Checkpoint Loader v1 Small (Pipe)

Sometimes the right node is the one with the fewest knobs. Checkpoint Loader v1 Small (Pipe) has exactly three: checkpoint, VAE, and a clip-layer stop point. It always uses the checkpoint's CLIP, always uses the baked VAE unless you say otherwise, and packs everything into a single pipe output. It's the "Small" member of the current loader family - not deprecated, just minimal.

How it works

Same load_checkpoint_guess_config core, same 9-slot pipe packing as every RvTools pipe loader: model, clip, vae, latent (empty), width (8), height (8), batch_size (1), model_name, vae_name. The only CLIP knob is stop_at_clip_layer, default -2 here (the SDXL-favored penultimate layer). No baked-clip toggle, no use-clip-layer switch - because there's nothing to toggle: you always get the checkpoint's CLIP, truncated to the layer you pick.

The inputs that matter

• ckpt_name - the checkpoint file.
• vae_name - Baked VAE (default) or a specific VAE file.
• stop_at_clip_layer - CLIP truncation, default -2.

Output pipe feeds any RvTools pipe consumer.

Why choose Small over v1 (Pipe)?

If you never need the Baked_Clip = off path (loading a separate CLIP) and just want a clean "checkpoint in, pipe out" node, this is the one with the least to get wrong. The trade-off: no way to drop the clip from the pipe. Both the v1 (Pipe) and this Small variant default stop_at_clip_layer to -2, while the non-pipe Checkpoint Loader Small defaults to -1 - a small gotcha if you switch between them and wonder why prompt quality shifts. If you inherit a workflow, the author's loader-family history means Small variants appear in the older-but-maintained parts of the pack.

Installing

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/r-vage/ComfyUI-RvTools_v2

Restart ComfyUI or install via ComfyUI Manager (search "ComfyUI-RvTools_v2"). No models.

Gotchas

Remember the pipe's placeholder 8x8 dimensions and empty latent - size is set downstream, not here. And the pack-level story: deprecated in favor of ComfyUI_Eclipse (the successor carries this family over), and old v1-repo node names can't be installed anymore. Also worth noting the naming minefield: "Small (Pipe)", "Small v2 (Pipe)", "v1 Small (Pipe)" and "Small" are four different nodes with near-identical names - if a shared workflow errors on a missing node, double-check which exact name it wants, because Manager will happily install a different one.