Custom Prompt Mode v2

This is the "Custom Prompt Mode v2" input box in the Searge SDXL workflow. It's another of the small Searge/UI/Inputs carrier nodes - it rides the data-stream bus and passes the workflow's prompt-mode configuration through to the Magic Box, where the prompt styling and conditioning stages actually act on it. If you're auditing the Searge nodes to work out which ones need your attention, this is a low-priority one.

Prompting modes are part of the Searge lineage going back to v3.4. The idea is that a single prompt can be interpreted in different ways - split across the two SDXL text encoders, styled from templates, applied to base versus refiner differently - and the "prompt mode" is which of those interpretations the workflow uses. SeargeDP's v4.0 notes flagged the more advanced prompting modes as something being rebuilt into a flexible system, and this node is the UI hook for it.

How it works

Same shape as the other Searge input boxes: it's a settings carrier, not a worker. The data stream comes in, the prompt-mode config gets attached, the stream goes out. The heavy lifting happens later in the Magic Box's prompt styling and clip conditioning stages, which read the mode you selected and encode your prompts accordingly.

The inputs and outputs that matter

The schema is intentionally bare. There are no required parameters - the only input is the optional data (SRG_DATA_STREAM) and the only output is data (SRG_DATA_STREAM). So there's no dropdown or slider for a beginner to fiddle with directly on the node face; the mode is set by how the shipped workflow configures it. Your interaction is placement in the chain, not parameter tweaking.

How to install it

Manager: search SeargeSDXL, install, restart. Manual, opencv first (it's a required dependency for the pack to import at all):

python -m pip install opencv-python
cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/SeargeDP/SeargeSDXL.git

Restart ComfyUI. No model downloads for this node.

Common issues & troubleshooting

Nothing to click. Expected - this node exposes no required controls. It's a pass-through for the prompt-mode feature and only means something inside the full Searge pipeline, where the surrounding nodes and the Magic Box interpret the stream it carries.

Use the shipped workflow. The README hammers this point across the whole pack: load the latest .json workflow with the latest nodes rather than assembling one by hand. That's doubly true for the carrier boxes like this one, whose entire job is to sit in a specific spot in the data-stream chain that the shipped layout already defines.

Broader take. Prompting modes were a genuinely interesting idea in 2023, when splitting prompts across SDXL's dual text encoders was new territory. In 2026 the community mostly reaches for standalone, visible prompt-handling nodes instead, and Searge's own activity has faded. Treat this as part of an integrated appliance you either adopt whole or skip - not a node worth extracting on its own.