Data_bus_chx

Apt_Preset's context bus covers the standard ComfyUI types - model, clip, vae, conditioning, latent, image, mask. That's most of what you need, but sooner or later you want to carry something the bus was never designed for: a filename string, a seed you want threaded through three nodes downstream, a counter, a second image that isn't part of the "main" pipeline. Data_bus_chx is the escape hatch - eight generic slots that ride alongside your context bus for whatever doesn't have a proper home.

How it works

It's deliberately dumb in the best way: data1 through data8 are typed as wildcards (*), so ComfyUI will let you wire almost anything into them - a string, an int, an image, another context, whatever. Whatever goes in comes back out the matching output on the far side, alongside the context it received. Think of it less as a data-transform node and more as a pass-through junction: it doesn't interpret or touch the values, it just gives them a ride down the same wire as your context so you're not running eight separate noodles across a busy graph just to carry a couple of loose values.

The inputs and outputs that matter

• context (optional, RUN_CONTEXT) - pass an existing bus through if you have one; leave it empty if you're only using this node for the wildcard slots.
• data1–data8 (optional, wildcard) - wire in whatever you need carried. You don't have to fill all eight; unwired slots just don't produce anything downstream.
• Outputs mirror the inputs one-to-one: context plus data1–data8, each carrying through whatever you fed it.

Compare this to Data_basic, which deals in the bus's fixed, named ComfyUI types. Data_bus_chx is for the stuff that doesn't fit that mold.

How to install it

Bundled with the full pack. Via ComfyUI Manager: search "ComfyUI-Apt_Preset" → Install → restart. Manually:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/cardenluo/ComfyUI-Apt_Preset.git

Windows: double-click install.bat in the cloned folder, run through ComfyUI's own Python. Linux/Mac: activate your ComfyUI venv and install the pack's requirements from inside that folder. Restart ComfyUI. Nothing about this node needs extra dependencies beyond the base pack - it's pure pass-through wiring.

Common issues & troubleshooting

A wildcard output won't connect to where you want it. ComfyUI resolves a wildcard's actual type from whatever fed it, so if data1 received a STRING, its output socket will only accept STRING-typed inputs downstream - the * in the schema means "accepts anything going in," not "stays untyped forever."

Values seem to disappear between nodes. Make sure you're wiring into and out of the same numbered slot - data3 in maps to data3 out, not to a different index. It's easy to lose track once you've got several slots in use on a crowded canvas.

Wondering if this replaces Data_basic or Data_Highway. No - the three solve different problems. Data_basic handles the fixed named types already built into the bus. Data_Highway lets you define your own named ports with a text config. Data_bus_chx is the simplest of the three: a fixed eight untyped slots, no configuration needed, for when you just need to shuttle a couple of loose values through without setting anything up.