Welcome to my Model Manager app designed for ComfyUI on RunPod. It is a much relief that makes it easier to download the many models that are available for AI Image or Video generation etc. The challenge with using ComfyUI, even with its native model download function, they only download a select set of model while there are numerous fine tuned versions available.
And if you are new to ComfyUI figuring out which model to use and where to place the model file can often be tricky.
Sometimes you are downloading model.safetensors and you need to rename them to a more appropriate one.
Sometimes you have to place the file in checkpoints.
Sometimes you have to place the file in diffusion_models.
The solution
A standalone app that can fetch from ever growing catalog of model configuration and download the models into the appropriate directory of ComfyUI. The Model Manager is open source and designed specifically for RunPod environments. Until now I had been using my ever expanding Runpod Notebook for ComfyUI which had all the model configuration.
But with this simple UI, it becomes very easy to run and download the models on your RunPod ComfyUI.
Installation
Launch the RunPod pod with the custom port 9999 that is exposed in the Expose HTTP Ports option. This is needed before and then used later when the app launches.
Upload the provide Model Manager notebook onto your RunPod and launch the notebook. There are two cells to execute in the notebook.
- Run this to Install the App and Dependencies – This command cell downloads the latest version of the app and installs the required files to launch it.
- Run this to LAUNCH – This command cell will launch the App. You can stop this cell to terminate the app.
Access the Model Manager app via the Connect button of your RunPod. It should show ready if the above steps are completed. Click on the HTTP Service 9999 which will open a new tab with the App.
The App has three main components:
- Select Model Package – This is a configuration name which defines all the files and their sources where to get them from. This is what makes the life easier as its all pre-configured for you. When you select a model more information is displayed about the files that will be downloaded.
- Base Path – This is the default directory where the ComfyUI models will be placed on the RunPod. If you are using default installation and have not customised the locations, leave this as is. Only change if you know what you are doing.
- Hugging Face Token – This optional but required for some models that will require you to accept the terms on Hugging Face before you are allowed to download. For such models you need to retrieve and use your Hugging Face Token. Here again the App will advise you when this token is necessary, for example when you want to download the Flux models.
You have four action buttons that are self explanatory but I will explain anyway.
- Download Models – Downloads the models linked to the selected package and places them in the appropriate directory. A new panel appears below to show you the download progress.
- Delete Models – This can be useful to free up space from your RunPod. If you no longer need the model you can delete it and related files. Also, refer to the File Explorer below.
- Show Model Info – This will show details of the model files included in the package.
- Check Status – This will interrogate the ComfyUI models folder to check and advise if the files listed in the selected package are already present on your Runpod.
A full walk-through of the Model Manager for ComfyUI on RunPod is available in this video below and you can grab your copy of it here (Ko-fi store).