Feature Request: Ability to Disable Nodes (Comment-Out / Toggle Execution)

[aram-kainos]

Problem

When building complex flows, there is currently no way to temporarily disable a node without deleting it or rewiring the graph. This makes iterative development, debugging, and experimentation unnecessarily destructive.

As developers, we often want to:

• Test alternate logic paths
• Temporarily bypass expensive or unstable nodes (LLMs, tools, APIs)
• Debug upstream behavior without losing downstream structure
• Keep experimental or reference nodes in the canvas without execution

Right now, deleting or disconnecting nodes breaks flow continuity and configuration history.

Proposed Solution

Introduce a “Disable Node” capability, similar to commenting out code.

Critical Execution Semantics (Must Be Explicit)

A disabled node should clearly affect downstream execution in one of the following deterministic ways:

1: Hard Stop / Branch Termination (Preferred)

• A disabled node cannot produce outputs
• Any edges leaving the node are considered inactive
• All downstream nodes depending on that node are implicitly disabled or skipped
• Execution logs clearly indicate where the flow was halted

2: Explicit Disallow of Connections

• A disabled node cannot have outgoing connections
• Existing outgoing connections are visually disabled and ignored at runtime
• Downstream nodes do not execute unless they have an alternate active input path
• Either approach avoids ambiguous “pass-through” behavior and keeps execution predictable.

Expected Behavior

• Disabled nodes:
  • Are not executed
  • Do not trigger API calls or LLM usage
  • Preserve configuration and placement on the canvas
• Re-enabling a node restores execution and connections instantly
• Disabled state persists across save/load
• Clear visual indicators (grayed out, dashed border, icon overlay)

Why This Matters

This feature would significantly improve:

• Debugging workflows
• Safe experimentation
• Cost control for LLM/tool-heavy flows
• Readability and maintainability of complex flows
  This is a standard capability in mature visual programming and orchestration tools and would be a major quality-of-life improvement for Flowise power users.