Utility Nodes
Text concatenation, image resize, text split, and array join are implemented in the PixelFlow engine but cannot yet be added from the editor. What they will do, and what to use instead.
Not addable from the editor yet. These four node types run in the PixelFlow engine — a graph that already contains them executes correctly — but the editor currently offers no way to add one to a canvas. They aren't in the node sidebar, the model search, the Utilities category, or the quick-add palette. Everything below describes intended behaviour. For what to use today, see alternatives.
Utility nodes transform data between models — the plumbing that makes multi-model workflows fit together. They are designed to run instantly and consume no credits, since no model call is involved.
Planned utilities
Text Concatenation
Joins incoming text values into one string. Use it to combine a fixed style prefix with a user prompt, or merge outputs from several LLM nodes into a single document.
Image Resize
Resizes an image before it reaches the next model — useful when a downstream model expects specific dimensions, or to cut upload time and cost for large source images.
Text Split
Splits one text into parts — for instance, breaking an LLM's list output into individual items for downstream processing.
Array Join
Joins an array of values back into one — the natural companion to Text Split or a fan-out region when you want a single combined result.
Chaining utilities
Utilities are meant to compose like any other node. The pattern they're built for:
LLM (writes 3 prompt variants)
→ Text Split (one per line)
→ fan-out → image model (runs per variant)
→ collect → Array Join
→ OutputVideo coming soon
Text Split feeding a fanned-out model, collected with Array Join
https://segmind-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/pixelflow/nodes/utility-chain.mp4
Alternatives that work today
- Fan-out and collect themselves work. Only the utility nodes are missing from the chain above — see fan-out and parallel for the patterns that don't need a splitter or joiner.
- Server-side media utilities are available in the sidebar's Utilities category —
Image resizer,Video Concatenate,NSFW Checkerand others. These are hosted rather than free local transforms, so they cost credits and add a network round trip, but they cover the common image and video cases. - The same operations are on the API. Compositing a multi-track edit, splitting a video into clips, pulling a still frame, making a GIF and converting formats all have endpoints of their own — see Video Editing. They run on the standard async contract, so a workflow can call one the way it calls any other model.
- An LLM node can do light text shaping — concatenating, splitting, or reformatting — at the price of a model call.
Output Nodes
Display workflow results with output nodes — automatic rendering for images, video, audio, text, and 3D — and name them to define your API's response fields.
Notes
Document workflows on the canvas with resizable, color-coded sticky notes. Notes never execute and are stripped from published APIs.