Download tokens (HuggingFace & Civitai)
Set up the free tokens some model downloads require, and fix the "asks for API key again" loop.
Some models are hosted behind a free account wall. SimpliGen downloads them for you, but the host requires a personal access token:
- HuggingFace: required for gated models (for example Flux Klein). Free.
- Civitai: required for downloading LoRAs and community models from Civitai. Free.
Both are entered once in Settings and remembered.
HuggingFace token, step by step
- Create a free account at huggingface.co.
- Open the Access Tokens page (Settings -> Access Tokens) and click New Token.
- Pick the classic Read token type. Do not use a fine-grained token; those often fail unless every permission is set correctly.
- Copy the token into SimpliGen when a download asks for it (or in Settings).
Gated models: the extra step everyone misses
Gated models (Flux Klein and others) also require you to accept the model's license terms on the HuggingFace website; the token alone is not enough.
- Open the model's page on huggingface.co while logged into the same account your token belongs to.
- Click through the "agree / request access" prompt on the model page.
- Wait for "You have been granted access" (usually instant).
- Retry the download in SimpliGen.
Stuck in an 'enter API key' loop?
The download asking for your key again and again almost always means one of: (1) the terms were accepted with a different HuggingFace account than the token's, (2) the token is fine-grained instead of classic Read (create a fresh classic Read token), or (3) the model needs terms accepted on more than one repository: Flux Klein has a base repo and a separate fp8 repo, and both need access. To verify, try downloading the file directly on the HuggingFace page in your browser: if that fails, SimpliGen will fail too.
Civitai token
- Create a free account at civitai.com.
- Open your account settings, scroll to API Keys, and create a key.
- Paste it into SimpliGen when prompted.
Note: pasting a Civitai page URL into SimpliGen as a download source is not supported. To use a Civitai model that isn't part of a preset, download the file in your browser and add it manually (LoRAs: via the LoRA manager).
Manual download fallback
If a download keeps failing you can fetch the file in your browser and drop it into the engine's models folder, %APPDATA%\simpligen\engine\models\, using the standard ComfyUI layout (diffusion_models, checkpoints, loras, text_encoders, vae, ...). Restart the engine afterward so it picks the file up.