⭐ Star Load Image+

The plain Load Image node has a workflow-shaped hole: you generate, you save, and then to feed that result back into a pipeline you have to copy it into the input folder by hand. StarLoadImagePlus - the technical name of the pack's ⭐ Star Load Image+ node - patches that hole. It reads from the input folder and your output folder (output entries tagged [output]), supports upload and clipboard paste, extracts the alpha channel as a mask, and pulls the metadata bundle out of any image the StarNodes save system wrote.

What it does

Under the hood it's a small file-lister plus a Pillow loader: it scans both ComfyUI/input/ and ComfyUI/output/, presents the union in the image dropdown, EXIF-rotates whatever you pick, converts to an RGB tensor for the image output, and pulls the alpha channel into a mask output. The invert_mask boolean flips that mask - the author's tooltip nails the use case: "useful for inpaint vs. keep-area workflows." An inpaint mask and a "keep the rest" mask are the same thing with the polarity flipped, and this is the switch.

The metadata output is the third leg. It's a STAR_METADATA bundle read from PNG/JPG/WEBP files saved by ⭐ Star Save Image+, and it plugs straight into ⭐ Star Image Loader Options, which unpacks the five custom metadata values plus a generic key lookup. So the round trip is: save with metadata → load back the image and its parameters → rebuild the workflow from the file alone.

Inputs and outputs

• image - dropdown of input+output folder files, or upload/paste.
• invert_mask - flip the alpha mask polarity (default off).
• image (out) - the pixels. mask (out) - alpha as a MASK. metadata (out) - STAR_METADATA for ⭐ Star Image Loader Options.

About the name

This page and the -Star-Load-Image page describe the same node. The pack registers the class under both StarLoadImagePlus and the display name ⭐ Star Load Image+, and comfy.icu tracks both. Search either and you'll find the node in your install.

Installing

Part of the StarNodes pack - install Starnodes via ComfyUI Manager, or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/Starnodes2024/ComfyUI_StarNodes
cd ComfyUI_StarNodes
pip install -r requirements.txt

Restart, then search star on the canvas. No models or extra dependencies - just Pillow, which ComfyUI already ships.

Common issues

The file list is cached on load, so a brand-new output won't appear until the dropdown refreshes - re-run or reload the workflow if you don't see it. When the mask output looks inverted for your use, that's what invert_mask is for. And if metadata seems empty, you loaded a file saved by a non-StarNodes save node; the image and mask still work fine, only the custom metadata is missing.