feat(comfyui-plugin): evaluate porting comfyui-node-scaffold (3,045 lines) to cargo-generate

[laurigates]

The larger of the two hand-rolled Python template engines. Gated on the foundry pilot paying off (#2223) — deliberately second, and worth abandoning if the pilot's answer is negative.

Why it was not the pilot

	foundryvtt-module-scaffold (piloted)	comfyui-node-scaffold (this)
Generator size	1,279 lines	3,045 lines
Variants	3 (basic/app/libwrapper)	4 (frontend/backend/gesture/shim)
Extra axis	none	--widgets — presence/absence emits a structurally different src/index.ts (widget-intercept vs standalone-modal)
Existing tests	none	3 (test-finishing-pass.sh, test-shim-variant.sh, test-standalone-variant.sh)

The --widgets switch is the interesting part: it is not an additive variant like foundry's, it swaps the entry point's whole shape. [conditional] handles it (4 variants × modal-shape is still a small matrix), but it is a genuinely harder mapping than anything the pilot exercised.

The payoff, if it holds

Same as the pilot's thesis: the emitted TypeScript becomes real files tsc and biome can check, instead of Python string literals nothing can. That argument is stronger here — this generator emits more TS, and scaffold.py already carries a print_finishing_pass_audit precisely because parts of its output cannot be verified mechanically (see #1877).

What to preserve

1. The three existing tests are the contract, not optional extras. comfy pack scaffold omits the finishing pass (icon, banner, screenshots, renovate) #1877 exists because a CI-green pack shipped with Icon = "" and a bare README TODO; test-finishing-pass.sh is what stops that recurring. Any port keeps it passing or replaces it with something at least as strong.
2. The finishing-pass audit — the port must still print it, or move its checks into the template where they become structural. This is the better outcome if reachable: an emitted icon.svg in a template is a real file, not a generated string.
3. A parity test first, same shape as test-template-parity.sh, including the all-non-default half. That half caught two hardcoded fields in the foundry pilot that a defaults-only run passed over.

Costs specific to this pack

• ComfyUI pack authors are Python/TypeScript people; requiring cargo-generate is a bigger ask than it was for the foundry repos. Weigh this before starting, not after.
• plugin-compliance-check.sh pins several comfyui-node-scaffold body tokens (the finishing-pass file map, non-empty Icon/Banner, print_finishing_pass_audit) — the port must keep them satisfied or move them in the same commit.

Related

• feat(rust-plugin): add cargo-generate skill and foundryvtt template pilot #2205 — the foundry pilot and the pattern to copy
• feat(foundryvtt-plugin): promote the cargo-generate template to default and retire scaffold.py #2223 — the promote/retire decision this is gated on
• comfy pack scaffold omits the finishing pass (icon, banner, screenshots, renovate) #1877 — the finishing-pass audit and why it exists
• foundryvtt-plugin/templates/README.md — brace collisions, Rhai gotchas, the divergence table