The ComfyUI Interface

The node graphs you see in the screenshots above are the whole interface for ComfyUI. The workflow to create each image or animation is implemented by creating nodes, connecting them together, and adjusting the settings in each node.

(If doing everything with nodes, all the time, doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you could consider installing SwarmUI. Swarm includes Comfy in one tab, so you can still do everything with node-based workflows when you want to, but it also has a simpler, linear interface for the times you just want to focus on generating or editing images without seeing any nodes.)

Comfy stores the full workflow (all of the nodes used) inside the .png file for each image you generate. This means that, after you have an image you generated, all you need to do is drag a .png file into the Comfy interface to open a previous workflow again. You can also download workflows from websites such as ComfyWorkflows.com. (If you have SwarmUI, Swarm can generate new Comfy workflows for you based on whatever you do in the Generate tab.)

Of all the Stable Diffusion interfaces, ComfyUI is the one that is usually first to get most new functions and features, usually implemented as custom nodes that you can install. The new Flux.1 Dev model used in some of the images above was made available in Comfy first, although it certainly will be ported to other interfaces soon. With many built-in and custom nodes available, and the ability to wire-up novel combinations of nodes, give you a great deal of creative control.

If you're already used to downloading software from Github, go directly to this part of ComfyUI’s Github page to begin installation.

If you are new to installing software like this, you may prefer to follow along with this Youtube tutorial video instead.

Important Note: If you already have a lot of Stable Diffusion models taking up space on your hard drive, Comfy can share them. When you install ComfyUI, edit the Config file to specify the path where Comfy should look for models, and Comfy will use the models you have already downloaded. This makes it easy to install Comfy on machines that also have Forge or Automatic1111 installed.

After installing ComfyUI itself, it’s a good idea to immediately install the Manager. While the Manager needs to be installed like a custom node itself, it is the tool that makes it easy to install other custom nodes.