Reload Image

Reload Image loads an image back from disk by filename - specifically, the one Save Image (Override) wrote last run. It's the read half of Cyclist's disk-based loop: at the top of each iteration, this node fetches the previous pass's output so you can build on it. It's the node that turns "generate once" into "generate, look at what you got, do it again to that."

The loop it makes possible

ComfyUI can't loop, so Cyclist re-queues the workflow - one iteration per Queue Prompt - and each run starts blank. Reload Image is how a picture crosses that gap. Save Image (Override) writes to a fixed filename in your output folder; Reload Image reads that same name back at the start of the next run. Put an Interrupt node right after the Reload - the author's recommended spot - and you can test the reloaded image against a stop condition before doing any expensive work.

Two example workflows from the pack lean on this: a progressive upscaler that reloads and re-enlarges the previous image each pass, and a "generate until the right things are recognised" loop where a BLIP interrogator reads the reloaded image and stops the cycle once the caption matches what you wanted.

The inputs that matter

• filename (STRING, default ForLoop_1) - the file to load, matching the name Save Image (Override) wrote. It reads from your ComfyUI/output folder.
• fallback (IMAGE, optional) - used when the file doesn't exist yet, i.e. the first iteration before anything's been saved. Wire in a starting image (or a blank) so pass one has something to work with. Fallback is optional but you almost always want it.

Output is a single IMAGE - feed it into whatever your loop operates on.

Install

• ComfyUI Manager: search comfyui-cyclist, install, restart.
• Manual: cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes && git clone https://github.com/Pos13/comfyui-cyclist, restart.

Pure Python, no downloads.

The gotcha that will actually get you

Reload Image loads in RGBA - with an alpha/transparency channel. That sounds harmless until you feed it into a node that only accepts RGB and it errors or misbehaves. The author calls out Upscale Image (Using Model) as one that chokes on RGBA. The fix is a one-node bridge: run the reloaded image through an "Images to RGB" node (from WAS Node Suite) to drop the alpha channel before it hits anything picky. If a downstream node is complaining about channel count, this is almost certainly why.

Standard Cyclist notes also apply: it reads from disk so it survives a restart (unlike the memory nodes), and "New Cycle" only auto-increments filename widgets and Primitives, not names from a Recall String node. The pack is archived and unmaintained - still works, no future fixes.