Deprecated · Sampling Trace Export / Finalize

Sampling Trace Export is the finalize button of the old, split-up Sampling Trace Inspector wiring: you give it the trace_session from a traced run, it finishes that run, writes the report files, and hands back the directory where everything landed. In the current 0.4.0 release it's deprecated and hidden from normal search, because runs now finalize automatically when generation completes. You'll only see it inside older saved workflows - but if you do, here's what it's doing.

How it works

A TraceSession accumulates evidence during sampling: steps.jsonl, probes.jsonl, decoded preview images in artifacts/, plus run.json and generated report.md / report.html. That evidence isn't written to disk as a finished report until the run is closed out. This node is that close-out. It calls finalize() on the session and returns the run directory as a STRING - so you could wire that path into a display node or a save node if you want to see where the files went.

The status input is the one knob: success, interrupted, or error (default success). It's how you label what happened to a run - a run that died mid-sampling shouldn't be marked as a clean success in your notes. It's a small honesty feature and a genuinely thoughtful one.

Inputs and outputs

• trace_session (required, TRACE_SESSION) - the run to finalize. Comes from the deprecated Sampling Trace Model or from the one-node setup's TRACE_SESSION output if you deliberately split things.
• status (required, enum) - success / interrupted / error.
• Output: report_directory (STRING). This is an output node (is_output_node), so it always executes.

Install

One pack for the whole inspector:

git clone https://github.com/ILcrowe/ComfyUI-SamplingTrace-Inspector.git ComfyUI/custom_nodes/ComfyUI-SamplingTrace-Inspector

or ComfyUI Manager → search "Sampling Trace". Restart. No extra dependencies, no model downloads.

Where people get burned

• "The node vanished from search." Right - it's deprecated and hidden. Runs finalize on their own now; the Export node only survives for saved-workflow compatibility.
• Looking for reports in the wrong place. Everything lives under ComfyUI/user/trace_inspector/runs/<run_id>/, not in your normal output folder. If folder_paths user directory isn't available it falls back to data/runs/ inside the plugin.
• Sharing a run folder casually. run.json can contain your prompt text and model filenames, and previews are real decoded images. The author strips local paths, but review before sharing - the README flags prompt text, model filenames, and workflow snapshots as potentially sensitive.

The workflow here is simple: you can largely ignore this node. If you're maintaining old graphs, know that it exists and what status does. If you're new, use the one-node setup and never think about finalization again.