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.

One click on its pill now turns every node you picked off, and the next click turns them on again.

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.

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. A row you did not change keeps whatever strength you give it later.

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.

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 anywhere on the pill to flip the switch. Off turns off every node of the row, on sets them all to run. It 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.

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, and a pasted copy of the card switches the same nodes as the original.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.