> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://comfyui-mcp.artokun.io/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Installer packs that can't rot: one manifest, every install

> The community '1-click installer' .bat is great UX and a maintenance trap — Windows-only, duplicated in a separate .sh, and full of model URLs that rot silently. Here's how comfyui-mcp turns an install into a single manifest that drives both the double-click scripts and an MCP-native install, with CI that fails the build the moment a model link dies.

*by [artokun](https://github.com/artokun) · June 16, 2026 · packs · installers · CI*

If you've set up ComfyUI for a new model lately, you've probably met the
**1-click installer**: a `.bat` you drop next to ComfyUI that clones the right
custom nodes and downloads every model to the right folder. The community —
[Aitrepreneur](https://www.youtube.com/@Aitrepreneur) especially — has made
these for nearly every new model, and they're genuinely great. You go from
"new model dropped" to "generating" in one double-click.

We love the UX. We do **not** love what it's made of.

## The problem with a folder of scripts

A hand-written installer is a pile of duplicated, unvalidated facts:

* **Windows-only.** The `.bat` doesn't run on RunPod, so there's a parallel
  `.sh` — the same URLs and folders, copy-pasted, free to drift apart.
* **No validation.** Nothing checks that
  `https://huggingface.co/.../ideogram4_fp8_scaled.safetensors` still exists.
  When a repo gets restructured or a file renamed, the URL 404s — or worse,
  returns a tiny HTML error page that your downloader cheerfully saves *as*
  `model.safetensors`. You find out 30 GB and one failed generation later.
* **It's a script, so you can't reason about it.** Want to know what models a
  pack pulls, or reuse them from an agent? You're grepping `curl` lines.

The install is really just **data** — a list of custom nodes, a list of model
URLs and where they go, and a workflow. The script is an accident of delivery.

## Make it a manifest

So in [comfyui-mcp](https://github.com/artokun/comfyui-mcp) a pack is data:

```
packs/<name>/
  manifest.yaml         # custom_nodes + models (url → local_path) — the source of truth
  pack.yaml             # metadata: workflow, VRAM, sources, notes
  workflow.json         # the graph to load
  install-windows.bat   # GENERATED
  install-runpod.sh     # GENERATED
```

The key move: `manifest.yaml` isn't a new format. It's a **`ComfyManifest`** —
the exact shape the server's existing `apply_manifest` tool already consumes to
install nodes + models on a live ComfyUI. So one file drives two things:

* **MCP-native install** — from a Claude session: `apply_manifest --path
  packs/anima/manifest.yaml`, idempotent, with the same engine that powers the
  rest of the server.
* **The double-click scripts** — `npm run packs:gen` reads the manifest and
  emits `install-windows.bat` *and* `install-runpod.sh`. The beloved UX
  survives; the duplication doesn't. Edit the manifest, rebuild, done.

Bundled fixes travel with the pack, too — the LTX-2.3 pack ships the kornia
import patch as **both** `fix-ltxvideo-kornia.bat` and `.sh`, so the Linux user
isn't a second-class citizen.

## The silent killer: requirements.txt into the *right* Python

A `git clone` of a custom node is only half an install. Most nodes have a
`requirements.txt`, and if you don't install it, the node imports fine in your
shell but **silently fails to register in ComfyUI** — it just never shows up in
the node list, with no error you'd notice. We hit this repeatedly:

* **DWPose** (controlnet\_aux) vanished because `scikit-image` wasn't installed —
  even though it's right there in the node's `requirements.txt`.
* **vrgamedevgirl's** grain/sharpen nodes vanished because `librosa` was missing —
  also in its `requirements.txt`.

We'd been hand-pinning those deps in the manifest's `pip:` list. That's a band-aid;
the real bug was that the **generated installers cloned nodes but never ran their
`requirements.txt`**. The fix is two lines in the generator, and it matters more
than it sounds:

* **Resolve each node's `requirements.txt` on clone** — exactly what ComfyUI-Manager
  does, so the double-click scripts reach parity with the MCP path (which already
  delegates to Manager).
* **Target the ComfyUI venv, not system Python.** Installing a node's deps into the
  wrong interpreter is the *other* way a node "installs" but won't load. The scripts
  now resolve `.venv/Scripts/python.exe` (Windows) or `.venv/bin/python` (Linux),
  then the portable `python_embeded`, then `$PYTHON` — and echo which one they chose
  so it's auditable.

The `pip:` list stays as an explicit net for deps no node lists (and for
already-cloned nodes, since the requirements step only fires on a fresh clone). But
the default is now: clone a node, its Python deps land in the same venv ComfyUI
actually runs — and it shows up.

## The part that matters: links can't rot unnoticed

Generating scripts is nice. The reason this is worth doing is **CI**. Every push
runs `.github/workflows/packs.yml` on a Linux runner:

1. **Schema** — every manifest validates against the real `manifestSchema`.
2. **Offline dry-run** — each `install-runpod.sh` runs with `git` and `curl`
   stubbed: it must stage every node + model path, and a second run must be a
   no-op (idempotent).
3. **The good one — every model URL, for real.** `packs:check-urls` sends a
   `HEAD` (or a 1-byte ranged `GET`) to every model URL and asserts two things:
   the link resolves, **and** the payload size is sane for the model type. A
   diffusion model that comes back at 4 KB isn't a model — it's an error page,
   and the build goes red:

   ```
   [ERR] Eyeful_v2-Paired.pt        ?  <- BAD LINK (fetch failed)
   [ok ] anima-base-v1.0.safetensors   3.89GB
   ```

   No multi-gigabyte downloads — just enough to know the link is alive and
   pointing at something the right size. Gated repos (HuggingFace 🔒) answer
   `401/403`; we treat that as *valid-but-gated*, not a failure. And because a
   single CDN hiccup shouldn't fail a build, the check retries transient errors
   before giving up.

That third check is the whole point. A folder of `.bat` files tells you nothing
until a user runs it. A manifest with a URL gate tells **you**, on every commit,
the moment a model link dies — so the pack on the shelf is one you can trust.

## Adding a pack is one file

Point the builder at an upstream installer (the `.bat` is the ground truth for
exact URLs → folders), drop the resulting `manifest.yaml`, `pack.yaml`, and
`workflow.json` into `packs/<name>/`, run `npm run packs:gen`, and CI does the
rest. The shelf so far: **ANIMA**, **Ideogram 4**, **LTX-2.3**, **ERNIE**,
**WAN** (animate / longer-videos / transparent), **Qwen** (image / image-edit)
**Z-Image** (turbo / base / xy-plot), plus an **artokun-flow** WAN Animate pack
*derived straight from its workflow* (no upstream installer) — each one a
manifest, each one validated on every push.

## Share what you build

Because a pack is just three small files — `manifest.yaml`, `pack.yaml`, and
`workflow.json` — it's trivial to pass around. If you build or derive one
locally, **send it upstream**: open an issue or PR on
[comfyui-mcp](https://github.com/artokun/comfyui-mcp/issues) with those files.
Every contributed pack is reviewed for safety — model URLs, custom-node sources,
no surprises — before it merges, and from then on CI keeps its links honest for
everyone. The bigger the userbase, the more this becomes a shared,
always-validated catalog of battle-tested setups rather than a drawer of one-off
scripts.

The difference between a folder of scripts and a validated catalog is small to
build and large to live with. Your installers stop being write-once artifacts
that rot in a drawer, and start being something CI keeps honest for you.

***

Browse them in [`packs/`](https://github.com/artokun/comfyui-mcp/tree/main/packs),
or file a model you want packed at
[artokun/comfyui-mcp](https://github.com/artokun/comfyui-mcp/issues).