Anomalous Model Browser Architecture

This is the short entry point for maintainers and AI agents. It describes the system map, ownership boundaries, and rules that apply across subsystems. Read only the linked topic document relevant to the task; do not load every document by default.

Reading map

The prompt studio reads material prompt payloads through web/modules/material_prompt_data.js; list summaries do not contain prompt bodies. See the Material Library contract below.

When changing...	Read...
Python routes, storage, paths, metadata, covers, or scan state	`docs/architecture/backend.md`
Browser lifecycle, UI state, localization, media, or graph edits	`docs/architecture/frontend.md`
Workflow Recipes, packages, galleries, Parameter Notebooks, or prompt roles	`docs/architecture/recipes.md`
Material Library snapshots, image parameter details, or reusable node blocks	`docs/architecture/material-library.md`
Model Doctor, provenance hashes, missing-model recovery, or deep scanning	`docs/architecture/model-resolution.md`
Why a current product boundary exists	`docs/decisions/README.md`
Recurring implementation mistakes and post-mortems	`.agents/logs/ai_lessons.md`

README.md is user-facing documentation and CHANGELOG.md is user-facing release history. Neither is the source of truth for internal architecture.

System shape

Anomalous Model Browser is a UI-only ComfyUI extension. It registers no custom nodes (NODE_CLASS_MAPPINGS is empty). ComfyUI loads the Vanilla JavaScript/CSS frontend from web/; the Python package registers /anomalous/ aiohttp routes and performs local filesystem, metadata, recipe, and scan operations.

ComfyUI frontend
  web/main.js
    -> web/modules/*                 UI, graph integration, localization
    -> /anomalous/*                 JSON and bounded media requests

ComfyUI Python server
  __init__.py
    -> api/__init__.py               route registration
    -> api/*.py                      storage and domain operations
    -> scraper.py                    explicit metadata/hash enrichment

User-owned data
  ComfyUI model folders              models and sidecars
  user/.../anomalous_recipes         workflow recipes and recipe assets
  user/.../anomalous_parameters      immutable parameter snapshots
  user/.../anomalous_materials       curated image/workflow material bundles
  user/.../anomalous_notebooks       prompt notes, with legacy originals preserved

The frontend and backend communicate through narrow JSON contracts. The frontend must not infer filesystem authority, and the backend must not depend on DOM or live LiteGraph state.

Ownership map

Backend

api/config.py owns configured paths and active model-folder types.
api/utils.py owns containment and filename validation helpers.
api/metadata.py owns sidecar and safetensors metadata extraction.
api/models.py owns model listing, media serving, and model-facing routes.
api/scanner.py and scraper.py own scan orchestration and enrichment.
api/recipes.py owns recipe validation, CRUD, history, and integrity receipts.
api/recipe_packages.py owns bounded inspect-stage-commit package handling.
api/parameters.py owns Parameter Notebook persistence and lookup.
api/notebooks.py owns Prompt Note persistence and recoverable legacy copying.
api/materials.py owns curated material persistence, private image assets, summary search/pagination, editable names/tags, and node-type lookup.
model_policies.py owns shared backend rename and protected-category policy.
model_identity.py owns file SHA-256 evidence shared with the standalone scanner.

Frontend

web/main.js registers the extension and owns the shared browser instance.
ui_sidebar.js creates the browser shell, navigation and settings. Its large createDOM method remains a maintenance hotspot; new tool implementations should live in their own modules rather than expanding that method.
ui_grid.js and model-detail modules own model presentation; ui_gallery.js and ui_gallery_detail.js own generated-image browsing and inspection.
ui_recipes.js / ui_recipe_detail.js, ui_notebooks.js, and ui_materials.js own their respective workspace surfaces and persistence flows.
ui_prompt_composer.js owns the standalone Prompt Studio drawer. Its child views are ui_prompt_source_deck.js, ui_prompt_workbench.js, and ui_prompt_inspector.js; see the frontend topic for state ownership.
ui_prompt_translator.js owns the standalone translator. Both translator and studio use ui_lifecycle.js for global listeners, request cancellation and resize cleanup. Translation requests go through translation_service.js.
ui_dom.js provides small DOM/JSON helpers; material_inspector.js owns material-specific metadata and parameter rendering.
ui_doctor.js, model_picker.js, node_material_actions.js, and graph_splice.js own diagnostics and explicit graph changes.
locales.js is the shared runtime string catalog. Existing inline bilingual UI strings remain migration debt; new strings belong in the catalog.
styles.css owns presentation and theme overrides. Color values, dimensions and visual design descriptions are not duplicated as architectural contracts.

Cross-system invariants

These rules are intentionally summarized here and specified in the linked topic documents.

Identity is provenance, not naming. Model Doctor may use a cryptographic hash, exact byte size under the allowed category policy, and target category. Paths, filenames, display names, previews, and fuzzy similarity are never identity evidence.
Filesystem input is untrusted. Backend request paths must pass the shared containment and filename helpers. Checking only for .. is insufficient on Windows and in the presence of alternate separators, UNC paths, or symlinks.
User files are changed transactionally and conservatively. Recipe writes, imports, graph mutations, and sidecar operations validate before mutation and either complete coherently or restore the prior state.
The event loop stays responsive. Recursive walks, hashing, metadata parsing, and other potentially large disk operations run off the aiohttp event loop. UI rendering and media loading are bounded and cancellable.
Host state is preserved. Browser panels are mutually exclusive, Workspace/model-detail transitions are recoverable, and graph edits use ComfyUI's change/callback contracts.
Runtime strings are localized safely. User-visible copy comes from locales.js; dynamic values stay outside dictionaries and enter the DOM as text. Only allowlisted rich content goes through safe_dom.js.
Optional integrations fail locally. Missing graph APIs, metadata, network availability, or an optional resolver may disable that capability but must not make the main extension disappear.
Presentation data is not authority. Covers, thumbnails, summaries, cached names, and workflow fingerprints never replace the authoritative serialized workflow or model provenance record.

Data and compatibility boundaries

Runtime settings and newly saved API keys live in api/config.json. scraper.py may read the legacy root config.json only as a compatibility fallback. API keys are not stored in browser localStorage.
Recipes, Parameter Notebooks, and Material Library records/assets are user data outside the extension directory. They are never bundled with or silently migrated into the plugin source.
The extension may integrate with Civitai and optional translation services only through explicit product behavior. External content and dependencies keep their own terms.
Project code and documentation use the MIT license. TRADEMARKS.md separately defines the project-name and official-branding boundary.
Internal property names and established routes may remain stable when a user-facing surface is renamed. Do not churn compatibility contracts merely to match presentation wording.

Change and snapshot protocol

Every product-code change should end as one coherent local Git snapshot:

Run checks proportional to the changed behavior.
Update architecture documentation only when the change modifies a module owner, data flow, public/internal interface contract, persistence format, security boundary, or critical invariant.
When architecture changes, update the narrowest relevant topic document. Update this entry point only if the system map, cross-system invariants, or reading map changed.
Do not add an architecture entry merely to say that existing boundaries were unchanged. Ordinary fixes belong in code, tests, Git history, and—when useful to users—CHANGELOG.md.
Record a durable lesson in .agents/logs/ai_lessons.md only for a recurring trap or a critical failure mode, not as a turn-by-turn work log.
Create a local commit after verification. Keep unrelated work out of the snapshot and do not push without explicit user authorization.
Leave a clean worktree, or identify every intentional uncommitted file in the handoff.

Decision records explain enduring choices; they are not a chronological diary. Git history is the authoritative record of implementation changes. Planning-only documents must be clearly labeled as proposals and must not describe unshipped behavior as current architecture.

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