ausboss-ComfyUI-AusBoss/js/docs/AUSBOSS_NODES_WorkflowSwitches.md

Workflow Switches

Turn parts of a workflow off and on from one small card. Each row is a switch with a name. off skips that part, on runs it again.

Use it when a workflow makes more than one result and you do not always want all of them, or when a long workflow has steps you sometimes skip, such as an upscale at the end.

Make a switch

1. Select the nodes of one part on the canvas. A box (subgraph) and its Save Image, for example.
2. Press + Switch from 2 selected on the card.
3. Type a name and press Enter.

Click off to skip every node you picked, or on to run them again. Clicking the selected half leaves it selected.

Groups work too. Every group on the canvas gets a switch of its own, unless you change that under Settings. A group can also be part of a switch you make: select it together with the nodes.

Pick between saved settings

Use this when the same node should be set one of a few ways and you want to pick by name: 8 steps or 20 steps, or which branch to run.

1. Set the node the way the first choice should be, and select it.
2. Press + Choice, type a name and press Enter.
3. Set the node the second way and press + Choice again. You don't need to select it this time.

The card is now one pill with your choices. Click one and the node goes back to how you saved it. Only the settings that differ between your choices are changed, so the rest stay yours. Add a third the same way.

To run one of two branches, wire both into ComfyUI's If/Else Switch, where they meet, and make one choice with its switch at true and one at false. Only the branch you pick runs. Both branches must end in the same type.

A missing model or picture stops the run even in the branch you didn't pick, because ComfyUI checks every node that is on. To avoid that, select the nodes only one choice needs, open that choice's three dots and pick The selected run only with this choice. They switch off while another choice is picked. Do this for each branch, and leave out any node both branches use.

A card holds either choices or switches, so + Choice shows on a card with no switches yet, once a node is selected. To have both, use two cards.

To change a choice later, set the node, open the choice's three dots and pick Save how it is set now.

A switch that changes settings

A switch can also change values instead of turning nodes off. One click can set Steps to 8 and turn a speed LoRA's row on, and the next click puts both back.

1. Make a switch from the nodes whose settings should change.
2. Set those nodes the way they should be when the switch is on. Select them, open the switch's three dots and pick Save the 2 selected as on.
3. Set them the way they should be when it is off, select them again and pick Save the 2 selected as off.

The switch now changes only the values that differ between the two. Those nodes are no longer turned off by it.

In a LoRA Loader it changes single rows, found by file name, and only whether each row is on. The strength stays yours: turn a row down to 0.6 and it stays at 0.6 whichever way you switch. A strength changes only when you saved that row at one strength for on and another for off. Rows the switch does not change keep whatever you give them. The same works for the LoRA rows on a subgraph box (LoRA Loader's gear, Rows on the box): select the box itself and save its on and off.

A LoRA Loader group works the same way. Save the switch once with the group on and once with it off, and the switch turns the whole group on and off. Each LoRA in the group keeps its own on/off, so you can still leave one out by hand, and a LoRA added to the group later goes with it.

A LoRA row or group a switch sets shows a lock in the LoRA Loader. Click the lock to take it over: this switch then leaves it alone.

A switch with two sides

Sometimes one choice means "use this" and "leave that out" at the same time. When you edit a picture, the picture decides the size, so the node that sets the size should sit out. When you make a new picture, it is the other way round.

One switch can do both. Give it an off side: nodes that run only while the switch is off. Say the switch is Edit a picture, it holds the node Your picture, and Latent Size is on its off side:

• on: Your picture runs. Latent Size is switched off, so it looks bypassed.
• off: Your picture is switched off. Latent Size runs.

To set it up:

1. Make the switch from the nodes that should run while it is on, here Your picture.
2. Select the nodes that should run only while it is off, here Latent Size.
3. Open the switch's three dots and pick The 1 selected runs only while this is off.

A small sign of two arrows beside the label shows that a switch has an off side. Point at it to see which nodes. To take a node off that side again, select it and pick Take the 1 selected off that side.

One pill to pick from

Sometimes the switches on a card are choices, and exactly one should be in use: mask by words or by a click, say, or one of three upscalers. The card can show them as one pill. Each switch is a part of the pill, the one in use is filled, and a click on another one changes to it.

1. Make a switch for each choice.
2. Open Settings and set One at a time to on.
3. Set Show as to one pill.

One choice is always picked. A click on the filled one does nothing, so nobody can switch them all off or switch two on.

Up to four short names sit side by side. With more choices, or with long names, the card shows a list to pick from instead. The card gets wider when the names need the room.

In the edit view the pill sits above the rows. You pick in the pill, and the rows keep their frame button and three dots. After Done only the pill is left. To edit again, right-click the node and pick Edit switches.

A workflow can be saved with none of the choices on, or with several. The pill then shows that as it is, with an amber edge. Click the one you want and the others are switched off.

The small view

Press Done and the card shrinks to the labels and their switches. That is the view to save a finished workflow with.

To change it again, double-click a label, or right-click the node and pick Edit switches.

What off does

• bypass (the default, purple nodes): each node hands its input straight on. Switch off a step in the middle of a chain and the picture still reaches the steps after it.
• mute (grey nodes): the nodes do not run, and nothing that needs their output runs either.

Pick one under Settings → When off.

Put a part's Save or Preview in the same switch as the part. With the Save off, nothing asks for that result, so ComfyUI skips the work and never loads the models only that part needs.

The edit view

• off | on: click off to turn off every node of the row, or on to set them all to run. Clicking the selected half leaves it selected. A change is one undo step.
• Mixed: when only some of a row's nodes run (one bypassed by hand, say) the pill is striped and a count shows how many run, such as 1/2. Click the half you want, off or on, to set them all. A settings switch reads changed when one of its values was set by hand to something else, and half set while only one side is saved.
• Frame button (four corners): brings the part into view. For a switch with an off side, it brings both sides into view.
• Three dots (on a switch you made):
  • Rename. Double-clicking the label does the same.
  • Select its nodes shows on the canvas what the switch holds.
  • Add the selected and Take out the selected change what it holds. Select nodes or groups first.
  • The selected run only while this is off and Take the selected off that side give the switch an off side, see above.
  • Save the selected as on and Save the selected as off make it a switch that changes settings, see above.
  • Move up and Move down change the order.
  • Delete this switch removes the row. The nodes stay as they are.
• Right-click the node for Switch everything on and Switch everything off.

Settings

Open Settings at the bottom of the edit view.

• When off: bypass or mute, see above.
• Groups: which groups get a switch of their own, listed under the switches you made. No groups, Every group, Numbered groups (titles that start with a digit, such as 1 · Load) or Titles matching…, which takes comma-separated words in Match.
• Group order: canvas reads the way a workflow does, column by column from the left and top to bottom inside a column. title sorts by title, with numbers in numeric order (2 · … before 10 · …).
• One at a time: switching a row on switches the other rows off. Use it for alternatives, such as two upscalers. Turn it on while several rows are on and the top one stays on. A new switch starts off while another row is on.
• Show as (there while One at a time is on): rows gives every switch a row with its own off | on. one pill shows them as one pill to pick from, see above.

Have an AI agent set it up

An AI agent can add switches for you by writing them into the workflow file. Point it at js/docs/agents/workflow_switches.md in the pack's folder. That page tells it what to write.

Technical details

• What bypass passes on. A bypassed node, or box, hands on its first input of the same kind as its output. For a step with two picture inputs, wire the picture that should pass through into the first one. A node with no input of that kind (a decode: latent in, picture out) passes nothing, so the nodes that read it belong in the same switch.
• A switch finds its nodes by id. A deleted node drops out of its switch. A copy of a node is not in the switch. A card copied together with its nodes and groups switches the copies, so a whole workflow pasted into a new tab keeps working switches. A card copied on its own switches the same nodes as the original.
• "empty" next to a switch means none of its nodes are in this workflow, so there is nothing to turn on. A workflow pasted and saved on a version before 2.20.3 stays this way. Open the original file again, or add nodes from the switch's menu in the edit view.
• A node in two switches is changed by either. The other row then reads mixed. A node that two parts share needs no switch: ComfyUI only runs what a result needs.
• On turns on everything in the row, including a node you bypassed by hand.
• Nodes that never run, such as notes, a Workflow Note or a Run Timer, switch with their row but never make it read mixed.
• A box switches as a whole, as Ctrl+B does. Nothing inside it runs while it is off.
• A node belongs to a group when the group's box holds the centre of the node, the rule ComfyUI uses to decide what moves with a group.
• The card lists the parts of the graph it sits on. Inside a box it lists that box's nodes and groups. It never switches itself or another Workflow Switches node.
• What a settings switch remembers. Saving a side stores every text, number and on/off value of the selected nodes, by control name. Only the ones that differ between on and off are ever written. A value longer than 20,000 characters is not stored. One switch remembers up to 40 nodes.
• A LoRA row's strength. A switch sets a row's model or CLIP strength only when its saved on and off give that row different ones. Otherwise it sets only whether the row is on, so a strength changed by hand never makes the row read changed or partly on. The row's triggers are never touched.
• Switch everything on and off also move every settings switch and every off side.
• How a switch with an off side reads. It is on when its own nodes run and its off side does not, off when it is the other way round, and mixed otherwise. The count on a mixed row, such as 2/3, counts the nodes of both sides.
• A node is on one side only. Putting it on one side takes it off the other, and a node that a saved workflow lists on both stays on the on side. A node you picked by hand stays on the side you picked it for, even when a group on the other side holds it too. When groups of both sides hold it, it stays on the on side.
• One at a time switches the other rows off, which runs their off sides. A node that one row runs and another switches off ends up running, and the row you switch on has the last word.
• What a choice stores. One saved value set, with no off side. A choice changes the settings it holds differently from another choice on its card, so a third value on one control needs nothing extra. Picking one writes only its own values, and a node it does not hold stays as it was. A choice can also hold nodes, the way a switch does: they run while it is picked and are off otherwise. The node a choice sets can't be one of them, because switching it off would undo the choice. A value set by hand that matches no choice leaves none picked. A card with choices keeps One at a time on, shows one pill and lists no groups, so its Settings are hidden.
• When a card settles by itself. Turning One at a time on, or making a switch while it is on, leaves one row on when more than one is. A row that is fully on goes before one that is partly on, then the top row. A new switch gives way to the rows that were there. Rows that a change to Groups or Match adds are left as they are, because the words typed into Match should not stop nodes. A click on a row settles those.
• A pill or a list. Two to four rows are a pill when their names fit on a card no wider than 400 px. More rows, or longer names, are a list. With one row the card stays in the row view. Groups listed on the card are choices too, and a row with no nodes cannot be picked.
• A click on a choice does what One at a time does: that row goes on and every other row off, their settings and off sides included. A row that is only partly on is striped, as in the row view.
• Switch everything off is left out of the right-click menu while the card shows as one pill.
• The pill is stored as one more setting: "show": "pill" beside "exclusive": true, in the node's ausboss_workflow_switches property. "show": "rows", or no show at all, is the row view. So a workflow saved by an older version of this pack opens as rows, and an older version ignores the setting.
• The off side is stored next to the nodes it belongs to, as nodes_off and groups_off beside nodes and groups. They are left out while nothing is on the off side, so a workflow that does not use it is saved as before. An older version of this pack ignores the off side.
• It stores which nodes each switch holds, the values it remembers and its settings. Whether a row is on is read from the nodes themselves, so a saved workflow reopens showing what is really on, however it was switched.
• It never runs and has no wires. It is left out of the prompt, so it cannot change a result or slow a run.
• One card holds up to 40 switches.