Versioned recipes

A PixelKiln recipe pins a reusable provider setup without hiding its quality limits. Each pack carries a semantic version, a ready-to-use style template, workflow hashes, model hashes, license names, and the checks required before an image is treated as finished art.

Recipes are local files. Listing, inspecting, installing, and verifying them does not contact a provider or download a model.

Start with the bundled ComfyUI recipe

List what ships with the installed PixelKiln version:

pixelkiln recipe list
pixelkiln recipe inspect comfyui/pixel-art-xl-environment

Install the latest bundled version into the current project:

pixelkiln recipe install comfyui/pixel-art-xl-environment

The default destination includes the exact recipe version:

pixelkiln-recipes/comfyui/pixel-art-xl-environment/1.0.0/

The command prints a complete manifest style entry whose workflowFile points to that directory. Add the entry under styles, set the manifest's provider to comfyui, and add the assets you want to render. Use --out <directory> when the project keeps workflows elsewhere.

The first recipe is the tested SDXL Base 1.0 plus Pixel Art XL environment graph. It produces four candidates on a 1024×1024 working canvas and scales the selected composition to the requested output size. Its declared stage is composition-source, not production-ready art. Reject weak compositions, then recover the native grid, apply the final palette, and complete the 1× human review described in the ComfyUI guide.

Verify the recipe and workstation

Verify the metadata digest and every included workflow before using a pack:

pixelkiln recipe verify \
  pixelkiln-recipes/comfyui/pixel-art-xl-environment/1.0.0

That command proves the installed pack is intact. It reports external models as unchecked because model locations belong to the workstation, not the project. Pass the ComfyUI directory that contains checkpoints/, loras/, and the other model folders to check the actual model bytes:

pixelkiln recipe verify \
  pixelkiln-recipes/comfyui/pixel-art-xl-environment/1.0.0 \
  --model-root /path/to/ComfyUI/models

Model hashing is streamed, so a large checkpoint is not loaded into memory. Missing or mismatched workflow/model files make verification exit nonzero. Omitting --model-root does not: the output states that the workstation models were not checked.

Use --json for automation. It reports the resolved selector, metadata digest, each file status, each model status, and the model root used. Recipe verification is an appropriate CI gate for committed recipe files. Model verification usually belongs in workstation setup or a self-hosted runner that owns those files.

Version and update policy

Use an exact selector when reproducibility matters:

pixelkiln recipe install comfyui/pixel-art-xl-environment@1.0.0

An unversioned selector resolves to the newest bundled version. Installation still writes the chosen version into the destination path, so installing a newer recipe does not rewrite a project's existing workflow. Review the new style template and quality contract, run the benchmark prompts, then update the manifest deliberately.

Installation refuses to replace changed destination files. --force replaces only files declared by the recipe; it does not delete extra files. Inspect the local changes before using it.

Recipe file contract

pixelkiln.recipe.json uses schemaVersion: 1 and the published recipe.schema.json. Its main fields are:

Field	Meaning
id, version, provider	Stable recipe identity and provider.
files	Included workflow/reference paths and their SHA-256 digests.
models	Required model paths relative to --model-root, hashes, source links, and license names. Model files are never bundled.
styleId, style	Manifest style template. {{recipeDir}} is replaced with the installed path.
workflow	Output node, candidate count, and the inputs PixelKiln may bind.
quality	Working canvas, recommended native range, palette range, output stage, and required review checks.
integrity	Canonical SHA-256 digest of the recipe metadata.

Included paths must be portable relative paths. Absolute paths, backslashes, empty segments, . and .. are rejected. The recipe file cannot include its own hash; its metadata digest covers that document instead.

Recipes do not install models, custom nodes, credentials, or Python packages. Follow each linked source and license, place dependencies yourself, verify them, then run pixelkiln doctor --dry-run before connecting to ComfyUI.