# Civitai Helper for Stable Diffusion WebUI: What the Extension Actually Does > Civitai Helper links your local Stable Diffusion models to Civitai pages, pulls preview images and trigger words, and checks for new versions. It is a maintenance tool for people with large model folders, and it requires a recent SD webui plus a full restart. **butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper** — Stable Diffusion Webui Extension for Civitai, to manage your model much more easily. - Repository: https://github.com/butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper - Stars: 2,519 · Forks: 312 - Language: Python - License: not declared - Published: 2026-09-28 · Updated: 2026-09-28 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/butaixianran-stable-diffusion-webui-civitai-helper ## The problem Civitai Helper solves for large local model folders A Stable Diffusion model folder tends to become a pile of .safetensors files with names that do not match anything on the Civitai page they came from. The preview image is stored somewhere else, the trigger words are in a browser tab you closed, and the model's current version on Civitai has moved on. Civitai Helper is built for exactly that situation. It scans local models, computes SHA256 hashes, and uses those hashes to retrieve model information and preview images from Civitai. The README describes a single "Scan model" button in the extension tab that does this for the whole folder. The audience is narrow: people running Automatic1111-style SD webui with a model collection large enough that manual bookkeeping stopped working. If you have five models and remember all of them, the extension adds a restart requirement and a scanning step for little benefit. ## How the scan works and where the metadata lands The mechanism is file-based rather than database-based. For each model, the extension writes a json file next to it named "Your_model_name.civitai.info" in the model folder. That file holds the model info retrieved from Civitai. Two behaviours follow from this design and both matter in practice. First, an existing info file is skipped on later scans, so a second scan only processes new models. Second, if a model cannot be found on Civitai, the extension still creates an empty info file, with the stated purpose that the model will not be scanned twice. That is a deliberate trade-off: it keeps repeated scans fast, but a model that was missing at scan time stays missing until you delete the empty file or use the "Get Model Info By Url" function to link it manually. The README gives a concrete reason you might need that function: you converted a model's format or pruned it, so its hash no longer matches anything on Civitai. In that case you pick the local model from a list, supply a Civitai model page url, and the extension downloads that model's info and preview image for the local file you selected. ## Installing Civitai Helper and running the first scan The README asks you to update SD webui before anything else, because the extension requests the latest SD webui v1.6.x. Installation goes through the extension tab, using the "Install from url" sub-tab, or by downloading the project as a zip and unzipping it into `Your SD webui folder/extensions`. After installing or updating, the README is explicit that you must shut down SD webui and relaunch it; "Reload UI" alone will not pick up the extension. ```bash git clone https://github.com/butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper \ /path/to/stable-diffusion-webui/extensions/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper ``` Cloning into the extensions directory is the manual equivalent of the zip route. The README does not give a clone command, so treat the path as the only part that must match: the folder has to sit under `extensions`. Once webui is back up, open the "Civitai Helper" extension tab and click "Scan model". The README warns that scanning takes time and that you should let it finish. Progress and errors appear in the console log window, which is also where the README tells you to look when something fails. ## Downloading a model and checking for new versions Downloading by url is a three-step flow in the UI: fill in the Civitai model page url and click the button to get model info, confirm the model name and type the extension fills in, choose a sub-folder and model version, then click download. Detail is written to the console log with a progress bar, and downloads can resume from a break-point, which the README frames as the reason large files are practical to fetch this way. Version checking is separate. You select one or more model types and the extension checks your local models against Civitai. The README states there is a one second delay after each model's version check request, and gives the reasoning directly: it is to avoid hammering Civitai, with a note that some cloud providers cap free users at no more than one API request per second. That makes the check slow on a large collection, and the README says so rather than hiding it. Output lists three urls per new version: the model's Civitai page, the new version's download url, and a button that downloads it into your SD model folder using python. The last option runs one task at a time. ## The Extra Network card buttons and why they disappear The extension modifies the built-in Extra Network cards to add three buttons on each card: one opens the model's Civitai url in a new tab, one adds the model's trigger words to the prompt, and one uses the preview image's prompt. The trigger-word button is the one that saves real time, since it removes the copy-paste step between a model page and the prompt box. The wrinkle is that these buttons are not persistent. The README states that every time the Extra Network tab refreshes, all the additional buttons are removed, and you have to click "Refresh Civitai Helper" to bring them back. If the buttons are missing, that is the documented cause and the documented fix. This is a noticeable friction point for a feature whose whole purpose is convenience, and the README does not describe a way to make the buttons survive a refresh. ## Civitai API keys, content settings and the proxy string Several models on Civitai require a login to download, and the extension handles that with an API key rather than your password. The README walks through creating one: log in to civitai.com, open your account's setting page, find the "API Keys" section at the bottom, click "Add API Key", give it a name, copy the string, paste it into the extension's setting page under "Civitai API Key", save, and reload SD webui. Settings now live under the Setting tab in the civitai helper section rather than in the extension tab. There is a second gate that is easy to miss: your Civitai account's "Content Controls" and "Content Moderation" settings. If you hide content types there, the README says you will not be able to get those models with this extension, and the fix is to turn on all content types in your Civitai account settings in addition to setting the API key. For networks, the README notes that some SOCKS5 proxies need the string in the form "socks5h://127.0.0.1:port", which is a detail worth copying exactly rather than guessing at. ## Forks, ComfyUI, and when this is the wrong tool The README's own notice section is the clearest limitation. It states that the extension requests the latest SD webui v1.6.x and that you must relaunch webui after installing, not just reload the UI. That single constraint rules it out for anyone pinned to an older webui build and unwilling to move. The README also points to two forks, zixaphir's and blue-pen5805's, described as updating when the author is busy on other projects. That is an honest signal about the release cadence of the main repository rather than a claim of continuous development. For ComfyUI users the answer is blunter: the README recommends invokeAI 3.x and ComfyUI as alternatives for SD work, which effectively tells you this extension is not the tool for a ComfyUI workflow. The related searches include people asking about ComfyUI and Civitai Helper; nothing in the README describes a ComfyUI integration, so that combination is not supported here. The last push to the repository was on 2026-06-09. ## Licence, upgrade cost and what the README leaves open The repository does not state a licence in the project's own files, so anyone planning to redistribute the extension, bundle it into a distribution, or build a product on top of it should confirm the licence terms from the repository itself before doing so. Nothing here should be read as legal advice. The upgrade cost is mostly operational. Every install or update requires a full shutdown and relaunch of SD webui, and the extension expects a current v1.6.x webui, so a webui upgrade and an extension upgrade tend to travel together. Scanning is incremental because of the .civitai.info files, which keeps repeat scans cheap, but the version check deliberately waits one second between requests, so checking a large library is slow by design. The README does not document rollback, does not describe what happens to existing .civitai.info files if the extension changes its info format, and does not state a licence. ## Conclusion Adopt Civitai Helper if you keep a large local model folder inside Automatic1111-style SD webui and you want Civitai metadata, previews and version checks attached to those files. Do not adopt it if you run ComfyUI as your main interface (the README points you to ComfyUI and invokeAI instead), or if you cannot update to SD webui v1.6.x and restart the process after every extension update. Before relying on it, verify that your webui version line matches v1.6.x, that your proxy string uses the socks5h:// form if you go through a SOCKS5 proxy, and that a Civitai API key is saved in the extension settings if you need gated models. ## FAQ ### How do I install Civitai Helper in Stable Diffusion WebUI? Use the extension tab's "Install from url" sub-tab and paste the project url, or download the zip and unzip it into Your SD webui folder/extensions. The README requires the latest SD webui v1.6.x and a full shutdown and relaunch afterwards, since Reload UI alone will not work. ### Why does Civitai Helper not find one of my models when scanning? The scan matches models to Civitai using SHA256 hashes, so a model whose format was converted or that was pruned may not match anything. In that case the README points to the "Get Model Info By Url" function, where you pick the local model and supply a Civitai model page url to link it manually. ### Why did the Civitai Helper buttons disappear from my model cards? The README states that every time the Extra Network tab refreshes, all the additional buttons are removed. Clicking the "Refresh Civitai Helper" button brings them back. ## Sources - [butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper on GitHub](https://github.com/butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper) - [Issues](https://github.com/butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper/issues) - [README](https://github.com/butaixianran/Stable-Diffusion-Webui-Civitai-Helper/blob/main/README.md) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/butaixianran-stable-diffusion-webui-civitai-helper