ComfyUI Manager: Install, Enable and Fix It (2026)

ComfyUI Manager is the extension that installs, updates and removes custom nodes from inside ComfyUI. It now ships with ComfyUI itself, so on a current build you enable it and do not clone it: Comfy Desktop switches it on for you, and a portable or manual install needs one pip command and the --enable-manager flag. Most guides that rank for this search still tell you to git clone a repository that has since moved. This one follows the official documentation as it reads today.

Checked 13 October 2026 against Comfy Org's own pages and code: the docs for Manager overview, installation, the new interface, the legacy interface, configuration, troubleshooting, updating ComfyUI and the Desktop Manage panel; the ComfyUI repository at v0.39.0 (released 5 October 2026), whose manager_requirements.txt pins comfyui_manager==4.2.2; the ComfyUI-Manager repository (main and manager-v4 branches); the comfyui-manager package on PyPI, newest version 4.3; and Comfy Org's announcement Meet the New ComfyUI-Manager (18 December 2025). Commands are copied from those pages.

What ComfyUI Manager is, and what changed

ComfyUI does one thing out of the box: run the nodes it ships with. Everything else comes from custom nodes, which are folders of Python code written by the community. The official overview gives ComfyUI Manager four jobs: custom node management (install, update, remove, disable), model downloads, snapshots that save and restore an installation, and detecting the nodes a workflow is missing.

The Manager used to be a custom node itself, one you cloned from GitHub. Comfy Org's announcement of 18 December 2025 changed that: "ComfyUI-Manager is officially integrated into ComfyUI." It is now a Python package named comfyui_manager, and ComfyUI names the version it works with in a file called manager_requirements.txt. The old clone still exists and still runs, which is why two generations of instructions are in circulation.

The registry the new interface installs from listed 5,988 node packs when its public API was read on 13 October 2026. Our ComfyUI statistics page tracks that count with the project's other numbers.

How to install ComfyUI Manager, by setup

Find your row first. The install is different for each way of running ComfyUI, and most failures come from following the steps for a different setup. If ComfyUI itself is not installed yet, start with our ComfyUI installation guide.

Comfy Desktop

The docs are plain about it: "Comfy Desktop installs ComfyUI-Manager with every ComfyUI installation and starts it with --enable-manager, so there is nothing for you to install." To change how it behaves, open the installation's Manage panel and go to the Startup Args tab. Manager Security Level offers Strict, Standard (recommended), Relaxed and Permissive. Manager Network Mode offers Public (the default), Private, Offline and Personal cloud. Both apply the next time you launch.

Windows portable

The two commands, exactly as the official installation page gives them:

.\python_embeded\python.exe -m pip install -r ComfyUI\manager_requirements.txt

.\python_embeded\python.exe -s ComfyUI\main.py --windows-standalone-build --enable-manager
pause

Comfy Org's announcement suggests saving the first line, followed by pause, as install_manager.bat in the portable folder and running it once. The flag has to be in the .bat file you actually double-click, or it does nothing.

Manual install or virtual environment

Activate the environment that runs ComfyUI, then run these from the ComfyUI folder:

pip install -r manager_requirements.txt
python main.py --enable-manager

A container or a service needs the same two things: the package in the Python that starts ComfyUI, and the flag in the real start command.

The legacy clone, and when it still makes sense

The docs keep the old method under "Legacy installation methods". From ComfyUI/custom_nodes, run git clone https://github.com/Comfy-Org/ComfyUI-Manager comfyui-manager, then cd comfyui-manager and pip install -r requirements.txt, and restart. The files must sit in ComfyUI/custom_nodes/comfyui-manager: not loose in custom_nodes, not double-nested as ComfyUI-Manager/ComfyUI-Manager, and not named ComfyUI-Manager-main.

Use it only if you need the old interface on a ComfyUI that predates the built-in package. The docs note that a Manager installed as a custom node cannot switch to the new interface, and it must not be combined with --enable-manager: ComfyUI then skips the clone and logs Blocked by policy.

ComfyUI Manager not showing: where the button went

This is the most searched problem after the install itself, and it has three causes. The first is the flag. Outside Desktop, the Manager only starts when ComfyUI is launched with --enable-manager. The second is --disable-manager-ui, which the ComfyUI source describes as disabling "only the ComfyUI-Manager UI and endpoints" while scheduled installations still run.

The third is that the button was renamed. Comfy Org's announcement says the new Manager opens from "the new Plugin icon" or from the menu entry Manage Extensions. In the interface language file of the frontend that ComfyUI pins today (version 1.55.14), that entry is labelled Extensions and the dialog it opens is titled Nodes Manager. Its left sidebar filters the list (All Extensions, Not Installed, All installed, Updates Available, Missing Nodes), the search bar at the top switches between Node Pack and Node, and the right panel shows details for the selected pack.

If you want the old Manager button back, start the legacy interface. The flag switches the Manager on by itself:

python main.py --enable-manager --enable-manager-legacy-ui

Desktop users find the same switch under Server Settings, UI Settings, Use legacy manager interface, according to the installation page. The legacy flag and --disable-manager-ui are mutually exclusive.

Reading the startup log, including "Loaded ComfyUI-Manager"

People search for the line "Loaded ComfyUI-Manager", and no official build prints it. The lines below are the real ones, read from the Manager's source on the manager-v4 branch. They appear in this order, with other ComfyUI output between them.

The full log is a file. With file logging on, which is the default, it is comfyui.log in the ComfyUI user directory, and the two previous runs are kept beside it as comfyui.prev.log and comfyui.prev2.log. The ** Python executable: line matters more than it looks: it names the Python you must use for any pip command, and a package installed into a different Python is the commonest reason a node fails to import.

How to update ComfyUI and the Manager

The Manager is tied to the ComfyUI version, so update them together. The installation page puts it this way: "Updating ComfyUI may leave the installed Manager package unchanged."

• Comfy Desktop: the app updates itself and keeps the Manager current. To update the ComfyUI engine, open the Manage panel, go to the Update tab and use Check for update. The channel is Stable by default, with Latest on GitHub as the alternative.
• Windows portable: run update\update_comfyui.bat for the latest development version or update\update_comfyui_stable.bat for the latest stable one, then install manager_requirements.txt again with the embedded Python. The docs mark update_comfyui_and_python_dependencies.bat as dangerous for daily use because it reinstalls every dependency.
• Manual install: git pull, then pip install -r requirements.txt and pip install -r manager_requirements.txt in the same environment.
• Node packs: in the new interface, pick the Update available filter, choose a version and select Update.
• A legacy clone: git pull inside ComfyUI/custom_nodes/comfyui-manager. If that fails, the troubleshooting page gives git update-ref refs/remotes/origin/main a361cc1 && git fetch --all && git pull.

ComfyUI moves fast. Its README describes a weekly release cycle, and GitHub shows five releases between 9 September and 5 October 2026, so a model released this season often needs a ComfyUI update before its nodes exist. Our best ComfyUI models guide lists which models are native and which need a pack.

Is ComfyUI Manager safe? Security levels explained

The Manager is published by Comfy Org under the GPL-3.0 licence. The honest risk is what it installs. The docs warn that "malicious plugins could potentially exploit custom nodes" and advise installing only from trusted authors. The Manager's defence is a security level, set as security_level in config.ini or as Manager Security Level in Desktop.

The Desktop names sit beside the config value whose description they match; the docs describe both sets without printing the mapping. High risk means installing from a git URL, pip installs, nodes outside the default channel and fixing custom nodes. Middle risk covers uninstalling, updating, installing from the default channel, snapshots and restarting. On ComfyUI v0.3.76 and later the file is at <USER_DIRECTORY>/__manager/config.ini, where the user directory defaults to ComfyUI/user. The Desktop docs add one rule worth knowing if you share ComfyUI on a network: in the default Public network mode, launching with --listen blocks node pack installs at every security level.

Troubleshooting: the errors the project documents

Each row is a message from the official troubleshooting page, the ComfyUI or Manager source, or the Manager's issue tracker. Match the text you see, then apply the fix for your install type.

Three of these have long threads behind them. Issue 2374, the most commented issue on the tracker and still open, is a Desktop update after which the old Manager menu vanished. The reporter cloned a second copy into custom_nodes and still saw no menu; the documented way back to the old menu is the legacy interface switch above. In issue 1554 the maintainer's answer to missing modules is the rule this whole page rests on: dependencies "must be installed in the same Python environment where ComfyUI is running". And the data backup warning is explained in the project's migration guide: only config.ini is moved automatically, snapshots are not, and a security level below normal is raised to normal during the move.

Two more from the same page. If Git is installed somewhere unusual, set git_exe in config.ini to the full path of the executable. If GitHub or Hugging Face is slow or unreachable where you are, the GITHUB_ENDPOINT and HF_ENDPOINT environment variables point the Manager at a mirror.

What to do once the Manager works

Install as little as you can. Every pack adds dependencies that the next update has to survive, and a short list of well-kept packs outlasts a long list of abandoned ones. If you are still deciding whether the node graph is for you, our ComfyUI vs Stable Diffusion comparison explains what the interface is and how it relates to Stable Diffusion, the model family it was first built to run.

Most people who install the Manager are building one of two things. The first is a consistent character: a fictional adult persona whose face holds across images, which is a LoRA job, covered step by step in our LoRA training guide. The second is video from stills. For that, read the image to video guide for the method and the Kling AI tutorial for a hosted route that needs no nodes at all. If you have not chosen a model yet, AI models for creators compares the families by what they are good at.

ComfyUI Manager FAQ