Knobs and promotion

A node’s settings sit on its body as knobs: a model picker, a slider for temperature, a text box for a URL, a dropdown for an operation. Each kind of knob looks and behaves the same on every node, the ones from packs included, because a node only declares its knobs and the editor draws them.

Convert a knob to an input

Right-click a knob and pick Convert to input. The knob turns into a typed input port, and whatever you wire there sets it each time the node runs: a temperature from a Float, a URL built by a Template, a Strip toggle from a Boolean. A trigger starts turns instead of running in one, so it reads its wired knobs when the graph turns On and again each time it checks its clock or takes a call: an Interval before each wait, a Webhook on each request. Right-click the port and pick Revert to widget to turn it back into a knob.

If you convert a knob and leave the new port unwired, the node uses the knob’s own value.

Reset to default on the same menu puts a knob back to the value its node declares.

A few knobs always stay knobs, such as a model picker (the model reshapes its node, see below) and the text of a Template. A node’s page marks them stays a knob.

Knobs that reshape the node

Some knobs change which other knobs and ports a node shows:

The operation of a DB, KV or Vectors node: an insert shows fields, a find shows where, a query shows sql, and the outputs follow (row_id, rows, affected).
The model of an LLM, TTS, STT or Rerank node: the selected model’s settings appear as knobs (temperature, top_p, voice, speed, a rerank endpoint), each of which can become an input, and a model that reads images grows an image input. See Models.
The fields of Tool Args and the keys of Split JSON: one output per name you type.

Where knob values live

A knob’s value is saved in the graph file with the node. A key typed into a knob is saved there too, in plain text, which is why keys belong in secrets: Tags and secrets shows how.

For pack authors, Build a node pack shows how to declare knobs.