A ComfyUI workflow is the node graph that produced an image or video. ComfyUI saves it inside every output file, so the recipe is already on your disk. The hard part is finding the right one among thousands of files and getting it back into ComfyUI when you need it.
What is a ComfyUI workflow?
A workflow is a graph of nodes (load a model, encode a prompt, sample, save) connected by links that carry data between them. ComfyUI runs the graph and writes the result to your output folder. Each workflow exists in two forms:
- The UI graph (
workflow): the nodes, positions and links you see on the canvas. This is what you load to keep working. - The API prompt (
prompt): the execution-ready version ComfyUI actually ran, with every input value resolved.
Where ComfyUI stores the workflow in your outputs
PNG images: both JSON blobs sit in the file's text chunks, alongside the pixels. See where ComfyUI stores metadata.
Videos: ComfyUI video nodes write the workflow into the container's metadata (MP4, WebM, MOV, AVI and MKV).
What removes it: most social platforms and many "optimize image" steps re-encode the file and drop the embedded data. Keep originals; share derivatives.
How to load a workflow from a ComfyUI image
- Open ComfyUI.
- Drag the PNG (or the workflow
.json) onto the canvas. - ComfyUI rebuilds the graph with the saved values.
If nothing loads, the file was stripped. Check it with the free metadata inspector: it reads PNG, JPEG, WebP and MP4 files up to 100 MB in your browser, no login, and lets you copy the workflow JSON out.
Finding the right workflow across thousands of outputs
Dragging files in one at a time stops working at a few hundred outputs. Numonic reads the workflow from every ComfyUI PNG and video you import and makes it searchable:
- Search by what you used: sampler, seed, steps, CFG, model or node, for example
comfyui_param:euler_a. See search syntax. - See the graph: each asset shows its workflow as a node graph, plus a parameters list you can click to search.
- Download the JSON: get the exact workflow file back and drop it into ComfyUI.
- Know how often a recipe ran: Numonic recognizes outputs that came from the same workflow and shows how many there are.
- Every ComfyUI output already contains its workflow.
- Re-encoding strips it, so keep the original files.
- Indexing the embedded workflow makes thousands of outputs searchable by seed, model or sampler.
Keeping your output folder in sync
Point Numonic's folder watcher (Chrome or Edge) at your ComfyUI output folder. New files are picked up as you generate, subfolders become collections, and duplicates are skipped. Details: sync docs.
Saving straight from ComfyUI
The Numonic Workflow Recovery node pack (MIT license, on the Comfy Registry) adds:
- Save Image to Numonic and Save Video to Numonic: send outputs to your library from inside the graph (needs a free account).
- Extract Workflow Lineage: recover the workflow from a PNG offline, no account.
Setup: ComfyUI node reference.