Jimeng API Client

The name is slightly misleading: this node doesn't call anything. It's the socket wrench - it loads your Volcano Ark API key, builds a client object, and hands that client to every other node in the pack. No Jimeng workflow works without it, and the README is blunt that it's mandatory. Think of it as the "load checkpoint" of a cloud pack that has no checkpoints.

Jimeng (即梦) is ByteDance's AI creation platform, and this whole pack speaks to it through the Volcano Engine Ark API (ark.cn-beijing.volces.com). There are no local models, no weights to download, no GPU required - your images and videos are generated on ByteDance's servers, and you pay per request. That's the ByteDance two-track posture in a nutshell: Seedream and Seedance stay API products, and this pack just puts a ComfyUI face on the API. What you need is a key from the Volcano Ark console, and you need it to be a real paid one - this isn't a free tier hobby.

How it works

The pack reads key storage from an api_keys.json file in the pack's root folder. You get the template from api_keys.json.example (rename it, don't edit the original), and each entry is a customName plus an apiKey. The node lists those names in a dropdown. Under the hood it wraps the Ark SDK client (volcengine-python-sdk[ark]) with your key and bundles it with an internal quota tracker, so the client you pass downstream carries both the API connection and your usage counters.

The inputs that matter

• key_name - the dropdown of keys from api_keys.json. Pick one, or pick Custom.
• new_api_key - only used when key_name is Custom. Paste a key straight into the node, no file editing.
• new_key_name - optional. Give your pasted key a name and it gets saved to api_keys.json after one successful run. Refresh the browser page before you expect to see it in the dropdown; the list is built at node-load time.

The only output is client, which is what you wire into every other Jimeng node. There's nothing else to connect.

Installing it

Same install as the whole pack, and it's genuinely light. ComfyUI Manager (search "ComfyUI Jimeng API"), or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/fkxianzhou/ComfyUI-Jimeng-API

Restart ComfyUI. The only real dependency is volcengine-python-sdk[ark]>=5.0.41, and the pack auto-installs it on first launch if it's missing - you don't need to pip-install anything by hand, and there are no model files.

Where people get burned

• The Nodes 2.0 UI. The README is explicit: this pack doesn't support ComfyUI's new "Nodes 2.0" interface yet. If nodes render oddly, open the ComfyUI menu and switch back to the legacy UI.
• "Key not found" popups. Either api_keys.json is still named .example, or you picked a name that isn't in the file. The error is pretty clear about which.
• Content moderation. ByteDance's hosted models filter sensitive content, and it applies to whatever you send. Don't expect the API to generate what a local model would happily do.
• Pay attention to which key is selected if you have several accounts - the pack's whole multi-key system exists because quota and billing are per-key.

Set this up once, save your keys, and the rest of the pack stops being about configuration and starts being about actually making things.