Uncle Template

The Uncle Template is what it says on the tin: a starting point for building your own derp nodes. Its full name in the pack is "Uncle Template," and in the index it's described as a "slot-preserving Fatha shell with real LiteGraph I/O" - developer-speak for "a blank derp node that still keeps the classic input/output sockets, so it fits into normal workflows while you build on it." Part of xcp_derp-UI (search "xcp_derp-UI" in ComfyUI Manager, by lordwedggie), under derpNodes/Templates.

Who this is for

Honestly? This is a node for node-builders. If you've ever looked at a custom node pack and thought "I could make one of these," the template nodes are where derp-UI says "okay, here's the starting point." The source's own header calls it a "clean starting template for building new Hybrid Uncle nodes" - the pack's Uncle framework being the one that keeps real sockets so your custom node still behaves like a normal node in the graph.

How it works

In the schema you'll see the classic seed-node skeleton: value (INT, 0 to 2^64) and values_data (STRING, default "{}") as inputs, returning an INT output, with IS_CHANGED returning NaN so the node always reruns. That's not an accident - the template is the same shape as the pack's Seed V2, which is itself an Uncle node. The idea is you start from a proven skeleton rather than a blank file.

The "slot-preserving" part is the key difference from its sibling, the Fatha Template: this one keeps real LiteGraph input/output sockets, so anything you build on it can be wired into ordinary ComfyUI workflows. The template's JavaScript handles the layout hash, title persistence, and the framework wiring, so you're not reinventing rendering - you're writing the part that does whatever your node does.

Install

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/lordwedggie/xcp_derp-UI-Release

Restart ComfyUI. No pip requirements, no model downloads, no npm step. Manager users: search xcp_derp-UI.

Honest takes

If you're not writing custom nodes, this page is basically informational - the template does nothing on its own, by design. It's a scaffolding node. The one thing worth knowing even if you never build: the pack's architecture is genuinely unusual. It replaces a lot of ComfyUI's default node rendering with its own Fatha/Uncle layout systems (the KB's comfyui-ecosystem.md describes the ecosystem tension around custom rendering and the Nodes 2.0 frontend; this pack explicitly targets both old and new frontends, which is more than most packs can say). That's a double-edged sword - it's why the pack can do wireless signals and docking, and it's also why there's a steep curve if you go poking under the hood.

And the standing caveat: young pack, no third-party documentation, bundled docs and source as the reference. If you're going to build on this template, plan to read the source - that's where the actual contract lives.