batch_MergeBatch

batch_MergeBatch is the other half of batch_BatchSlice's story: where slicing trims a list down, merging glues several lists back into one. If you've split a batch job across multiple loaders - say, three separate image folders you want processed as a single run - this is what recombines them before they hit your sampler or batch processor.

What it's for

Apt_Preset builds a chunk of its utility layer around a LIST type for batch work: image lists, text lists, shot lists. The pack's loaders (IO_LoadImgList, IO_LoadImgBatch, IO_LoadTextBatch, IO_LoadShotBatch - the README dates these to early-to-mid 2026) each hand you back one LIST. The moment you have more than one source you want treated as a single sequence - two folders of reference images, or a hand-picked list concatenated with a batch-loaded one - you need something to combine them, and that's this node.

Inputs and outputs

Here's the honest part: the published node schema for batch_MergeBatch shows no fixed required or optional inputs, only a single output. That's unusual, and it's worth being upfront about rather than guessing at internals I can't confirm. In practice, "merge" nodes in this ecosystem (this one included, going by its name and category) typically take a variable number of list connections that you add directly on the node in the ComfyUI canvas rather than exposing a fixed widget list in the schema - so don't be surprised if the node lets you drag in more inputs than the static definition shows. If your version behaves differently, trust what's on your canvas over what's written here.

• Output: list (type LIST) - the merged sequence, in the same LIST format the pack's loaders and batch_BatchSlice all use, so you can chain straight into another Apt_Preset batch node.

Installing it

Through ComfyUI Manager: search ComfyUI-Apt_Preset, install, restart. Manual route:

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

then run install.bat on Windows for dependencies, and restart. Nothing model-related here - this is pure list plumbing, same tier as batch_BatchSlice.

Common issues

You can't find where to add a second input. If the node loads with only one connectable slot, look for a right-click option on the node itself (or a small + control depending on your ComfyUI frontend version) to add more list inputs - that's the standard pattern for variadic "combine" nodes in ComfyUI when the backend accepts *args-style input rather than a fixed count.

Order isn't what you expected. Merge nodes concatenate in the order the inputs are connected/indexed, not the order you dragged them onto the canvas. If downstream ordering matters (frame sequence, prompt order), verify the merged list's order explicitly - feed it into a preview or debug node before trusting it in a long pipeline.

Mixing list types. Nothing in the schema stops you from wiring an image LIST and a text LIST into the same merge, but the result almost certainly isn't meaningful to whatever consumes it downstream. Keep merges type-homogeneous - all image lists, or all text lists - the same discipline you'd apply to any batch operation.

This isn't for standard ComfyUI image batches. As with batch_BatchSlice, this operates on Apt_Preset's own LIST type, not a native IMAGE tensor batch. If your images are already a stock batch tensor, look at ComfyUI core's batch nodes instead.