Wildcard Pipeline

Modular procedural prompt generation for ComfyUI — wildcards, constraints, derivations, loops, and a persistent module library.

What it does

Stock ComfyUI prompt nodes either take a single literal string or pick from a flat wildcard file. Wildcard Pipeline lets each module read what the previous modules picked — so $mood reacts to $weather via a constraint, a combine interpolates $style $subject into $scene, a derivation flips $accent based on $mood, and your final prompt is a coherent multi-element composition instead of a Frankenstein concatenation.

One Generate. One coherent prompt. Re-roll until you stop laughing.

Highlights

• Module stack inside a Context node — drop in wildcard, fixed_values, combine, derivation, constraint, bundle modules and they each publish a $variable to the chain.
• Constraints with carriers — re-weight downstream wildcards based on what upstream picked. Matrix + per-option exceptions. Carrier-via-nested-ref so a constraint can reach a wildcard nested inside another wildcard's option.
• Loops + per-iteration seeds — WP Context Loop runs your whole chain N times from a single Generate; WP Seed List pairs N unique sampler seeds with the N prompts so every output is distinct.
• Persistent library — a manager SPA backed by SQLite stores reusable modules, frozen bundles, prompt templates, and a category tree. Browse / edit / fork / push from the canvas.
• Inspector — WP Debug shows the post-run snapshot, per-module trace, per-wildcard picks, and the conflict-scanner warnings.
• Type-coercion helpers — WP Var → Int / Float / Bool parse typed values out of any $variable so wildcards can drive image width, step count, sampler cfg, conditional switches.
• Works on both renderers — the legacy canvas and ComfyUI's Nodes 2.0 Vue renderer, including switching between them with a workflow already open.

Installation

ComfyUI Manager (recommended)

1. Open the ComfyUI Manager in your browser.
2. Search for Wildcard Pipeline by dumiflex.
3. Click Install and restart ComfyUI.

Manual installation

1. Navigate to your ComfyUI custom_nodes directory.

2. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/DumiFlex/ComfyUI-Wildcard-Pipeline
   

3. Install the Python dependencies:

   pip install -e .
   

4. Build the frontend assets (requires Node.js and pnpm):

   pnpm install
   pnpm run build
   

5. Restart ComfyUI.

Quick start

1. Open the Wildcard Pipeline manager (sidebar → Wildcards → + New). Name subject, variable binding $subject, three options: a cat, a dog, a fox at weight 1 each. Save.
2. On the canvas, drop WP Context → WP Prompt Assembler → CLIP Text Encode → KSampler. Add your wildcard to the context. Type a $subject into the assembler template. Queue.

Each Generate rolls a fresh subject. Full walkthrough: Quick Start wiki page.

The nodes

Node	What it does
WP Context	Holds a module stack, emits a resolved $variable context.
WP Context Loop	Runs the downstream chain N times in one click; emits per-iteration $iteration + $iteration_total.
WP Context Injector	Lifts any ComfyUI node output (multiline String, INT, etc.) into a named $variable.
WP Seed List	Emits a list of N derived seeds — one per loop iteration — so every (prompt, seed) pair is unique.
WP Prompt Assembler	Fills $var placeholders in a template string. Supports {a|b|c} inline picks + missing-var detection.
WP Prompt Cleaner	Rule-based prompt cleanup: whitespace, punctuation, exact + fuzzy dedupe, blocklist.
WP Debug	Read-only inspector — Snapshot / Trace / Picks / Warnings tabs.
WP Var → Int / Float / Bool	Parse typed values out of any $variable to drive ComfyUI INT / FLOAT / BOOLEAN inputs.

Full node reference: Nodes wiki page.

The modules

Module	Writes	Role
Wildcard	$<name>	Weighted random pick from a pool. The core building block.
Fixed Values	$<name> (× N)	Static name → value bindings — style, quality boosters, negative-prompt fragments.
Combine	$<name>	Templated string that interpolates earlier $vars into a single output $var.
Derivation	$<name>	IF / ELIF / ELSE rules that read picked $vars and rewrite others.
Constraint	(none)	One-shot re-weight of a downstream wildcard's pool based on an upstream pick.
Bundle	(group)	Frozen group of modules — drop into any Context as a reusable unit.
Template	(asm side)	Saved Prompt Assembler template string in the library.

Full module reference: Modules wiki page.

Looping a chain — one click, N coherent prompts

Drop WP Context Loop before your WP Context and pair it with WP Seed List for distinct sampler seeds. Both lists fan out in lockstep so iteration N's prompt always pairs with seed N. Each iteration carries its own $iteration / $iteration_total for in-template labelling (frame 1 of 4 — a fox). See Concepts → Seeds and loops.

The manager (SPA)

A dedicated single-page app for browsing + editing the library. Open it from the ComfyUI sidebar.

• Library — wildcards / fixed values / combines / derivations / constraints / bundles / templates / categories. Filter, search, bulk-tag, favorite.
• Test Runner — resolve any module against the engine N times and inspect per-rule fire rates / per-option pick rates.
• Import / Export — versioned JSON exports with conflict resolution (rename / overwrite / skip per row).
• Cascade impact dialog — deleting a module shows you every bundle + constraint + combine that references it before you confirm.
• Documentation tab — full in-app docs covering every node + module + concept, with worked examples.

Inspecting a run

Wire a WP Debug node off any Context output. After Generate it fills with a tabbed snapshot of what flowed through that point:

• Snapshot — final $variable → value map.
• Trace — per-module execution log: what each ran, what it wrote, where the seed came from.
• Picks — which wildcard option was picked, its weight, its sub-category.
• Warnings — runtime warnings (constraint never fired, missing variable, etc.).

See Nodes → WP Debug.

Documentation

• 📖 GitHub Wiki — Home / Quick Start / Nodes / Modules / Concepts
• 🖥️ In-app docs — sidebar → Documentation tab inside the manager SPA (every concept, every module, every node, with worked examples)
• 💬 Discord — chat, show-and-tell, fastest path to a response
• 💭 GitHub Discussions — long-form questions, ideas, design threads
• 🐛 Issue tracker — bug reports + feature requests

Network access

This extension works entirely offline. It makes one outbound request, and only when you ask for it:

What	When	Where to
Booru tag list for the optional value autocomplete	Only when you click Download in Settings → Tag autocomplete	github.com → objects.githubusercontent.com, our own release asset

Nothing is fetched at startup, on a schedule, or as a side effect of anything else. Delete the file and the feature simply turns off. The update check in Settings talks to the GitHub releases API on the same terms — you can switch it off, and it never runs without you.

Because ComfyUI serves its API without authentication, that download endpoint is deliberately built with nothing to steer:

• The URL is a constant. There is no URL parameter — the request body is ignored — so it cannot be pointed at your internal network or a cloud metadata address.
• Redirects are checked at every hop against a fixed host list, because GitHub serves release assets via a CDN. A redirect anywhere else is refused mid-chain.
• The destination is computed server-side from ComfyUI's user directory plus a fixed filename. No caller input reaches the path, and a symlink sitting at that path is refused rather than followed.
• The response is size-capped while streaming, so a hostile or corrupted reply cannot fill your disk. Content-Length is checked but never trusted alone.
• One download at a time, so the endpoint cannot be used to start many large fetches at once.
• The file is parsed before it replaces anything. A reply that is not a readable tag list leaves your existing one untouched, and the final move is atomic.

The reasoning is kept next to the code in wp_api/_tag_download.py, and each restriction has a test in tests/wp_api/test_tag_download.py.

Status

Active development. Versioned releases with semantic-release — every merged commit on main either ships a release or stays as next until the next breaking / feature change rolls one. Bundle-size + test gates run on every branch push and PR.

Contributing

PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the dev loop (pnpm install → pnpm dev for the extension watcher, pnpm test for vitest, pytest for the engine, ruff check . for lint).

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. Free to use, modify, fork. If you ship modifications, ship the source too.