Installation & Setup

Installation & Setup

This chapter walks you through installing Sweet Tea Studio on your machine, configuring it for first use, and verifying that everything works. By the end, you'll have a stable baseline you can build on confidently.

Prerequisites

• Operating system: Windows 10 or later, macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, or a modern Linux distro (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 38+, Arch, etc.)
• Disk space: At least 15 GB free. Models alone can range from 2 GB to 10+ GB depending on what you're working with.
• GPU (recommended): An NVIDIA GPU with 6+ GB VRAM gives the best experience. AMD and Intel GPUs work with some ComfyUI configurations but NVIDIA is the most straightforward path.
• ComfyUI: Either already installed, or you'll set it up through Studio's managed runtime.

Windows

1. Download the Windows installer (.exe) from /download.
2. Run the installer and follow the wizard. The default install location works fine for most users.
3. Launch Sweet Tea Studio from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut.

Studio stores its data at:

%APPDATA%\Sweet Tea Studio\data

This folder contains your database, project metadata, logs, and configuration. You can override it with the SWEET_TEA_ROOT_DIR environment variable if you need a custom location.

macOS

1. Download the .dmg file from /download.
2. Open the disk image and drag Sweet Tea Studio into your Applications folder.
3. Launch from Applications. On first open, macOS will ask you to confirm — click Open.

Studio stores its data at:

~/Library/Application Support/Sweet Tea Studio/data

Note: If macOS shows a "not verified" warning, open System Preferences > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. This happens because the app may not yet be notarized for your specific macOS version.

Linux

You have two options:

AppImage

chmod +x "Sweet Tea Studio-*.AppImage"
./"Sweet Tea Studio-*.AppImage"

Debian package (.deb)

sudo dpkg -i sweet-tea-studio_*.deb

Studio stores its data at:

~/.config/Sweet Tea Studio/data/

Tip: On Linux, if you're using a Wayland-based desktop and experience display issues, try launching with --ozone-platform-hint=auto or setting ELECTRON_OZONE_PLATFORM_HINT=auto before launch.

First-Run Configuration

After launching for the first time, open Settings from the sidebar. Configure these in order — getting them right now prevents cascading issues later:

1. Engine setup

This is the most important step. Point Studio at your ComfyUI installation:

• Managed runtime: Set the path to your ComfyUI directory. Studio will start and stop ComfyUI for you.
• External runtime: Enter the URL where ComfyUI is already running (usually http://127.0.0.1:8188).

See ComfyUI Integration for detailed guidance on both paths.

2. Input and output directories

Verify that the input and output root directories point where you expect. These control where your projects store source images and generated results.

3. Optional launch arguments

If you need to pass custom arguments to ComfyUI (like --listen for network access or --gpu-only for specific GPU behavior), you can add them in the launch configuration section. Only add arguments you understand — the defaults work for most setups.

Environment Variables

For advanced or multi-machine setups, you can control Studio's behavior with environment variables:

SWEET_TEA_ROOT_DIR    — Override the base data directory
COMFY_URL             — Set the default ComfyUI endpoint

Note: If you use environment overrides, document them somewhere you'll find them later. Future-you troubleshooting a weird path issue will thank present-you.

Verify Your Setup

Before importing workflows or diving into complex generation, run through this quick verification:

1. Studio launches cleanly — No crash or blank screen on startup.
2. Engine connects — The status bar at the bottom shows a healthy connection.
3. Prompt Studio loads — Click into Prompt Studio and confirm a Pipe selector appears.
4. A test generation succeeds — Queue a single image with a simple prompt and default settings. Watch it complete.
5. Gallery shows the result — Navigate to Gallery and confirm the image is there with metadata.

If any step fails, don't change multiple things at once. Work through the issue in ComfyUI Integration or Data & Troubleshooting one layer at a time.

Warning: Resist the urge to import large workflow collections before your baseline is stable. Get one clean end-to-end generation working first, then build from there.

Data Directory Structure

Inside your data directory, you'll find:

data/
├── meta/          # Database, logs, configuration
├── projects/      # Project-organized assets
│   ├── input/     # Source and reference images
│   ├── output/    # Generated results
│   └── masks/     # Inpaint and selection masks
└── ...

Understanding this layout helps when troubleshooting file paths or setting up backups. The Data & Troubleshooting chapter covers backup strategies and recovery workflows.

Next: ComfyUI Integration