Show String

This is the simplest node in the whole ComfyUI-Path-Helper pack: hand it a string, and it prints that string on the node itself so you can see it in the canvas without opening a console or a log file. Show String doesn't transform anything - it's a probe, and the fact that it's this dumb is exactly why it's useful.

Where you'd actually reach for it

The obvious use inside this pack is confirming what Add File Name Prefix (or its Advanced sibling) actually built before you send it into SaveImage - wire the STRING output as a spur into Show String and you'll see the exact filename prefix your run is about to produce, {} substitutions and datetime stamps included, instead of guessing. But it's not limited to path work: because it just takes a generic STRING input, it's a handy general-purpose "what does this text value actually contain right now" node anywhere in a ComfyUI graph - checking a prompt after some text processing, confirming a formatted value before it hits an API node, anything where you want a quick visual check without wiring up a full debug setup.

The inputs and outputs that matter

There's exactly one input and one output, and they're almost the same thing:

• string (required) - whatever text you want to inspect.
• Output - a STRING, the same value passed straight through. Like Show Path, it's marked as an output node in the schema (meant to be looked at, an endpoint), but the pass-through means you're not forced to dead-end a chain if you want to route the value onward after checking it.

There's nothing to configure and no options to get wrong - that's the whole appeal.

How to install it

Via ComfyUI Manager, search ComfyUI-Path-Helper and install. Manually:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/Billius-AI/ComfyUI-Path-Helper

Restart ComfyUI afterward. No pip requirements, no models, nothing to configure - it's Python standard library doing the string handling, so installation is just the clone and a restart.

Common issues & troubleshooting

It shows nothing, or shows something stale. First check the obvious thing: is string actually wired to a live upstream output, or dangling? If it's connected and still looks wrong after you've changed something earlier in the graph, re-run the workflow - a few of this pack's display nodes (Show Path in particular) have a documented quirk where the canvas doesn't refresh cleanly on the first re-run after an upstream change. Show String is the simpler of the two nodes and generally more reliable, but if you see a value that doesn't match what you'd expect, a fresh run is the first thing to try before assuming your graph logic is wrong.

I want to inspect a PATH, not a STRING. Show String only takes STRING inputs - you can't wire a PATH value directly into it. Use the sibling node Show Path for that, or convert your PATH to a string first with Add File Name Prefix and then inspect the result here.

The text is too long to read comfortably on the node. There's no built-in scroll or resize control documented for this - if you're regularly previewing long strings, widen the node on the canvas (drag its edge) rather than expecting it to wrap or truncate intelligently.