Show Layer ♾️Mixlab

Show Layer sits in the same family as New Layer and Merge Layers - Mixlab's Photoshop-style layer system - but it's the odd one out: it takes no image input and produces no output. Its required fields are x, y, width, height, z_index, and scale_option, which is the exact same positioning schema New Layer uses to place an image on a stack. That overlap is the clue to what this node actually is: not a compositor step in your generation pipeline, but the piece that positions a layer on Mixlab's separate "workflow-to-app" display surface - the README describes this as an option to show a workflow's output directly on the ComfyUI background, TouchDesigner-style, once you've published it as a web app via the pack's AppInfo node.

Where New Layer stacks images to hand off to Merge Layers for a flattened IMAGE result you sample or save, Show Layer's x/y/width/height/z_index/scale_option fields drive a live visual placement instead - no image comes out the other side because the point isn't to produce data for the next node, it's to control where and how big a layer renders on that background display. The optional layers input lets it take an existing LAYER stack (the same type New Layer and Merge Layers pass around) rather than working in isolation. edit, the one required field beyond the positioning numbers, is the node's tie into the pack's app-mode editing surface - the same broader "app mode" system the README mentions supporting a mobile-friendly Mask editor for.

Being honest about the limits here: the README documents the app-mode / TouchDesigner-style output feature in passing rather than in detail, and this node's own description is blank, so treat the mechanism above as the best-supported read of what the schema is doing rather than a guaranteed spec. If you're building a workflow-to-app project and reach for this node, expect some trial and error inside the app editor itself to see exactly how the positioning fields behave in that context.

Getting the pack is the same as for every other Mixlab node:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/shadowcz007/comfyui-mixlab-nodes.git
cd comfyui-mixlab-nodes
install.bat

or via ComfyUI Manager (search "comfyui-mixlab-nodes"), or pip3 install -r requirements.txt in a venv. No model download involved - this is UI plumbing, not inference.

If you're not building a published web-app workflow, you probably don't need this node at all - for ordinary in-graph layer compositing (positioning images, stacking them, flattening the result into something you sample or save), New Layer and Merge Layers are the pair to use instead, and they're much better documented. Reach for Show Layer specifically when you're inside the pack's AppInfo / workflow-to-app feature and want a layer to appear at a controlled position and size on the published app's canvas rather than inside a normal generation graph. And per the README's own troubleshooting note for this whole feature: if a workflow published as an app opens blank, check that your custom_nodes folder is literally named comfyui-mixlab-nodes - a zip download leaves a -main suffix on the folder name, and that mismatch is enough to break the app-mode UI this node depends on.