diff --git a/workers/comfyui-json/README.md b/workers/comfyui-json/README.md
index c498c9b..ffde97c 100644
--- a/workers/comfyui-json/README.md
+++ b/workers/comfyui-json/README.md
@@ -112,6 +112,8 @@ You can provide a custom ComfyUI workflow for benchmarking. This allows you to t
 2. **Write the file during provisioning** to a path *outside* the pyworker tree (e.g. `/workspace/benchmark.json`) and export `BENCHMARK_JSON_PATH` so the worker can find it. The pyworker repo is cloned by `start_server.sh` *after* provisioning runs, so provisioning cannot write into `misc/` directly — the destination would be clobbered, or the clone would fail.
 3. **Run on the vast.ai ComfyUI base image.** Its `convert-workflows.sh` maintains `/opt/comfyui-api-wrapper/workflows/pyworker_benchmark.json` as a symlink to the first provisioned workflow; the worker reads this automatically when neither of the above is set. No env var required.
 
+   *Note on timing:* the symlink is created only after `convert-workflows.sh` finishes converting workflows, which races with the pyworker's own warm-up — both unblock when ComfyUI is ready, but conversion takes a few seconds longer. To avoid losing the race, the worker waits up to 30 seconds for the symlink before falling through. Override the timeout with `BENCHMARK_WAIT_TIMEOUT` if conversion is slow on your setup. The wait fires only on the well-known tier and only once per worker process; non-base-image deployments skip it (the parent directory `/opt/comfyui-api-wrapper/workflows/` doesn't exist, so there's nothing to wait for).
+
 If `BENCHMARK_JSON_PATH` is set but points at a missing or unreadable file, the worker logs a warning and falls through to the next tier rather than going straight to the SD1.5 fallback.
 
 An example workflow is provided at `workers/comfyui-json/misc/benchmark.json.example`. To ensure varied generations, use the placeholder `__RANDOM_INT__` in place of static seed values — it will be replaced with a random integer for each benchmark run.
@@ -125,6 +127,7 @@ The default benchmark uses Stable Diffusion v1.5 with ComfyUI's standard text-to
 | Environment Variable | Default Value | Description |
 | -------------------- | ------------- | ----------- |
 | BENCHMARK_JSON_PATH | (unset) | Path to a custom workflow file outside the pyworker tree. Used if `misc/benchmark.json` is absent. Falls through to `/opt/comfyui-api-wrapper/workflows/pyworker_benchmark.json` if set but missing. |
+| BENCHMARK_WAIT_TIMEOUT | 30 | Seconds to wait for the well-known symlink before giving up (base image only). |
 | BENCHMARK_TEST_WIDTH | 512 | Fallback benchmark: image width (pixels) |
 | BENCHMARK_TEST_HEIGHT | 512 | Fallback benchmark: image height (pixels) |
 | BENCHMARK_TEST_STEPS | 20 | Fallback benchmark: number of denoising steps |
diff --git a/workers/comfyui-json/worker.py b/workers/comfyui-json/worker.py
index e6dcee3..5e2e2c1 100644
--- a/workers/comfyui-json/worker.py
+++ b/workers/comfyui-json/worker.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import logging
 import os
 import random
 import sys
+import time
 from pathlib import Path
 
 from vastai import Worker, WorkerConfig, HandlerConfig, LogActionConfig, BenchmarkConfig
@@ -65,8 +66,43 @@ TEST_PROMPTS   = MISC_DIR / "test_prompts.txt"
 # letting the base image work out-of-the-box without any env var.
 WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK = Path("/opt/comfyui-api-wrapper/workflows/pyworker_benchmark.json")
 
+# How long to wait for the well-known symlink to appear before giving up.
+# convert-workflows.sh and the pyworker both unblock at "ComfyUI ready",
+# but conversion takes a few seconds — without this wait the first
+# benchmark loses the race and silently drops to the SD1.5 fallback.
+# Tunable for slow setups (many workflows / slow disk).
+_WELLKNOWN_WAIT_SECS = float(os.getenv("BENCHMARK_WAIT_TIMEOUT", "30"))
+
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+_wait_done = False
+
+
+def _wait_for_wellknown() -> None:
+    """Wait at most once per process for ``WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK`` to appear.
+
+    Skipped immediately if the parent directory doesn't exist (we're
+    not on the base image, so the symlink will never appear and there's
+    no point burning the timeout). Skipped on subsequent calls regardless
+    of outcome — if the file *does* show up later, ``_resolve_benchmark_path``
+    will still pick it up via the regular ``.exists()`` check on the next
+    benchmark run.
+    """
+    global _wait_done
+    if _wait_done:
+        return
+    _wait_done = True
+    if WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK.exists() or not WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK.parent.is_dir():
+        return
+    deadline = time.monotonic() + _WELLKNOWN_WAIT_SECS
+    log.info("Waiting up to %.0fs for %s", _WELLKNOWN_WAIT_SECS, WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK)
+    while time.monotonic() < deadline:
+        if WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK.exists():
+            log.info("Found %s after wait", WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK)
+            return
+        time.sleep(0.5)
+    log.info("%s did not appear within %.0fs; falling through", WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK, _WELLKNOWN_WAIT_SECS)
+
 
 def _resolve_benchmark_path() -> Path | None:
     """Return the path to the custom benchmark workflow, or None if absent.
@@ -84,6 +120,7 @@ def _resolve_benchmark_path() -> Path | None:
         if path.exists():
             return path
         log.warning("BENCHMARK_JSON_PATH=%s does not exist; trying fallbacks", path)
+    _wait_for_wellknown()
     if WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK.exists():
         return WELLKNOWN_BENCHMARK
     return None