serverAppConfigs/serverAppConfigs-docs/Dankclaw/ComfyUI Qwen-Image Workflows.md

---
type: howto
description: "Proven Qwen-Image text-to-image workflows on Dankclaw: the recipes, the API call shape, and which models to add next."
tags:
  - dankclaw
  - comfyui
  - qwen-image
timestamp: 2026-10-05
---

# ComfyUI Qwen-Image Workflows

Two ready-to-load text-to-image workflows for the Qwen-Image 2.1 payload
already on Dankclaw, both proven end-to-end on 2026-10-05 by POSTing to the
live API on port 8188 and verifying the rendered PNG (the renders are still on
disk: `qwen21-art_00001_.png` 22:41 and `qwen21-text_00001_.png` 22:44,
`ls -l /home/dank/comfyui-data/output/` 2026-10-18). The repo copies are the
source of truth; the host copies under `/home/dank/comfyui-data/workflows/`
are for convenience and are byte-identical today (`md5sum` matches both files,
2026-10-18).

## What is on disk

Sizes are GiB, measured `ls -l` on the host 2026-10-18 (all files dated
2026-09-21).

| Path (under `/home/dank/comfyui-data/models/`) | Size | Role |
|---|---|---|
| `diffusion_models/qwen_image_2.1_int8_convrot.safetensors` | 6.8 GB (7,256,783,064 B) | **The one the workflows use** — int8-convrot quant, ComfyUI-core native |
| `diffusion_models/qwen_image_2.1_bf16.safetensors` | 13.3 GB (14,230,280,616 B) | Full-precision fallback |
| `diffusion_models/qwen-image-2.1-Q8_0.gguf` (+ `-arch`) | 7.1 GB each (7,591,551,648 / 7,591,551,680 B) | GGUF alternative (needs ComfyUI-GGUF custom node, present in `custom_nodes/`) |
| `text_encoders/qwen3vl_8b_w4a8.safetensors` | 5.9 GB (6,312,105,364 B) | **The one the workflows use** — 4-bit-weights/8-bit-act Qwen3-VL 8B encoder |
| `text_encoders/qwen3vl_8b_int8_convrot.safetensors` | 8.7 GB (9,350,798,360 B) | Mid quant |
| `text_encoders/qwen3vl_8b_bf16.safetensors` | 16.3 GB (17,534,334,616 B) | Full precision |
| `vae/qwen_image_2.1_vae_bf16.safetensors` | 645 MB (675,509,688 B) | 2.1 VAE (used) |
| `vae/qwen_image_vae.safetensors` | 243 MB (253,806,246 B) | Smaller VAE |

No LoRAs are on disk yet, and `models/lora/` / `models/controlnet/` do not
exist — see [Recommended additions](#recommended-additions).

## The workflows

Both are API-format JSON (ComfyUI 0.37 loads them via the UI's **Load** dialog
too): `dankclaw/comfyui/workflows/` in the repo,
`/home/dank/comfyui-data/workflows/` on the host. Node chain in both:

```
UNETLoader (int8_convrot) ──┐
CLIPLoader (qwen_image, w4a8) ─┤ CLIPTextEncode pos/neg
VAELoader (2.1 bf16) ────────┤
EmptySD3LatentImage ─────────┴─ KSampler ─ VAEDecode ─ SaveImage
```

**Common sampler settings:** `cfg 1.0` (Qwen-Image 2.1 expects CFG-free
sampling), `sampler_name: euler`, `scheduler: simple`, `denoise: 1.0`, seed
fixed in the file (`1930` in the art workflow, `2026` in the text one) —
read from `dankclaw/comfyui/workflows/*.json` node `9`.

Node `class_type`s in both files: `CLIPTextEncode` ×2, `UNETLoader`
`CLIPLoader`, `VAELoader`, `EmptySD3LatentImage`, `KSampler`, `VAEDecode`
`SaveImage` (ids 3–11).

| Workflow | File | Shape | Steps | Made for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Art | `qwen-image-2.1-t2i-art.json` | 1024×1024 | 20 | General illustration/prose prompts |
| Legible text | `qwen-image-2.1-t2i-legible-text.json` | 832×1216 | 25 | Posters, captions, any in-image text |

### Legible-text prompt recipe

Qwen-Image 2.1 is one of the best open-weight text renderers, but only if the
prompt is written for it:

1. **Quote the exact strings**: `large bold white text reading "SOLIDARITY OF
   THE SOVIET COMPUTER SYSTEMS"` — quoted text is rendered literally.
2. **Describe layout, not vibes**: say *centered / below it / large vs small*,
   the typeface family (sans-serif), and the color.
3. **Say what NOT to draw**: end with `no other words, no watermark`.
4. Keep the negative side on `misspelled, warped letters, extra text` (already
   in the workflow).
5. More steps help text: the text workflow uses 25 vs 20.

Verified render: `SOLIDARITY OF THE SOVIET COMPUTER SYSTEMS` + `DANKCLAW
DANKSERVER EST 2026` came back crisp and correctly spelled at 832×1216
(`qwen21-text_00001_.png`, 953,254 B — still on disk, `ls -l
/home/dank/comfyui-data/output/` 2026-10-18). One caveat from the same render:
a shorter secondary line is where misspellings creep in — proofread the first
render before shipping.

## Driving it from the API

ComfyUI 0.37 **requires the graph wrapped in a `prompt` key** — a bare
`{node-id: node}` body gets `{"error": {"type": "no_prompt"}}` (verified
2026-10-05):

```bash
curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8188/prompt -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d "$(python3 -c 'import json;print(json.dumps({"prompt": json.load(open("dankclaw/comfyui/workflows/qwen-image-2.1-t2i-art.json"))}))')"
# -> {"prompt_id": "...", ...}
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8188/history/<prompt_id>   # status.status_str == "success"
```

Outputs land in `/home/dank/comfyui-data/output/`. The queue is FIFO — the
two workflows above ran back-to-back unattended.

**Note:** the container's UI-saved workflows live in the ephemeral
`/opt/ComfyUI/user` layer and do NOT survive an image rebuild — the unit mounts
only `models`, `input`, `output`, `custom_nodes` and the healthcheck file
(`podman inspect comfyui` 2026-10-18; `dankclaw/comfyui/quadlet/comfyui.container:48-52`)
— hence the host-side `workflows/` dir and the repo copy.

## Recommended additions

Quantized preferred. The iGPU's GTT aperture is not free RAM beside
frank-dragoon — size every pick against *What actually fits beside
frank-dragoon* below (the RTX 3090 is frank-zealot's). All repos verified 2026-10-05 and
all four still resolve today (`huggingface.co/lightx2v/Qwen-Image-Lightning`
`huggingface.co/unsloth/Qwen-Image-Edit-2511-GGUF`
`huggingface.co/Comfy-Org/Qwen-Image-DiffSynth-ControlNets`
`huggingface.co/QuantStack/Wan2.2-TI2V-5B-GGUF`, 2026-10-18). None are on disk
yet: `models/` holds no lora/, controlnet/ or Wan/Edit file (`ls -R` 2026-10-18).

| # | What | Repo | Grab | Size | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | **Lightning 8-step LoRA** (T2I speed) | `lightx2v/Qwen-Image-Lightning` | `qwen_image_lightning_8steps_*.safetensors` (LoRA) | ~1–2 GB | 20 steps → 8 with a `LoraLoader` node; 2–3× faster renders on the iGPU, negligible quality loss |
| 2 | **Qwen-Image-Edit-2511 GGUF** (image editing) | `unsloth/Qwen-Image-Edit-2511-GGUF` | Q4_K_M (~13.2 GB) or Q4_0 (~11.9 GB) | ~12–13 GB | Unlocks img2img "edit this photo" workflows — a capability class the fleet has zero of; Q4 keeps it iGPU-friendly |
| 3 | **DiffSynth ControlNets** (structure control) | `Comfy-Org/Qwen-Image-DiffSynth-ControlNets` | `split_files/model_patches/` canny + depth | ~2–3 GB each | Pose/edge/depth-guided layouts — pairs with the legible-text workflow for exact poster composition. The `QwenImageDiffsynthControlnet` node is already in the running ComfyUI (`GET http://127.0.0.1:8188/object_info/QwenImageDiffsynthControlnet` → 200, 2026-10-18) |
| 4 | **Wan 2.2 TI2V-5B GGUF** (first video model) | `QuantStack/Wan2.2-TI2V-5B-GGUF` | Q4/Q5 GGUF (~6–8 GB) | ~6–8 GB | T2V+I2V in one dense 5B model; the gentlest on-ramp into video generation, runs in ComfyUI core (`wan` is in this build's `CLIPLoader` type enum — `GET http://127.0.0.1:8188/object_info/CLIPLoader` 2026-10-18) |

Placement: #1 → `models/lora/` (create it), #2 → `models/diffusion_models/`
#3 → `models/controlnet/` (create it), #4 → `models/diffusion_models/`.
Fetch with `scripts/download-frank-*.sh` discipline (`-f` + byte-count +
sha256 checks) or a plain `hf download` with the token in the environment —
never on the command line.

Skip list: the original `city96/Qwen-Image-gguf` conversions (superseded by
the 2.1 files already on disk), and any BF16 of #2/#4 — they double the disk
bill, and see *What actually fits beside frank-dragoon* for why raw GTT size
is not the real budget.

## What actually fits beside frank-dragoon

The 122 GB `/system_stats` figure is the GTT **aperture**, not free memory: on
an APU the aperture and `MemAvailable` are the same physical RAM, and
frank-dragoon pins tens of GiB of it. Measured 2026-10-21 with frank-dragoon
live: `MemAvailable` 15.3 GiB, iGPU busy 1.75 GiB — ComfyUI itself idles at
~10 MB, so the budget for a generation run is roughly what `free` says.

Weights must land inside that budget with slack for compute buffers and
activations (the mmproj-class lesson: price a model at ~1.5× its file set):

| Pipeline (weights) | Fits beside frank-dragoon? |
|---|---|
| Qwen-Image 2.1 int8_convrot + w4a8 + bf16 VAE (~14.2 GB) — the two proven workflows | **No** — thrash-or-fail; do not queue it while the endpoint serves |
| GGUF Q8_0 + w4a8 + small VAE (~13.3 GB) | No, same reason |
| Any BF16 combination | No |
| SDXL-Turbo / SD 1.5-class (~2–7 GB) | Yes, with real headroom |

**The law: one process owns the memory — same rule as the 3090 bench law.**
For a Qwen-Image render: stop and mask frank-dragoon
(`sudo systemctl stop frank-dragoon` + `mask` — the mask stops
`Restart=always` from firing mid-render), generate, unmask, verify
`curl 192.168.0.143:7770/health`. The proven workflows above then run with
the whole machine. Do not treat `/system_stats`'s 122 GB as an invitation.

## See Also

- [[ComfyUI]] — the service itself (image, unit, GPU access)
- [[ComfyUI ROCm and Vulkan]] — the live-verified GPU path
- [[Dankclaw Stack]] — the host