Symbiotica Template Library

Here's the pain this node removes: you've built template sheets in the Symbiotica pipeline - packed them, saved them, maybe edited a few by hand - and now you need to pull them back into a workflow without re-running all the packing. The Template Library is the browse-and-reuse node for that. It reads what's already on disk under output/templates/, shows it as a browsable pool, and hands the sheets and their prompts straight out as wires. No re-render, no re-pack, no API calls, no key.

Like the other template nodes, this is Symbiotica-pipeline-specific. If you're not doing the game-asset order workflow, there's not much here for you. If you are, this is the node that makes saved templates findable instead of a pile of PNGs you have to open one by one.

How it works

Templates live as folders with sheet thumbnails. The kind combo picks which pool you're looking at:

• Reference - universal style guides built from the game's asset library (the reusable, cross-order stuff).
• Order - the wired month's design guides.
• All - both.

The node's real UI is its browser: press 'use' on one template and its full recipe lands on the template output - the SYMBIOTICA_PACK_TEMPLATE bundle (order, preset, settings, category, overrides) you can wire into the Auto Packer to re-pack or edit. Tick the checkboxes on any templates and their saved sheets plus prompts stream out of sheets and sheet_prompts, pulled straight from disk. The distinction matters: use gives you a recipe to rebuild, check gives you the finished pictures without rebuilding.

The inputs

All five are simple strings, and the browser sets most of them for you:

• project_path - the client project folder whose templates are browsed.
• selected - which saved template to emit as a recipe; set by the browser's 'use'.
• checked - a JSON list of templates whose sheets/prompts to emit; set by the browser's checkboxes.
• kind - All / Order / Reference, as above.
• month - which month's order templates to browse, only used when kind is Order/All; empty means the project's first month.

Outputs

• template - the recipe bundle for the 'use'-selected template.
• sheets - saved sheets of the CHECKED templates, as a batch. Wire to Save Image or use each as an img2img base.
• sheet_prompts - client prompts, index-aligned with sheets, one per sheet.

One graceful-degradation detail worth knowing: if nothing is checked or selected, it doesn't raise - it emits a tiny gray placeholder and the text "(no template checked - tick a box or press 'use')". That's deliberate, so a wired Preview doesn't crash on an empty list. It reads as a bug until you know it's a feature.

Install

Part of the Symbiotica pack - install once, get all the nodes:

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

Restart ComfyUI, or ComfyUI Manager → search Symbiotica → install. No models, no API keys, nothing but Pillow under the hood.

Common issues

• Empty browse / nothing in the pool - check output/templates/ actually has the saved folders, and that project_path points at the project that made them. The browser reads project dirs first, then falls back to output/templates/.
• Checked something and got the placeholder - the checked names must match saved template names, and the node falls back to selected when checked is empty. If you ticked in a previous session and the workflow restored stale strings, re-tick.

The whole trick of this node is that it never re-renders. Saved sheets stay saved; the Library just opens the cabinet.