> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.trezalabs.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.trezalabs.com/pipelines/groups-and-recipes.md).

# Groups & recipes

Nodes are primitives: each one does a single, predictable thing. Real work is usually several of them in a particular arrangement, and that arrangement is worth keeping. Groups let you collapse one into a single card; recipes let you save it and drop it into any pipeline.

***

## Groups

Select two or more nodes and press **Ctrl/Cmd+G**. They collapse into one card on the canvas, and wires drawn to the card attach to the right nodes inside it.

A group is a view, not a change to the graph. Membership is stored on the nodes themselves, so runs, validation and publishing all still see a plain flat graph. Nothing about grouping changes what a pipeline does.

* **Double-click** a card to open the group in its own tab above the canvas.
* **Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G** dissolves a group and returns its nodes to the canvas.
* Groups do not nest. Grouping a selection that includes a group merges its nodes in.

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## Settings on the card

A group is only usable without opening it if someone decides which few settings matter. That is what exposing a field does.

1. Open the group and select a node inside it.
2. Scroll to **On the group card** at the bottom of its settings.
3. Tick the fields worth surfacing.

Back on the main canvas, selecting the group shows just those settings. Changing one writes straight through to the node that owns it. Everything else stays inside, one double-click away.

Exposed fields work for plain settings: text, numbers, toggles and dropdowns. Model pickers and media fields keep their own upload and catalog interfaces, so the card points to the node that holds them instead.

***

## Recipes

A saved group you can drop into any pipeline.

Select a group and click **Save as recipe**. Give it a name, a short description of what it does, and an icon. It appears in the palette under **Recipes**, above the node categories.

To use one, click it or drag it onto the canvas. It arrives as its own collapsed group with the settings you exposed already on the card.

Recipes belong to your account and are available in every pipeline you own.

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## Recipes are copies

Inserting a recipe copies real, independent nodes onto the canvas. From that moment they are ordinary nodes.

**Editing a recipe later does not change pipelines that already used it.** This is deliberate. A live link would mean editing a recipe silently altering every pipeline built from it, including ones that publish on a schedule without anyone watching. Re-applying an improvement by hand is the safer half of that trade.

Two things are deliberately left behind when you save a recipe:

* **Group membership**, because each insert joins a fresh group.
* **Pinned run outputs** from lock-and-re-run, because a pin refers to one run of one pipeline. A copy carrying someone else's media would be worse than one carrying none.

***

## Worked example: a comedic sting

A reaction beat in a short video is five primitives in a row:

| Node              | What it does                                                     |
| ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Find Beat**     | Locates a line in the transcript and returns the moment it lands |
| **Freeze Frame**  | Holds the frame there                                            |
| **Punch In**      | Snaps the framing closer for that moment                         |
| **Desaturate**    | Drains the colour                                                |
| **Audio Overlay** | Lays a recognisable sound over the narration                     |

Wire them, group them, expose **Hold**, **Amount** and **Gain** on the card, and save it as "Comedic sting". Anyone using it gets three knobs and never has to know it is five nodes.

That is the general shape. When you find yourself wanting a node called "comedic sting", what you actually want is a recipe: the primitives stay predictable, and the arrangement carries the intent.