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Manual

Local Artistry with ComfyUI

Local Artistry with ComfyUI

AIRI features a built-in Artistry Engine capable of generating background artwork, character selfies, and interactive scene illustrations. While cloud backends like Replicate and Nanobanana are supported, you can connect your own local ComfyUI instance for unlimited, free, local image generation directly on your GPU.

1. Prerequisites

Before connecting ComfyUI to AIRI:

  1. Ensure ComfyUI is installed and running on your PC (default address: http://127.0.0.1:8188).
  2. Verify you can access the ComfyUI web interface in your browser and successfully generate an image with your desired checkpoint (e.g., SDXL, Pony, Flux, or Illustrious).

2. Setting Up the ComfyUI Provider

  1. Open AIRI and navigate to Settings → Providers → Artistry (ComfyUI).
  2. In the Server URL field, ensure http://127.0.0.1:8188 is entered.
  3. Click the Test Connection button. You should see a green checkmark confirming AIRI can communicate with ComfyUI's WebSocket API.

3. Exporting Your Workflow (workflow_api.json)

To let AIRI drive your ComfyUI generation, export your workflow in API format:

  1. In ComfyUI, open Settings (the gear icon).
  2. Enable "Enable Dev mode Options".
  3. A new button titled "Save (API Format)" will appear in the ComfyUI control panel.
  4. Click Save (API Format) and save the .json file to your computer.

IMPORTANT

API Format vs. Standard Workflow: Standard ComfyUI JSON files contain UI canvas layout data, which cannot be executed headless. You must export using "Save (API Format)".

4. Tagging Prompt & Image Placeholders

AIRI injects dynamic prompts and input images into your workflow using two placeholder tokens:

  • : Replaced with the character's generated positive prompt.
  • : (Optional for image-to-image/ControlNet) Replaced with the input image path or canvas buffer.

How to Map Fields in AIRI:

  1. In Settings → Modules → Artistry, upload your exported workflow_api.json.
  2. AIRI will parse your nodes. In the Exposed Fields configuration:
    • Map your CLIP Text Encode (Prompt) node text input to .
    • If using a negative prompt node, configure your default negative tags.
    • Map your Save Image / Preview Image node output.

5. Using Artistry in Conversations

Once ComfyUI is connected, AIRI can generate artwork in multiple ways:

  • Direct Requests: Ask AIRI in chat: "Draw a scenic sunset view of the beach" or "Take a selfie in your cozy room".
  • Autonomous Artistry: If enabled, a background director loop evaluates significant narrative moments and silently generates matching atmospheric illustrations.
  • Desktop Art Widgets: Generated images appear in the conversation stream and can be opened as floating desktop stickers, pinned to your screen, or set as your active stage background.