I would like to refresh a bokeh document so I can replace old plots with new ones. However, right now I just get the new plots appended to the document so the old ones don\'t go
The best way to accomplish something like this is to have a top level layout of some kind (e.g. row or column) that has the content you want to replace inside it. Then when you want to replace things, keep the layout container, but change the value of its children property:
from bokeh.plotting import curdoc, figure
from bokeh.layouts import row
doc = curdoc()
p1 = figure(width=1500, height=230, active_scroll="wheel_zoom")
layout = row(p1)
doc.add_root(layout)
p2 = figure(width=1500, height=500, active_scroll="wheel_zoom")
layout.children[0] = p2
You can see a similar technique in the Crossfilter example.