Managing media generation models

Invoke generates with models: local models that run on your own hardware, and external models that run on a provider’s servers. The Model Manager installs, configures and removes both.

Types of models

Image generation

Main models that turn a prompt into an image, change a starting image, or edit images by instruction.

Video generation

Models that make a video from a prompt, a starting image or another video.

Concepts

Small add-ons, mostly LoRAs and embeddings, that teach a main model a style, theme or character.

Control and reference

ControlNets, T2I Adapters and Control LoRAs guide where things go, for example by copying a pose. IP Adapters and FLUX Redux take a reference image.

Upscalers

Enlarge images. The Model Manager lists them as Image-to-Image models.

Support models

VAEs and text encoders, usually installed together with the main model that needs them. LLaVA OneVision describes images, and Text LLMs expand short prompts.

Segmentation models (Segment Anything) are not installed here: they download the first time a tool uses them.

Local or external

	Local model	External model
Runs on	Your GPU (or CPU)	The provider’s servers
Cost	Free after the hardware and electricity	Billed by the provider for each request
Hardware	Enough VRAM and disk space; see System Requirements	None beyond Invoke itself
Privacy	Prompts and images stay on your machine	Prompts and input images are sent to the provider
Internet	Only to download the model	Needed for every generation
Setup	Install from the Model Manager	Add the provider’s API key
Models	Open-weights families such as FLUX, SDXL, Z-Image and Wan	Closed models such as GPT Image, Gemini and Seedream
Features	Everything in Invoke	What the provider supports; see External models

Model licensing

Some models carry license terms that limit commercial use or use on public servers, and following them is your responsibility. The Model Families table lists each family’s license, and each model’s page has a License section.

Install your first model

The Model Manager is for administrators: in multi-user mode other accounts don’t see it. Open it from the Invoke menu at the top left (Manage › Model Manager) or from Models in the Launchpad. While no models are installed, the Launchpad’s home page also shows the starter bundles.

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1. Library
   Library

   Your installed models, with their base and format. Search, filter and sort them above the list; click one to open it in the model’s tab.
2. Library menu
   Library menu

   Refresh model list, Clean up orphaned models… and Empty model cache, which unloads every model from RAM and VRAM.
3. Add Models
   Add Models

   Starter models and every other way to install. It opens here while the library is empty.
4. API Keys
   API Keys

   Keys for external providers, a HuggingFace token and a Civitai key.
5. Search or add
   Search or add

   Type to search the starter models, or paste a URL, a HuggingFace repo ID or a path on the server. See Other ways to install.
6. Scan models folder
   Scan models folder

   Lists the model files in the server’s models folder, whose path is shown beside the button, so you can register files copied there. The button turns into Stop while the scan runs. If the server can’t report the folder, a message says so with Retry.
7. Bundles
   Bundles

   All lists every starter model; each bundle chip lists the recommended models for one family. A check mark means the whole bundle is installed. The menu at the end filters and sorts the list.
8. Install bundle
   Install bundle

   Install followed by the bundle’s name, such as Install SDXL. Queues every model of the chosen bundle that isn’t installed yet.
9. Install
   Install

   Installs one starter model and any models it depends on, such as its VAE or text encoder.
10. Install queue
    Install queue

    Download and install progress. Expand it to pause, resume, retry or cancel installs and to clear finished ones.

1. Open the Model Manager. It shows Add Models when nothing is installed; otherwise open that tab.

2. Choose the bundle chip for the model family you want, such as FLUX.2, SDXL or Z-Image. The model family pages list what each family needs.

3. Press Install followed by the bundle’s name, such as Install SDXL, or Install on single models. Dependencies are queued with them.

4. Follow the downloads in the Install queue. Large models take a while. A finished model appears in the library and in every model picker. Each row’s stop button cancels its install; the X on a finished row only removes it from the list. Cancelling a download that has already fetched data asks first, since that data is discarded, and Cancel all… confirms how many installs it stops.

Until a model that can generate is installed, the Launchpad’s Home page says so. Administrators can install the recommended starter bundle there in one click (it says what the bundle suits and links the hardware requirements) or open another bundle in the Model Manager; other users see a notice to ask an administrator. Home also counts installs that failed or need attention, with Review to open the install queue.

Other ways to install

Paste a source into Search or add. The field recognizes what you typed and offers the matching button:

You enter	Example	Button	Result
A search term	flux	None	Filters the starter models.
A download URL	https://civitai.com/api/download/models/…	Pull	Downloads and installs the file. A key button beside the field attaches a one-off access token to this download.
A HuggingFace repo ID	stabilityai/sdxl-turbo	Pull	A diffusers repo installs whole and a repo with one model file installs that file. A repo with several files lists them so you can install one or all.
A file on the server, by absolute path	/data/loras/style.safetensors	Pull	Installs the file.
A folder on the server, by absolute path	/data/loras/	Scan	Lists the model files in the folder and which are installed, to install one or all. Stop cancels a slow scan.

Text starting with ./ or ../, or ending in a model file extension such as .safetensors, is treated as a search term unless it is an absolute path or URL. Other text shaped like owner/name is taken as a HuggingFace repo ID, so use absolute paths for local files. Two options appear before an install:

• Install in place (local files): registers the file where it is. It is on by default and always on inside the models folder. Turned off, Invoke moves the file into its models folder.
• FP8 storage: stores the weights in FP8 to roughly halve VRAM use, where the model’s loader supports it.

A model in a repo subfolder

Add :: and the subfolder to the repo ID. For the model in the v2 folder of monster-labs/control_v1p_sd15_qrcode_monster, enter monster-labs/control_v1p_sd15_qrcode_monster::v2.

Gated and login-only downloads

Some HuggingFace repos are gated and some Civitai models need a login. Add a HuggingFace token (stored on the server and checked with HuggingFace) or a Civitai key (stored in this browser only, attached to civitai.com downloads) under API Keys, and accept the model’s license on its download page if asked. An install that is missing a token offers Add token in the install queue.

External models

An external model has no weights to download. Saving a provider’s API key adds that provider’s models:

1. Get an API key from the provider’s account page.

2. In the Model Manager, open API Keys and find the provider: Alibaba Cloud (Qwen), Atlas Cloud, Google Gemini, OpenAI or Seedream. In Add Models, Configure on an external starter model opens the same card.

3. Paste the key and press Save. Override base URL is optional, for a proxy or regional endpoint.

4. Invoke queues the provider’s starter models right away. Once added, they show as Installed in Add Models and appear in the model pickers.

Keys are stored on the server and used for every request to that provider. Clear removes the key and every model of that provider from the library. Using external models covers the api_keys.yaml file, costs and each provider.

The External Provider settings of a model

Opening an external model shows an External Provider section:

• Provider and Provider Model ID route the requests. Supported modes (Text to image, Image to image, Inpaint), whether it accepts a seed, reference images or a negative prompt, and the limits (images per request, max reference images, max width and height) describe what the provider accepts. Default width, Default height and Default image count are what it is asked for by default. Save Provider Settings stores them.
• The Generate panel and the Canvas offer only what the record advertises, so keep it in step with the provider’s documentation.
• The Canvas uses text to image and image to image only: its mask does not match any provider’s edit mask. An advertised Inpaint mode serves workflows.
• Models from the starter catalog are read-only, provider and model ID included, because Invoke applies the catalog entry to them on every load. Models added any other way can be edited.

Edit, delete and bulk actions

Click a model in the library to open it. Its ⋯ menu, and right-clicking its row in the library, hold the actions that change the whole record.

Action	How	What happens
Rename, describe, reclassify	Edit	Change the name, description, base, type, variant, format and Source URL. Changing the format reclassifies the model; invalid combinations are rejected.
Default settings	Default Settings, then Save Defaults (main models, LoRAs, control adapters)	Applied when the model is selected; a setting left off uses the app default.
Trigger phrases	Trigger Phrases (main models, LoRAs, embeddings)	Offered in the prompt editor.
Cover image	Click the model’s image	Shown in the library and pickers. PNG, JPEG or WebP.
Related models	Related Models	Linked models are suggested together elsewhere in the app.
Run on CPU	Run on CPU (text encoders, VAEs, CLIP Vision, SigLIP, LLaVA OneVision, Text LLMs)	Saves VRAM; may be slower.
Moved file	Update path beside the path (models installed in place outside the models folder, or whose files are missing)	Points Invoke at the file’s new location. Nothing is moved or copied.
Convert to diffusers	Convert to diffusers (checkpoint main models of supported families)	Replaces the checkpoint file with a diffusers folder.
Re-identify	Re-identify model in the menu	Re-reads the files to detect base, type, format and variant again.
Delete	Delete model in the menu, then confirm	Removes the model from Invoke. Its files are deleted only if they are inside Invoke’s models folder, where everything the Model Manager downloads or moves goes; a model installed in place elsewhere keeps its files.
Act on several models	Tick their rows or Select all, then Re-identify or Delete	Asks once for all of them. Models that fail stay selected, and a notice gives the counts and the first error.

Source URL records where a model came from, such as its Civitai or HuggingFace page, and shows as a link in the model’s details. It doesn’t affect loading or updates.

Re-identify resets settings

Re-identify keeps the name, description, cover image, trigger phrases, install source and the CPU and FP8 storage choices. It resets the custom variant and the other default settings, and clears the Source URL: note it first. Re-identifying several models asks for confirmation first; the single-model action runs at once.

Maintenance

Recovering a failed installation

Invoke retries temporary file permission errors during installation. If moving a model fails, it tries to restore the files to their source folder.

• The error says installation recovery is required. Keep both the source and destination folders named in the error: some files may have moved while others remain at the source. Restore one complete model folder without overwriting files you need, then use Scan on it to register it. Files kept for recovery are not resumed or removed when Invoke restarts.
• All files moved but registering the model failed. The complete model remains in the destination folder. Resolve the reported error, then use Scan on that folder.

Finding orphaned models

Model folders can stay in the models folder after their database entry is gone, for example after a failed install, a database reset, or files copied there by hand.

1. In the library’s ⋯ menu, choose Clean up orphaned models….

2. The dialog lists every folder in the models folder without a database record, with its file count and size, or says the library is clean.

3. Tick the folders to remove and press Delete Selected.

Without the web UI, an administrator can use the API: GET /api/v2/models/sync/orphaned lists the folders and DELETE /api/v2/models/sync/orphaned deletes the paths it is given.

The opposite case, a model whose files are missing from disk, is marked Missing file in the library. The type filter’s Missing files entry shows only those models.

How models are identified

Invoke identifies a model from its files, and falls back to its name only where the contents are the same:

• Standalone 16-channel VAEs. FLUX.1 and SD3 use the same VAE network with different settings. A diffusers vae/ folder is identified by its config.json, so FLUX.1-dev’s folder is filed as FLUX.1 and SD3.5’s as SD3. A single file such as sd3_vae.safetensors is identified by its name, folder or download source; if none of them names a model family, it is filed as FLUX.1. If a VAE lands under the wrong base, change Base with Edit. A vae/ folder installed before this detection existed can be fixed with Re-identify model.
• FLUX.2 Klein 9B vs. Klein 9B Base. The two are identical in structure, so the file or repo name decides, and they ship different default step counts (4 against 28). Names that say “distilled” are read as Klein 9B even when they also contain “base”. If you installed Winnougan/Klein9b-Distilled-Base-INT8-Convrot by repo ID before this was fixed, it was filed as Klein 9B Base; remove and reinstall it.

Exporting and importing model settings

Export settings… and Import settings… in a model’s ⋯ menu save its configuration to a .json file and apply one to the open model: to back up a tuned model before reinstalling it, copy settings to another install, or share a setup. The file holds settings, not weights:

Field	Contents
name, description, source_url	The model’s name, description and Source URL.
default_settings	Default steps, CFG or guidance, scheduler, size, FP8 storage, VAE precision and the other defaults.
trigger_phrases	Trigger phrases.
cpu_only	The Run on CPU choice.
cover_image	The cover image, embedded as a data URL.

Fields you haven’t set are left out. On import, top-level fields Invoke doesn’t recognize are skipped, a field the model doesn’t have is skipped and named in a notice, and the rest is applied. A default setting the receiving version doesn’t know makes that model’s import fail. A file is rejected if source_url is not an http:// or https:// URL or cover_image is not an image data URL.

Formats and families

Model Formats and FamiliesCheckpoint and diffusers formats, quantized builds, the parts a model is made of, and every supported family with its license.

Model Format SupportWhich file formats each family's main models, text encoders, VAEs and LoRAs install from.