zppy-interfaces documentation

What is zppy-interfaces?

zppy-interfaces adds workflow-specific post-processing utilities as stand-alone functionality or as an intermediate step on top of external diagnostics packages. The repository currently provides two main interfaces:

• global_time_series for generating coupled global time-series plots, including land-variable handling driven by a packaged CSV catalogue.

• pcmdi_diags for preparing inputs, launching PCMDI Metrics diagnostics, reorganizing outputs, and building viewer-ready summary products.

The package exposes command-line entry points that are meant to be called from automation such as zppy. Each entry point accepts explicit command-line arguments, performs limited validation, and writes outputs into predictable directory layouts.

How to use this documentation

This documentation is organized by audience:

• User Guide groups the interface guides for people running the command line tools.

• Developer Guide groups the implementation guides for people working on the repository internals.

Processing model

At a high level, the package follows the same pattern across its command-line tools:

1. Parse explicit command-line arguments.

2. Normalize selected values such as booleans, comma-separated lists, and region names.

3. Assemble input and output paths from the provided workflow context.

4. Optionally derive or reorganize supporting files needed by downstream tools.

5. Invoke the plotting or diagnostics logic.

6. Write figures, metrics, or viewer assets into workflow-specific results directories.

Contents:

• zppy-interfaces documentation
• User Guide
  • global_time_series
  • pcmdi_diags
• Developer Guide
  • Repository layout
  • Interface implementation guides
  • Testing