Is there a base pipe way of using the unique value of a column to pipe into labs from ggplot

Question

The problem is fairly simple - if I take a df and perform a few filtering steps on it, I'd like to be able to pipe the output of those into a ggplot function and use the unique value of a particular column as the title. Works with the magrittr pipe and curly braces:

starwars %>% 
  filter(hair_color == "blond") %>%
  {
    ggplot(data = ., aes(x = height, y = mass, col = birth_year)) +
      geom_point() +
      labs(title = unique(.$species))
  }

Doesn't work with the base pipe equivalent:

starwars |> 
  filter(hair_color == "blond") |> 
  {
    ggplot(data = _, aes(x = height, y = mass, col = birth_year)) +
      geom_point() +
      labs(title = unique(.$species))
  }

Error in { : 
  function '{' not supported in RHS call of a pipe (<input>:3:7)

Other than assigning the df before calling ggplot, are there any other options?

Answer 1

1) Wrap the input in a list having component name . and pass that to with.

library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)

starwars |> 
  filter(hair_color == "blond") |> 
  list(. = _) |>
  with(ggplot(., aes(x = height, y = mass, col = birth_year)) +
    geom_point() +
    labs(title = unique(.$species))
  )

2) Another possibility is to use group_modify:

starwars |> 
  filter(hair_color == "blond") |> 
  group_modify(~ ggplot(., aes(x = height, y = mass, col = birth_year)) +
      geom_point() +
      labs(title = unique(.$species))
  )