Subgraphs

A subgraph is a few nodes folded into one block. On the canvas it looks like one node with its own inputs and outputs; inside it is an ordinary graph. Use it to hide a part you understand, or to use the same part several times. ComfyUI reads subgraphs from workflow format 1. Background: Nodes and links.

<!-- picture: a subgraph block on the main canvas and, beside it, its inside with the input and output edges -->

#How to make one

1. Select the nodes (Shift+click or Ctrl+click, or a Shift box).
2. Graph ▸ Make a subgraph from selection (Ctrl+G), or right-click one of them ▸ Make a subgraph from selection.
3. A block named "Subgraph" takes their place. Links that crossed the edge of the selection become the inputs and outputs of the block.
4. Rename it in Properties: Subgraph name, Save name.

Only on the main canvas, not inside another subgraph.

#How to go inside and back

• Press Open on the block, or right-click it ▸ Open subgraph, or select it and press Open subgraph in Properties.
• A path appears at the top: Whole graph › the subgraph name. Click Whole graph, use Up one level, or press Escape to go back out.
• Inside, a line says: "Inside a subgraph: changes apply to every copy of it. Drag a link to the empty slot on the edge to add an input or output of the subgraph."

#How to edit the inside

Inside a subgraph you add, connect, change and delete nodes as on the main canvas. Two extra nodes stand at the edges: Subgraph inputs on the left and Subgraph outputs on the right.

• Add an input: drag a link from an inner input to the empty slot New input of Subgraph inputs. Add an output: drag from an inner output to New output.
• Or right-click an inner port ▸ Expose as subgraph input / Expose as subgraph output.
• Rename an input or output: double-click its name on the edge node ("Enter saves, Esc cancels"), or rename it in Properties (Inputs and outputs).
• Remove one: right-click it on the edge ▸ Remove this subgraph input or output.

#Copies

Insert more copies from the Subgraphs tab of the library (Insert) or right-click an empty place ▸ Insert subgraph. All copies share one inside: a change inside one changes all. A subgraph may hold another subgraph, but never itself: "A subgraph cannot go inside itself, directly or through another subgraph."

#How to undo a subgraph

Select the block ▸ Graph ▸ Dissolve subgraph (or Dissolve in Properties, or right-click ▸ Dissolve subgraph). Its nodes come back onto the main canvas. Or simply Ctrl+Z after making it.

#Limits

• The assistant builds only on the main canvas. If you are inside a subgraph when it starts, the canvas goes back: "The assistant builds on the main canvas, so the canvas went back to it."
• Lessons follow the main canvas too.
• In a workflow of the old format (0.4) a subgraph cannot be made. The app says: "This workflow is in the old ComfyUI format, which has no subgraphs. Select the nodes, copy them (Ctrl+C), start a new project (File > New project) and paste them there (Ctrl+V): a new project can make subgraphs." Workflows saved by a recent ComfyUI, and every new project, are format 1.
• The marks the check puts on nodes are not shown inside a subgraph.

#Fields of a subgraph from a workflow

The author of a subgraph in ComfyUI can put some fields of its inner nodes on the block itself. When you open such a workflow, the block shows these fields under Fields of the subgraph, in the order of the file, on the canvas and in Properties. A change here is saved in the workflow for ComfyUI: a field of the copy goes to that copy, a field of an inner node goes to that node. On the block a long prompt is a one-line box; Properties shows the full box.

#See also

• Subgraphs in the library
• Canvas menus
• Workflow formats
• Groups