Diztraido: Metadata Reader

Drag a PNG into ComfyUI and the whole workflow pops back - but you don't always want the whole graph. Sometimes you just want to know what was in it. Diztraido: Metadata Reader is a pure inspection panel: drop an image on it and it shows you the complete metadata JSON immediately, with search, so you can skim what model, prompt, and settings produced it without executing anything.

The author's own description is refreshingly honest: this node is visual only and has no outputs. It's the little sibling of Diztraido: Metadata Reader Advanced, which does the same reading but hands you the values as typed outputs you can wire into the graph. If you want to rebuild a generation in a workflow, you want the Advanced one. If you want a fast "what is this image made of" eyeball tool that lives on your canvas, this is it.

How it works

The backend side is nearly a no-op - the node's inspect method returns nothing, and the real work happens in the browser. The node is a ComfyUI JavaScript extension connected to a local endpoint the pack registers (/diztraido/metadata). Select or upload an image, the frontend asks the backend for its metadata, and a text widget renders the JSON with syntax highlighting and real-time search. Because it's frontend-driven, it refreshes when you change the image without you having to rerun the workflow - the whole point, since a pure inspector shouldn't force a queue item.

What you're looking at is the same metadata the Advanced node reads: the PNG text chunks ComfyUI writes (prompt, workflow), the newer comf chunks, EXIF, and A1111-style parameters strings. The one input is image - a dropdown of files in ComfyUI/input/, or upload straight onto the widget.

How to install

Part of Diztraido Nodes. ComfyUI Manager → search "Diztraido Nodes" → install diztraido-nodes → restart. Or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/jadervasque/ComyUI-Diztraido.git

Restart and it's under the Diztraido image category. No dependencies beyond ComfyUI itself, no model downloads.

Common issues

The classic "it's empty" moment has nothing to do with the node. If an image shows no metadata, the metadata was stripped before it reached you - Reddit re-encodes uploads, most Discord embeds re-encode, and JPEG/WebP never had PNG text chunks in the first place. The file is what survives, and the chunks only survive if nobody re-encoded it. So if someone sends you a "workflow included" PNG that shows up blank here, ask for the original file, not the link. Also note this node intentionally has no outputs - if you find yourself reaching for a value you can see on screen, that's the sign to swap in the Advanced reader, which outputs everything as wires.