ausboss-ComfyUI-AusBoss/js/docs/agents/workflow_switches.md

Workflow Switches: a guide for AI agents

Give this page to an AI agent and it can add switches to a ComfyUI workflow for you. Nobody has to click through menus: the agent writes the card straight into the workflow file.

If you are the agent: the card is one node in the workflow file. It has no wires. It lists which nodes each switch controls, in one property. Pick the recipe below that fits, add the card, and set the nodes' starting state.

Before you start

• Edit the file ComfyUI saves with Save, the one with a nodes list. The card never reaches a run, so it has no place in the API format. For an API prompt, leave out what should not run.
• Use the id of each node in nodes, and of each box in groups.
• Stay on one level. The card controls nodes on its own level of the graph. From the main graph it can switch a whole subgraph node, or change a control that subgraph node shows, but not reach a node inside it.
• Read a control's name from the node's widgets_values_named in the file, or from /object_info/<node type> on the ComfyUI server.

Add the card

Add this to nodes. Give it an id no other node has, and raise last_node_id if it is lower than that id. Pick a free pos so it covers nothing, and the next free number for order.

{
  "id": 50,
  "type": "AUSBOSS_NODES_WorkflowSwitches",
  "pos": [0, 0],
  "size": [320, 100],
  "flags": {},
  "order": 0,
  "mode": 0,
  "inputs": [],
  "outputs": [],
  "title": "Workflow Switches",
  "properties": {
    "cnr_id": "ausboss-nodes",
    "ausboss_show_edit": false,
    "ausboss_workflow_switches": {
      "off": "bypass",
      "groups": "none",
      "exclusive": false,
      "show": "rows",
      "switches": []
    }
  },
  "widgets_values": []
}

Then fill switches from a recipe. Keep "groups": "none": the default, "all", gives every group on the canvas a row of its own.

show is "rows", one off | on row per switch, or "pill", one pill to pick from. A row's id is a whole number from 1, new on its card only. A workflow can have several cards.

Set the starting state

The card remembers nothing about what is on. It reads each node's own mode, so the file decides how the workflow opens.

mode	What the node does
0	Runs
4	Bypassed: passes its input on, and ComfyUI doesn't check it
2	Muted: passes nothing on, and ComfyUI doesn't check it

For a part that opens switched off, set "mode": 4 on its nodes, Save Image nodes included. With "off": "mute" on the card, use 2.

To change a value in the file, change it in both widgets_values and widgets_values_named. The two have to agree.

Recipes

An optional part

One row that turns some nodes off and on: an upscale at the end, say.

"switches": [
  { "id": 1, "title": "Upscale", "nodes": [12, 13], "groups": [] }
]

To switch a whole group of nodes, put the group's id in groups.

Pick one part

One pill: picking a name turns its nodes on and the other rows' nodes off. Open it with one row's nodes at 0 and the rest at 4. Up to 4 names sit in a pill, more become a list.

"exclusive": true,
"show": "pill",
"switches": [
  { "id": 1, "title": "Photo", "nodes": [20, 21], "groups": [] },
  { "id": 2, "title": "Drawing", "nodes": [22], "groups": [] }
]

A node both parts use goes in neither row.

One switch that changes settings

The row sets values instead of turning nodes off. on and off are keyed by node id, as text, then by control name. Give every node both sides.

"switches": [
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Fast",
    "nodes": [],
    "groups": [],
    "on": { "5": { "steps": 8 } },
    "off": { "5": { "steps": 20 } }
  }
]

Only values that differ between the two sides change. Values are text, numbers or true/false.

A LoRA Loader 🆎 keeps its rows in one text value, loras. Save the whole text on both sides with only the row's enabled different, and the switch moves that row alone.

Named choices

The simplest way to pick between settings, and to run one of two branches. Each choice is one way of setting a node, so it has on and no off. A card of choices is always one pill, so give other switches a card of their own.

To run one of two branches, wire both into ComfyUI's If/Else Switch (type ComfySwitchNode, control switch, inputs on_true and on_false):

"exclusive": true,
"show": "pill",
"switches": [
  { "id": 1, "title": "Soft", "choice": true, "nodes": [3], "groups": [], "on": { "6": { "switch": true } } },
  { "id": 2, "title": "Big", "choice": true, "nodes": [4, 5], "groups": [], "on": { "6": { "switch": false } } }
]

Here node 6 is the If/Else, and each choice's nodes are the nodes only that branch needs. Open the file with the If/Else set to the picked choice, that choice's nodes at 0 and the others' at 4.

List a branch's nodes every time. ComfyUI checks every node that is on before it runs anything, so a missing model in the branch nobody picked stops the run unless its nodes are off.

Keep these out of a choice's nodes: the node the choice sets, because switching it off would undo the choice, and any node both branches use. Both branches must end in the same type, such as a picture.

A row with two sides

nodes_off holds nodes that run only while the row is off. Use it when turning one thing on should turn another off.

{ "id": 1, "title": "Edit a picture", "nodes": [7], "groups": [], "nodes_off": [8] }

Open it with one side at 0 and the other at 4.

Check your work

Open the workflow in ComfyUI, then:

• A row says "empty": none of its ids match a node on the card's level.
• A row says "mixed", or a pill shows no pick: the saved modes or values don't match any one row. Fix the starting state.
• A row does nothing: a value's control name is wrong, or both sides hold the same value.
• A choice says "needs one more": no other choice differs from it.

Limits

A card holds up to 40 rows. A title is up to 60 characters, and a row up to 400 nodes. A row can set values on up to 40 nodes.