230 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
230 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
# StyleRef nodes for ComfyUI
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Define a creative style once on [StyleRef](https://styleref.io) — colors,
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lighting, mood, composition, guardrails — then load it as a node and reuse it
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across your workflows.
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One **StyleRef Load** feeding three **Apply** nodes with three unrelated
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subjects — a rooftop at dusk, a record shop, a toy unicorn. The style holds;
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only the subject changes. That is the whole idea.
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The style is compiled server-side for whichever model you point it at, so the
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same style produces prompt text phrased appropriately for each one.
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**No account needed** to load and apply public gallery styles. An account adds
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your own private styles. **Nothing in this node pack spends credits.**
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---
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## Install
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**ComfyUI Manager** (recommended) — search for **StyleRef** and click Install.
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**Manually:**
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```bash
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cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
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git clone https://github.com/StyleRef/styleref-comfyui
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```
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Restart ComfyUI. Nothing to install: the pack declares no Python dependencies
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and imports on the standard library alone. The Reference Images node reaches
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for Pillow and numpy when it runs, and every ComfyUI install already ships
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those. Look for `[StyleRef] v1.0.6 — 5 nodes registered` in the server console
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at startup.
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**It does depend on styleref.io.** These nodes are a client, not a local
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library: every style is fetched from the StyleRef API at
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`https://styleref.io/api/v1`, and all prompt compilation happens there. So the
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pack needs a working internet connection and the service to be up — offline, or
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during an outage, the nodes fail with an error rather than degrading. Loaded
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styles are cached for the session, so a graph mid-run keeps working, but the
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first load of any style is a network call. `STYLEREF_API` repoints the client
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if you run your own instance.
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Two hosts, then, and no others: the API above, and — only when the Reference
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Images node runs — the storage host serving that style's inspiration images.
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Those image requests are deliberately anonymous: your token is never sent to a
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host outside the API. Nothing here spends credits.
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## 60-second quickstart
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1. Add **StyleRef Load** and paste a slug from the
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[gallery](https://styleref.io/gallery) into `style_ref` (try
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`azch4ptx-2ca7d3a07f37`, the Raw Theatrical Cinematic style) — or click
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**Search styles…** to pick one.
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2. Add **StyleRef Apply**, connect `style`, type a subject, pick your target.
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3. Wire `positive` / `negative` into your CLIP Text Encode nodes.
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Or drag [`workflows/01-quickstart.json`](workflows/01-quickstart.json) onto the
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canvas.
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## Nodes
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| Node | Sign-in | What it does |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| **StyleRef Load** | No | Fetch a style by share slug or share URL — and, signed in, your own private styles by id or `/styles/{id}` URL. Names the loaded style on the node, plus gallery search with a picker dialog and a ↻ Refresh button. |
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| **StyleRef Apply** | No | Compose a subject with a style into `positive` / `negative` prompts for a chosen target, with a prompt preview in the node body. |
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| **StyleRef Facets** | No | Every schema section as its own output — exactly the style board's section list, plus the six custom style items. |
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| **StyleRef Reference Images** | No | The style's inspiration images as an IMAGE batch — for IPAdapter and reference conditioning. |
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| **StyleRef Login** | — | Status line + Sign in / Sign out buttons. Needed only to load your own private styles. |
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### Targets
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`ai_tools`, `style_md`, `flux`, `midjourney`, `diffusion`, `json` — exactly the
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web app's copy-box format list. For the sampler in your graph use `flux` (FLUX
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models) or `diffusion` (SDXL, SD1.5, DALL·E-class); the other four are for
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copying the output out of ComfyUI, and the node warns if one feeds a CLIP
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encoder.
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### Browse the gallery
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[](https://styleref.io/gallery)
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Every style on [styleref.io/gallery](https://styleref.io/gallery) loads here by
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its slug — no account needed.
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### Making your own styles
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Extraction (turning an image into a style) happens on
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[styleref.io](https://styleref.io) — upload an image there, refine the result,
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and it lands in your library. Load it here by its share slug or id
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(sign in with the Login node first).
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## Workflow templates
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The templates at the root run on **FLUX.1 dev** (the Comfy-Org fp8 all-in-one
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checkpoint, downloaded on first queue). FLUX reads the prompt with T5, so a
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full compiled style fits — an SDXL CLIP encoder truncates it at ~77 tokens,
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which is why the style washes out there no matter which checkpoint you use.
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| File | Sign-in | Story |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| [`01-quickstart.json`](workflows/01-quickstart.json) | No | Load → Apply → generate |
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| [`02-consistency-grid.json`](workflows/02-consistency-grid.json) | No | One style, three subjects, side by side |
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| [`03-your-own-style.json`](workflows/03-your-own-style.json) | Yes | Extract on the web, load your own style here |
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| [`04-reference-images.json`](workflows/04-reference-images.json) | No | The style's inspiration images as a batch, next to a render |
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| [`05-facets.json`](workflows/05-facets.json) | No | Every section of the style as its own output, next to a normal render |
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A parallel set wired for **Z-Image Turbo** (an S3-DiT model — UNET + Qwen text
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encoder + VAE, compiled from the `diffusion` target) lives in
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[`workflows/z-image/`](workflows/z-image): the same five stories on that
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loader stack. The three model files download on first run.
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The two sets load **different gallery styles on purpose.** How well a style
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demos is a property of the style *and* the model. FLUX is strongest at light
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and colour rather than brushwork, so its templates load a theatrical cinematic
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style — hard cast shadows, a saturated key, staged props. Z-Image reproduces
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painterly technique faithfully, so its
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templates load a Renaissance tempera style. Swap either for any slug from the
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[gallery](https://styleref.io/gallery); these are starting points, not
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limits.
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Every template is built to read at a glance on open: the on-canvas notes say
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what the template produces and where the model comes from, and the plumbing
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between Apply and the sampler (the text encoder, the zeroed conditioning, VAE
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Decode) ships **collapsed** — nothing in there is yours to edit. Expand any of
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them if you want to rewire.
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**Neither FLUX nor Z-Image takes a negative prompt.** Both are guidance
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distilled and run at CFG 1.0, where the negative branch is multiplied out
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entirely — so neither set carries a negative encoder, and the sampler's
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negative input gets a zeroed conditioning. StyleRef still compiles the negative
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and returns it on Apply's `negative` output; fold anything you need from it into
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`subject` on Apply as a positive phrase. Raising CFG does not bring it back.
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Apply prints the prompt it composed, and its token estimate, in its own node
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body after a queue — that is where to read what StyleRef actually sent the
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sampler.
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### Style not coming through strongly enough?
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FLUX has a confident house look and drifts back to it. Two dials, in the order
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worth trying:
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1. **`Flux guidance`** (3.5 in the templates, FLUX's default) is the blunt one.
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4–5 makes the style bite harder; past that the subject starts losing to it,
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colour goes poster-flat, and a dark style can go to pure black.
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2. **Narrow `sections` on StyleRef Apply** to the parts that define this style.
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For a period or painterly style that is usually
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`artistic_mediums,references,surface_material,colors` — the sections naming
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the medium, the era and the finish. Left empty, every section is sent, and the
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identity-carrying ones render last, so a long style can read as generic. For a
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geometric or layout-led style keep `shape_language` and `spatial_hierarchy`
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instead. Queue the Facets template to see what a style actually carries.
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Sampler defaults, for reference: FLUX 20 steps, Z-Image Turbo 8, both at CFG 1.0
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with euler/simple, seeds randomizing on every queue.
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## Signing in
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Add the **StyleRef Login** node and click **Sign in (browser)** — no queueing
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needed. Your browser opens, you approve, and the node's status flips to signed
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in. The token is stored at `~/.config/styleref/credentials.json` with `0600`
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permissions. The [`styleref` CLI](https://www.npmjs.com/package/styleref)
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shares this login.
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(No frontend at all? `npx styleref login` signs in the same credentials file,
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and queueing the Login node reports the current status.)
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### Running ComfyUI on a remote or headless machine
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Browser sign-in **cannot** work on a rented GPU box, RunPod, or any headless
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server: there is no browser to open, and `localhost` is the wrong machine. Use a
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token instead:
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1. Copy a token from your [account page](https://styleref.io/account).
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2. Where ComfyUI runs, set `STYLEREF_TOKEN=<token>`
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3. Restart ComfyUI.
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`STYLEREF_TOKEN` always takes precedence over stored credentials. The Login node
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detects the headless case and prints these instructions rather than hanging.
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## Credits
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**Nothing in this node pack spends credits.** Loading, searching, and applying
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styles is free and unlimited within the public rate limit. Extraction — the one
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paid action — happens on [styleref.io](https://styleref.io), where you can
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preview and refine the result before it costs anything beyond the extraction
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itself. See [plans and limits](https://docs.styleref.io/using-styleref/plans-and-limits).
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## Configuration
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| Variable | Purpose |
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| `STYLEREF_TOKEN` | Bearer token; overrides stored credentials. The headless path. |
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| `STYLEREF_API` | API base URL. Defaults to `https://styleref.io/api/v1`. |
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| `STYLEREF_FORCE_BROWSER_LOGIN` | `1` forces browser login, `0` forces the token path. |
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## Development
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```bash
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pip install pytest ruff pillow numpy # pillow/numpy are test-only deps
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pytest tests/ -q
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ruff check .
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python scripts/build_workflows.py # regenerate workflow templates
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```
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The workflow templates are generated — edit
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[`scripts/build_workflows.py`](scripts/build_workflows.py), not the JSON.
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Shipping a change to users — a version bump, a Registry publish, updating the
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monorepo pointer — is [`RELEASING.md`](RELEASING.md).
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The nodes are a thin client over StyleRef's public
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[REST API v1](https://docs.styleref.io/for-ai-agents/rest-api/overview-and-authentication)
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([OpenAPI](https://styleref.io/api/v1/openapi.json)). All prompt compilation
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happens server-side — this pack never writes style prose itself, so improvements
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to StyleRef's compiler reach you without an update to this pack.
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## Docs & support
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- [ComfyUI connector docs](https://docs.styleref.io/connectors/comfyui/install-and-quickstart)
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- [Issues](https://github.com/StyleRef/styleref-comfyui/issues)
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## License
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MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE).
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