Sequential Image Loader

Load a folder of images one at a time, in order — a fresh image on every Queue. Paste a directory path, hit Queue, and the node hands back the next file in the folder. Queue again and it advances. No rewiring between runs, no index widget to bump by hand. Built for batch-processing a folder of frames or photos through any ComfyUI workflow.

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What it does

   ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
   │   Sequential Image Loader (folder)    │
   │  directory: [ C:\frames\ ........... ] │
   │  filetype:  [ png ▾ ]   subfolders ☐  │
   │  reverse:   [ forward (first→last) ]  │
   │  ┌──────────────────────────────────┐ │
   │  │ Next: 3 / 240 · frame_003.png    │ │ ← live status
   │  ├──────────────────────────────────┤ │
   │  │ [⏮ Reset] [‹ Prev] [Next ›] [↻]  │ │ ← controls
   │  └──────────────────────────────────┘ │
   └───────────────┬──────────────────────┘
                   │
        image · mask · filename · index · total

Drop the node on the canvas, point it at a folder, wire image (and mask if you need it) into your graph, and Queue. Each Queue loads the next image; when it reaches the end it loops back to the start. That's the whole idea.

Why you'd want it

The usual way to run a workflow over a folder of images is to swap the file in Load Image by hand between every run, or to build a batch-loader contraption that fires everything at once and floods your VRAM. This sits in the middle: it's a normal single-image loader that just remembers where it got to and steps forward each time you press Queue.

• One image per Queue. Process a folder at your own pace — tweak settings between runs, watch each result, stop whenever.
• 📁 Browse for folder — a built-in folder picker (browses the ComfyUI server's filesystem) so you don't have to hand-type paths. Or just paste a path.
• Natural sort order. frame2.png comes before frame10.png, the way you'd expect — not frame10 before frame2.
• ⏮ Reset to start rewinds to the first image. ‹ Prev / Next › step the position without queuing. ↻ Rescan re-reads the folder after you add or remove files.
• Scrub bar — the status box is draggable: click anywhere to jump to that point in the folder, or click-drag left/right to scrub. A fill shows how far through you are. Perfect for big folders where stepping one-by-one would take forever.
• Pick your filetype — png, jpg, jpeg, webp, bmp, gif, tiff, or all for every supported type at once.
• Reverse runs the sequence last→first.
• Hold (pause) on a frame — ⏸ Hold last (the image you just got) or ⏸ Hold next (the upcoming one) freezes the sequence so every Queue re-emits that same frame. Handy for locking onto one image while you tweak the rest of the graph. Click ▶ Resume to carry on where you left off.
• Remembers your last folder. A freshly-added node pre-fills with the folder you last used, so you're not re-typing paths all day.
• Live status line shows exactly where you are: Next: 3 / 240 · frame_003.png.
• Thumbnail previews of the next two images (Next and Next + 1) at the bottom of the node, so you can see what's coming before you Queue.

Install

Clone into your ComfyUI/custom_nodes/:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes/
git clone https://github.com/shootthesound/ComfyUI-SequentialImageLoader.git

Restart ComfyUI. No extra Python dependencies — it uses Pillow and torch, which ComfyUI already ships.

Quick start

1. Add Sequential Image Loader (folder) from the image category.
2. Set the folder: click 📁 Browse for folder… and pick one, or paste a path into directory (e.g. C:\frames\ or /home/me/frames).
3. Pick a filetype (png by default; all grabs every supported type).
4. (Optional) tick include_subfolders to walk subfolders too, or flip reverse to go last→first.
5. Wire image (and mask) into your workflow.
6. Queue. It loads the first image. Queue again → the next. And so on.

The status line shows Next: N / TOTAL · filename and doubles as a scrub bar — click it to jump anywhere in the folder, or click-drag to scrub. Hit ⏮ Reset to start any time to begin again from the first file.

At the bottom of the node, two thumbnails show what's coming: Next (the image that loads on your next Queue) and Next + 1 (the one after it, looping back to the start at the end).

Controls

| Control | What it does | |---|---| | directory | Folder to scan. Paste an absolute path, or use 📁 Browse. | | 📁 Browse for folder… | Server-side folder picker — navigate the filesystem and pick a folder (shows how many matching files each folder holds). | | filetype | png (default), jpg, jpeg, webp, bmp, gif, tiff, or all. jpg/jpeg both match .jpg and .jpeg; tiff matches .tif/.tiff. | | include_subfolders | Walk subfolders recursively (sorted by path relative to the folder). | | reverse | Run the sequence last→first instead of first→last. | | ⏮ Reset to start | Rewind to the first image in the current order. | | ‹ Prev / Next › | Step the position back/forward without queuing. | | Status / scrub bar | Shows Next: N / TOTAL · filename. Click to jump anywhere in the folder, or click-drag left/right to scrub; the fill shows your position. | | ⏸ Hold last | Freeze on the image you just loaded — every Queue re-emits it. Click ▶ Resume to continue. | | ⏸ Hold next | Freeze on the upcoming image — every Queue re-emits it. Click ▶ Resume to continue. | | ↻ Rescan | Re-read the folder (after adding/removing files). |

While a hold is active, the other buttons grey out; ▶ Resume restores the sequence from where it was about to go.

Outputs

| Output | Type | Notes | |---|---|---| | image | IMAGE | RGB, EXIF-rotated, [1, H, W, 3] float32 | | mask | MASK | from the alpha channel (inverted, same as ComfyUI's Load Image); zeros if no alpha | | filename | STRING | basename of the loaded file | | index | INT | 0-based position used this run | | total | INT | number of matching files found |

How "advance per Queue" works

ComfyUI only re-runs a node when one of its inputs changes, so a hidden index widget drives the position. A small frontend hook on app.queuePrompt increments that widget after each prompt has been serialized and sent — so the run you just queued uses the current image, and the next Queue picks up the following one. Reset and Prev/Next just set that widget directly. When the index passes the last file it wraps back to the start.

Honest limits

• Position is per-session widget state. It's stored on the node and saved with your workflow JSON, so reopening a graph resumes where you left off — but external tools that re-run the workflow headless start from whatever index was saved.
• One queue = one image. This is a deliberately manual, paced loader. If you want every image processed in a single Queue, that's a different (batch) node.
• Changing filetype mid-run keeps the index number. If the new type has fewer files it wraps via modulo — hit Reset after switching type to start cleanly from the first file of the new set.
• Last-folder memory is per-browser. The remembered folder lives in the browser's localStorage, so it's per-machine/per-browser and only pre-fills new nodes — a node loaded from a saved workflow keeps its own saved path.

Compatibility

• ComfyUI: any reasonably modern version (the JS uses standard ComfyUI extension APIs).
• Formats: PNG, JPG/JPEG, WebP, BMP, GIF, TIFF (anything Pillow can open).
• OS: Windows, macOS, Linux — paste paths in your platform's native form.

Credits + contact

Built by Peter Neill (shootthesound).

Bug reports and feature requests welcome via GitHub issues.

If this saves you time, you can support development here:

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License

MIT.