External Video (ComfyUI Deploy) path

The display name spells out the whole deal: "External Video (ComfyUI Deploy) path". Most video loaders hand you frames. This one hands you a filesystem path to a video - either one you picked from a dropdown of what's in your input folder, or a file it downloaded from a URL on the spot. Wire that path into anything that takes a video path string and you're done.

How it works

The input_id contract is here like every external node, but the behavior is a fork in the road. If the incoming value starts with http, the node streams the file down (progress bar and all) into ComfyUI's input/ directory under a UUID name, then returns that local path. If it's not a URL, the node ignores it and instead resolves default_value - the video you selected from the dropdown - against the input directory. So locally you pick a file from the list; deployed, a caller can hand you a URL and get it cached onto the machine.

The dropdown (default_value) is built from .webm, .mp4, .mkv and .gif files in the input folder, scanned when the node's inputs are constructed. Accepts webm/mp4/mkv/gif. Output v is a plain STRING path - no decoding, no frames, no memory pressure. It's deliberately the lightweight option.

The inputs that matter

• input_id - request key, default input_video. A caller sending a URL as this key triggers the download path.
• default_value - the dropdown of videos in your input dir; this is what actually feeds the output on local runs.
• meta_batch - a VHS_BatchManager input for VHS-style batched loading. Leave it unplugged unless you're already using VideoHelperSuite; it's an integration point, not a requirement.

Installing

ComfyUI Manager → "ComfyUI Deploy", or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/BennyKok/comfyui-deploy

Restart ComfyUI. No model downloads. The only notable dependency is opencv-python plus imageio-ffmpeg from the pack's requirements.txt - but note this path variant doesn't actually decode video, so those are pulled in by the pack as a whole, not needed for this node to do its job.

Gotchas

The dropdown only knows about files present when the node refreshed - drop a new video in input/ and it won't appear until you refresh the node. And remember the output is a path, not frames: if you plug it straight into an image-based sampler you'll get nothing sensible. For decoded frames, the pack's other video node - External Video (ComfyUI Deploy x VHS) - is the one that loads IMAGE/LATENT. Use this path variant when a downstream node genuinely wants a file path, like a video-merge or save node that references files by name.