# How to Install ComfyUI and Run Your First Workflow

> Install ComfyUI the reliable way, put a checkpoint in the right folder, load the default text-to-image graph, and generate an image.

- Canonical: https://guides-ai.pages.dev/guides/comfyui-first-workflow/
- Plate 12.04 · Topic: AI images (https://guides-ai.pages.dev/topics/image/)
- Published: 06 Sept 2026 · 4 min read
- Source site: guides-ai — https://guides-ai.pages.dev/

ComfyUI runs diffusion models as a node graph: every box is one step, and you can see exactly where the prompt, the model and the sampler meet. That visibility is the reason to use it — and the reason the first hour is confusing.

## 1. Install

Three official routes. Pick by how much you want to manage:

- **Desktop app** — download from `comfy.org/download` (Windows and macOS). The README calls this "the easiest and best way to use ComfyUI for new users".
- **Windows portable** — `ComfyUI_windows_portable_nvidia.7z` (also `_amd` and `_intel`) from the repo's latest release. Unzip, run the launcher, nothing is installed system-wide.
- **Command line** — needs Python 3.10+:

```bash
pip install comfy-cli
comfy install
comfy launch
```

Installs the CLI, downloads ComfyUI plus ComfyUI-Manager into a folder it picks with you, then starts the server on `http://127.0.0.1:8188`. Add arguments after a `--`, e.g. `comfy launch -- --cpu`.

## 2. Add a checkpoint

ComfyUI ships no weights. Download `v1-5-pruned-emaonly-fp16.safetensors` (the file the official first-generation tutorial uses) and drop it here:

```text
ComfyUI/
  models/
    checkpoints/   <- .safetensors model files go here
    vae/
    loras/
```

Same tree in every install: `ComfyUI_windows_portable/ComfyUI/models/checkpoints` for the portable build. Reload the browser tab afterwards — the loader node reads that folder when the page loads, so a model added mid-session will not appear in the dropdown.

## 3. Load the default workflow

Press `Ctrl + D`. That loads the built-in text-to-image graph: **Load Checkpoint → CLIP Text Encode (positive and negative) → KSampler → VAE Decode → Save Image**.

Check the Load Checkpoint node is pointing at your file, then type a prompt into the top CLIP Text Encode box (the bottom one is the negative prompt).

## 4. Generate

Click **Run**, or press `Ctrl + Enter`. The nodes light up in execution order and the image appears in the Save Image node — and on disk in `ComfyUI/output`.

## 5. Where the nodes live

- **Double-click empty canvas** — search box, fastest way to add a known node.
- **Right-click canvas → Add Node** — the full categorized menu when you don't know the name.
- **Drag from an output dot and release** — a filtered list of nodes that accept that input type.
- **Workflow → Browse Templates** — official starting graphs for other model families.

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Next: [generate images with FLUX in a Python script](/guides/generate-images-with-flux-locally/) or [upscale the result locally](/guides/upscale-images-locally/).