ComfyUI Stable Manifold Compander

Stable Manifold Compander is a ComfyUI custom node pack for correcting the high-resolution drift that can show up in FLUX.2-style workflows, especially with detail crops, masked edits, and larger full-frame renders.

Instead of only resizing the image, the pack tries to pull the high-resolution result back toward a lower-resolution reference state that is usually compositionally more stable. In practice this helps counter issues such as:

• outward zoom or expansion drift
• low-frequency washout or relighting
• reduced color richness or chroma flattening
• crop-to-image mismatch after compositing a detailed region back into the source image

The pack includes a primary anchor-guided workflow for general use, an affine diagnostic/fallback workflow, and an optional Impact Pack hook for in-detailer correction.

What it does

The core idea is simple:

1. derive or provide a lower-resolution anchor that represents the more stable version of the image or crop
2. compare the high-resolution result against that anchor
3. apply a controlled correction that pulls geometry and low-frequency structure inward without throwing away high-frequency detail

This makes the pack useful for both whole-image correction and crop-based detailing workflows.

Included nodes

Main workflow

• SMC Config
• SMC Make Anchor
• SMC Anchor Resolution
• SMC Anchor-Guided Compand
• SMC Extract Masked Crop
• SMC Composite Crop
• SMC Frequency Split
• SMC Compand Blend
• SMC Describe Config

Affine / diagnostic workflow

• SMC Affine Profile
• SMC Affine Anchor Resize
• SMC Affine Estimate Drift
• SMC Affine Compand
• SMC Affine Low / High Split
• SMC Affine Recombine

Optional Impact Pack integration

• SMC Self-Anchor Detailer Hook Provider

Recommended workflows

1. Masked crop detailing

This is the most useful workflow when a face, subject, or region drifts after high-resolution detailing.

1. Create a mask for the region you want to process.
2. Use SMC Extract Masked Crop to pull out the image region and crop mask.
3. Run your normal upscale, detail, or edit pass on that crop.
4. Use SMC Anchor-Guided Compand on the edited crop.
   • Supply an explicit anchor if you already have a low-resolution reference.
   • Otherwise let the node derive one from the configured anchor megapixel target.
5. Paste the corrected crop back with SMC Composite Crop.

This workflow is usually the best fit for reducing crop expansion, relighting drift, and paste mismatch.

2. Whole-image correction

Use this when the full image drifts as resolution rises.

1. Build a mask for the affected subject or area, or use a broad mask for the whole image.
2. Create settings with SMC Config.
3. Run SMC Anchor-Guided Compand on the high-resolution image.
4. Use SMC Compand Blend if you want a softer or partial blend back to the original.

3. Diagnostic or fallback correction

Use the affine nodes when you want a more explicit and interpretable correction path.

The affine workflow is useful for:

• estimating scale and translation drift directly
• testing correction strength in a more controlled way
• older experiments where you want a clearer diagnostic readout
• the optional Impact Pack self-anchor hook

Node overview

SMC Config

Builds the main correction configuration used by the anchor-guided path.

Important controls:

• anchor_mp: target size of the internal low-resolution anchor
• warp_strength: overall strength of the inward correction
• radial_strength: how strongly the correction behaves like inward compaction
• lowfreq_anchor_mix: how much low-frequency structure is pulled toward the anchor
• chroma_restore / contrast_restore: restore color and tonal presence after correction
• detail_preservation: keeps high-frequency detail from collapsing
• max_inward_shift_px: safety cap on geometric correction magnitude

SMC Make Anchor

Creates a low-resolution anchor and also returns a resized version at the original resolution for inspection.

SMC Anchor Resolution

Calculates the anchor resolution for a given megapixel target while preserving aspect ratio.

SMC Anchor-Guided Compand

Main correction node. It takes a high-resolution image, a mask, and a config, then outputs:

• corrected image
• anchor image used internally
• warped intermediate
• flow visualization
• debug mask
• numeric metrics summary

SMC Extract Masked Crop / SMC Composite Crop

Utility nodes for crop-based workflows. These make it easier to extract a masked region, process it externally, and composite it back cleanly.

SMC Frequency Split / SMC Compand Blend

Inspection and finishing utilities. Use them to preview low/high components or blend the processed result back more gently.

Affine nodes

These expose a more explicit correction path based on drift estimation and affine-style compaction. They are especially useful when you want to inspect the estimated scale and translation values directly.

SMC Self-Anchor Detailer Hook Provider

Optional Impact Pack hook.

It stores the post-upscale crop as a self-anchor, then runs the affine compand path after decode. This is a practical fallback for FaceDetailer-style workflows when you want some correction inside the hook surface itself.

Installation

Clone or copy this repository into:

ComfyUI/custom_nodes/ComfyUI-Stable-Manifold-Compander

Then restart ComfyUI.

Requirements

No extra Python dependencies are required beyond a normal ComfyUI PyTorch installation.

For SMC Self-Anchor Detailer Hook Provider, you also need ComfyUI-Impact-Pack installed.

Notes and limitations

• SMC Extract Masked Crop and SMC Composite Crop currently support batch size 1 only.
• The main anchor-guided method is training-free and heuristic. It is not a learned deformation model, optical flow solver, or landmark-based warp.
• The Impact hook is a practical fallback, not a replacement for a true two-pass low-resolution anchor branch.
• Results depend heavily on mask quality and on choosing an anchor megapixel range that matches the model's stable regime.

When to use which path

Use the anchor-guided path when:

• you want the main intended workflow
• you are correcting FLUX.2 klein high-resolution drift directly
• you are working with masked crops or broad masked regions

Use the affine path when:

• you want direct drift estimates
• you need a more diagnostic or interpretable correction route
• you want the optional Impact Pack self-anchor hook

Files

• core.py — anchor-guided compand implementation
• affine_core.py — affine/profile correction implementation
• impact_hook.py — Impact Pack self-anchor hook
• nodes.py — ComfyUI node registration and UI surface
• __init__.py
• pyproject.toml
• requirements.txt
• .gitignore