VAE Arg (watdafox)

A combo of every VAE in your models/vae folder that outputs the selection twice - once as a value for a loader, once as a string for logging. VAE Arg is the simplest member of this pack's "Arg" family, and it's aimed at a small but real annoyance.

Here's the thing about VAEs in ComfyUI: the baked-in VAE that ships inside many checkpoints is fine, but a good external VAE is one of the cheapest quality wins in the whole pipeline. Swapping in a dedicated VAE file fixes washed-out colors and mushy detail on a lot of models, which is why "swap your VAE" is such a stock piece of advice. What isn't stock is a clean way to choose that VAE from a shared dropdown and remember which one you used. This node gives you both: vae_name wires into a VAELoader (or this pack's Checkpoint Loader Advanced, which accepts a vae_name), and str_vae_name gives you the name as plain text for your saved workflow metadata.

How it works

Textbook passthrough. The combo comes from folder_paths.get_filename_list("vae"), so it lists exactly the .safetensors files in your vae folder - no phantom entries. Return types are the vae-name list plus STRING; execute returns (vae_name, vae_name). Two outputs, no state, nothing loaded into memory. It's a routing convenience, not a loader.

What you touch

• vae_name - the combo. Pick your VAE.
• vae_name output → VAELoader's vae_name, or CheckpointLoaderWithOuputDirByModelName's vae_name (that loader also has a "Baked VAE" option if you want to use the checkpoint's own).
• str_vae_name → string version for logging.

Found under watdafox/parameter, next to Checkpoint Arg and the sampler/scheduler Arg nodes.

Install

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/OhSeongHyeon/comfyui-watdafox-nodes.git

Restart ComfyUI, or install via ComfyUI Manager (search "comfyui-watdafox-nodes"). No pip dependencies, no downloads - it lists whatever VAE files you already have.

Keep it honest

For a single-model workflow with one VAE, this node is pure overhead; the loader dropdown already exists. It earns its spot when you maintain workflow templates across models, A/B test VAEs, or care that your metadata records exactly which VAE a run used. And remember it doesn't load anything - if you wire it to a VAELoader and see no change, that's expected until the loader runs.