Diffusers VAE Loader

The VAE is the codec that turns your denoised latents back into pixels - the reason any image renders at all. In a diffusers-format model folder it sits in its own vae/ subfolder, and this node is the smallest, least dramatic member of the DiffusersLoader pack: it loads that VAE and hands you a standard ComfyUI VAE socket. That's the whole job, and it does it cleanly.

What it does

Pick a model folder and the loader finds the vae/ directory inside it, loads the .safetensors (or .bin) file, and builds a ComfyUI VAE object with comfy.sd.VAE. Wire that into your VAE Decode node and you're rendering. Because it uses the standard ComfyUI VAE constructor, the result behaves identically to any other VAE in your workflow - you can even use it as a drop-in VAE for a different model if you're experimenting.

The inputs

Just two, and you'll usually leave one alone:

• sub_directory - the dropdown of diffusers folders ComfyUI can see (same list as every node in this pack).
• vae_type - default loads the model's own VAE, which is what you want for real generation. The other options - taesd, taesdxl, taesd3, taef1 - swap in ComfyUI's tiny approximate VAEs instead. Those are the lightweight stand-ins meant for fast previews, not final output: each one carries its own scale/shift baked in, but they're approximations, and the small ones like TAESD are noticeably rougher than the real thing. Use them when you want speed over a vae/ folder you'd otherwise decode with, not for finished images.

The TAESD options also need the matching encoder/decoder files present in ComfyUI's models/vae_approx/ folder - ComfyUI ships the taesd and taesdxl ones by default, so taesd3/taef1 are the ones you might find yourself grabbing manually.

Install & models

Standard for the pack - ComfyUI Manager, search DiffusersLoader, or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/Scorpinaus/ComfyUI-DiffusersLoader

Restart. No extra dependencies. Model folders go in ComfyUI/models/diffusers/, or any extra base path in extra_model_paths.yaml under a diffusers: key.

Troubleshooting

• "vae_approx path does not exist" - you selected a taesd-family vae_type but the approximation files aren't in ComfyUI/models/vae_approx/. Either drop them there or switch back to default.
• "No .safetensors or .bin file found" - the model folder has no vae/ subfolder, or it's empty. Some stripped-down model packs drop the VAE to save space; supply your own or use a different model.

Honest take: this is a get-out-of-the-way node. You'll mostly use it on default inside the Combined loader, and you'd only reach for the standalone version if you want a diffusers model's VAE in a workflow that doesn't use the rest of the pack. That's fine - small, focused, and it does exactly what it says.