QWEN API Key

The name is doing honest work here: this is just the API key for this pack, as a node. One input, one output, both the same string. There's no magic, no storage, no obfuscation. But don't write it off as useless - it's the pack's answer to the question of where your DashScope key lives, and it changes how you wire up every other node in the pack.

Every node in ComfyUI_QWEN3VL_API - the image node, the video node, the chat node - has an optional api_key input, and they all share one fallback: the api_key.ini file in the pack's folder. The resolution order in the source is explicit: the node input wins, and only if it's missing or invalid does the code fall back to the ini file. So you have two ways to configure, and this node is the tidy one.

Why you'd use it instead of the ini file

The ini approach is zero-effort: edit api_key.ini at the pack root, set DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=sk-..., restart, done. It works, and if you're the only person using this machine, it's honestly the right call.

The node exists for the other cases. If you share a workflow JSON with someone, their copy of ComfyUI won't have your ini file - but a workflow with the key node in it travels with its key baked into the file. That's convenient and also exactly why you should never post such a workflow publicly. The key also shows up in plain text in the node's widget, which is worth remembering when someone's screen-sharing.

There's a second, sneakier use that makes it worth having: it lets you keep the key in one place in the graph and fan it out to several QWEN nodes, so when you rotate the key you change it once instead of in six places. Wire its api_key output into the optional api_key inputs of QWEN3VL_Image, QWEN3VL_Video, and QWEN3_Text, and you're done.

The inputs

• api_key - the string. Paste it in. It strips surrounding quotes if you accidentally include them, and anything under 10 characters is treated as invalid (it then falls back to the ini file and logs a warning).

Output: api_key, a plain STRING, which you feed into any other node in the pack that takes the optional api_key input.

How to install it

Standard pack install - ComfyUI Manager (search "ComfyUI_QWEN3VL_API") or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/flywhale-666/ComfyUI_QWEN3VL_API
cd ComfyUI_QWEN3VL_API
pip install -r requirements.txt

Restart, then grab a key from the Alibaba Bailian (DashScope) console.

The honest caveats

The key acquisition itself is the real friction point, not the node. DashScope is an Alibaba cloud product and verification outside China has been a genuine hurdle for people - it's the one thing this pack does that the local-model alternatives don't demand. Budget time for it.

And two security notes worth taking seriously. First, this whole pack is an API wrapper, which is exactly the category of custom node that carries a credential and phones home - the same shape as the one incident that already ended in a federal malware prosecution in this ecosystem. Read the source before you trust it; it's one short file. Second, a key in a node widget or in a workflow file is a secret in a portable format. Rotate it if a workflow ever leaks, and don't commit it to a public repo.