Merge node

The Merge node fans several branches back into one variable. After an If or Switch splits your flow — each branch writing its own result — Merge gives the downstream path a single, predictable place to read from, so you don't have to duplicate the rest of the graph per branch.

Component id: flowrunner/merge.

How it works

Merge reads a list of sources (dotted references) and combines them into a result variable using one of two strategies:

• First defined (first) — walks the sources in order and takes the first one that has a value (not undefined/null). Use this to coalesce divergent branches: branch A writes premiumPlan, branch B writes freePlan, and Merge collapses whichever ran into plan.
• Combine (combine) — shallow-merges every source that resolves to an object into a single object. Later sources win on key conflicts.

How the result is stored

• First defined: if the picked value is a plain object it's stored as-is (read result.field); a scalar is wrapped as { value } (read result.value).
• Combine: the merged object is stored as-is — read result.field.

Config

Field	Required	Description
sources	Yes	A list of dotted references (one per line in the inspector), e.g. premiumPlan and freePlan.
strategy	No (default first)	first (coalesce to the first defined source) or combine (shallow-merge objects).
resultVar	No (default merged)	The variable the merged value is written to.

Ports

Merge has a single next port.

NOTE

The engine runs a convergent node once, on the first branch to reach it — so a Merge downstream of an If/Switch fires a single time. That's why first reads whichever branch actually set its variable, rather than trying to collect every branch at once.

Examples

Coalesce two branches into one variable:

# branch A (premium):  Set plan-A → premiumPlan
# branch B (free):     Set plan-B → freePlan
Merge  sources: [premiumPlan, freePlan]  strategy: first  resultVar: plan
# → refs.plan = whichever branch ran

Combine partial objects into one:

Merge  sources: [contact, address]  strategy: combine  resultVar: profile
# contact = { name }, address = { city } → refs.profile = { name, city }

See also

• If node
• Switch node
• Filter node
• Node reference overview