To assess CESM coupled model development each CESM model component has a set of “standard” diagnostics that are extracted from the component's model data file. These diagnostic packages process dozens of fields and produce many plots and tables. It is therefore helpful for the software developer who develops or maintains these diagnostic scripts to minimize the reliance on field-specific coding and instead maximize the use of plot-type coding. One way to focus on plot-type coding is by using Python dictionaries in which values (such as units or contour levels) corresponding to a given field are stored separately from the plotting script. The successful implementation of Python dictionaries to generate different types of hundreds of plots with just a few main scripts will be shown in the context of the CESM ocean biogeochemistry model component.