# Free Memory

Passes anything through unchanged and frees graphics memory on the way. Put
it between two heavy steps — after a video decode, before an upscale — so
the second one starts with free memory instead of an out-of-memory error.

## Controls

- **value**: Any wire — the node's input and output are wildcard-typed, so
  it splices into an `IMAGE`, `LATENT`, `MODEL`, or any other connection
  without adapters.

## Output

- **value**: The input, passed through unchanged.

## Behavior

- What it frees, in order: ComfyUI's loaded models are unloaded, ComfyUI's
  own cache is emptied, Python garbage is collected, and the CUDA allocator
  cache is emptied.
- Every release step is best-effort. If ComfyUI moves or renames one of the
  APIs involved, that step is skipped and the wire still flows; the node
  never becomes the reason a workflow fails. What was actually freed is
  printed to the console each run.
- The comfy imports happen when the node runs, not when the pack loads, so a
  core change surfaces as a skipped step rather than deleting the node from
  the menu.
- Like any node, it only runs when its input changes — it does not force
  re-execution, so inserting it never breaks ComfyUI's caching downstream.
  Freeing happens on the runs where work actually flows through.
- Models unloaded here are reloaded by the next node that needs them; that
  reload costs time, which is the trade for the freed VRAM.