examples/minimal/pages/populations.md
index 60a1ca5..278a2e0 100644
--- a/examples/minimal/pages/populations.md
+++ b/examples/minimal/pages/populations.md
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 
 USA's population has been growing linearly for the last 70 years:
 
-{{ figure("usa_population") }}
+{{ figure("population", country="United States") }}