Comfy-Org/ComfyUI · error · RuntimeError

ERROR: controlnet file is invalid and does not contain a val

Error message

ERROR: controlnet file is invalid and does not contain a valid controlnet model.

What it means

Error "ERROR: controlnet file is invalid and does not contain a valid controlnet model." thrown in Comfy-Org/ComfyUI.

Source

Thrown at nodes.py:880

    CATEGORY = "model/loaders"
    SEARCH_ALIASES = ["controlnet", "control net", "cn", "load controlnet", "controlnet loader"]

    def load_controlnet(self, control_net_name):
        controlnet_path = folder_paths.get_full_path_or_raise("controlnet", control_net_name)
        controlnet = comfy.controlnet.load_controlnet(controlnet_path)
        if controlnet is None:
            raise RuntimeError("ERROR: controlnet file is invalid and does not contain a valid controlnet model.")
        return (controlnet,)

class DiffControlNetLoader:

View on GitHub (pinned to 1c6d8d45b3)

Solutions

1. Load a valid controlnet checkpoint file.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at nodes.py:880 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of Comfy-Org/ComfyUI@1c6d8d45b3 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/928d38898da7207e. Report an issue: GitHub.