Symbiotica Refs Split

The Symbiotica Regional Prompt node hands ERPK-style edit nodes their references as one ERPK_IMAGE_REFS batch. But not every edit node speaks that type - plenty want ten plain IMAGE sockets. Symbiotica RefsSplit is the adapter: it splits ERPK_IMAGE_REFS into ref_1..ref_10 IMAGE outputs, in region order.

Think of it as the image sibling to PromptsSplit (which splits the descriptions the same way). Where PromptsSplit handles the desc_N text sockets, RefsSplit handles the ref_N image sockets. Wire both out of the Regional Prompt node and you've got everything an ERPK-compatible edit node needs, in the shape it expects.

How it works

One input, image_refs, which is the Regional Prompt node's image_refs output. It splits the batch by region order and emits one image per output. The detail that matters: missing slots emit a small gray placeholder rather than an error. That's the difference between "a template with six regions works in a ten-socket node" and "a template with six regions crashes every run." The placeholders keep the graph wired and let the edit node decide what an empty slot means.

The inputs and outputs

• image_refs (required) - the ERPK_IMAGE_REFS from Symbiotica Regional Prompt.
• ref_1..ref_10 - one IMAGE per region. Missing slots get the gray placeholder.

That's the entire surface. No config, no optional inputs.

Install

Standard pack install:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/symbiotica-ai/comfyui-nodes.git symbiotica
pip install -r symbiotica/requirements.txt

Restart, or search Symbiotica in ComfyUI Manager. No API key, no models.

Gotchas

The ordering contract is everything: position in the batch is region order, and if the template's region order doesn't match what the edit node expects, the references silently land on the wrong regions. Keep the order consistent from the template through the Regional Prompt node and out. And don't expect a placeholder to tell you a region is empty downstream - the gray square is the only signal, so if an edit looks like it used a blank reference, that's a missing slot doing exactly what it's designed to do.