aftereffects-mcp

# AE MCP Bridge: an After Effects MCP server for AI agents <a href="https://solomondivyananth.github.io/aftereffects-mcp/"><img src="docs/assets/welcome.gif" alt="AE MCP Bridge: After Effects meets AI. Read every layer, see every frame, edit live. 46 tools plus skills, in your timeline." width="100%"></a> <p align="center"><a href="https://solomondivyananth.github.io/aftereffects-mcp/"><b>Website</b></a> · <a href="docs/assets/welcome.mp4">Watch in HD</a> · <a href="#install">Install</a> · <a href="#tools">Tools</a></p> **Let an AI actually work in After Effects — read the project, look at rendered frames, and change keyframes, expressions and effects while the app is open.** Not a code generator that hands you a `.jsx` to run. A live connection to the running application: the model inspects your real comp, renders a real frame, makes a real edit, then re-renders to check its own work. ``` MCP client ──stdio──► mcp/ae-mcp.js ──HTTP :7788──► CEP panel in AE ──evalScript──► AE DOM ``` Works with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) or any client that speaks the [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io). Nothing in the bridge is client-specific. MIT licensed · macOS and Windows · After Effects 2022+ · zero npm dependencies > Not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe or Anthropic. --- ## What this makes possible **Read a project you didn't build.** Ask what's animating in a 40-layer comp and get an answer grounded in the actual property tree — keyframe times, ease influences, expression source, effect parameters — rather than a guess from layer names. **Let the model see.** `saveFrameToPng` renders come back as images. The model looks at the frame instead of reasoning blind about coordinates. Ask "is the logo colliding with the lower third at 4 seconds?" and it can check. **Edit with a real undo story.** Every call runs inside one `beginUndoGroup`/`endUndoGroup`. Anything the model does is a single ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). There is no half-applied state to clean up. **Judge motion, not just numbers.** `ae_review_motion` samples a time range, stitches an MP4, and returns a contact sheet — so timing and easing can be evaluated as motion rather than as keyframe values that merely look correct. **Build, not just tweak.** Create projects and comps, import footage, add and animate layers, precompose, duplicate a master into 9×16 / 1×1 / 16×9, and queue a background `aerender` job that doesn't freeze the app. ### Things it is genuinely good at - Auditing a comp: what animates, where, driven by what - Motion graphics automation — applying one consistent change across many layers, many comps, or a whole campaign of format variants - Format variants from a finished master - Expression authoring, with After Effects validating the syntax on write - Catching continuity mistakes by looking at frames, not just properties ### Things it is not good at - Taste. It can match an existing ease curve; it cannot tell you the ad is boring. - Anything unscriptable — Roto Brush, Content-Aware Fill, mocha tracking, puppet pins. The ExtendScript DOM barely reaches these. - Real-time playback. It sees sampled frames, never a live preview. --- ## Install Requires **After Effects 2022 (22.0)+** and **Node.js 18+**, on **macOS or Windows**. `ffmpeg` is optional but recommended: it powers motion review and contact sheets, and on Windows it also scales preview images (macOS uses the built-in `sips`). **From npm:** ```bash npx aftereffects-mcp-install # installs the After Effects panel claude mcp add after-effects -- npx -y aftereffects-mcp ``` **From source** (do this if you want to hack on it): ```bash git clone https://github.com/solomondivyananth/aftereffects-mcp.git cd aftereffects-mcp ./install.sh # macOS: link the panel, enable unsigned extensions install.cmd # Windows: the same (a directory junction, no admin needed) ``` Then **relaunch After Effects** (`PlayerDebugMode` is read at launch) and open **Window ▸ Extensions ▸ AE MCP Bridge**. A green dot and `Listening on 127.0.0.1:7788` means it's ready. | Command | | |---|---| | `./install.sh` · `install.cmd` | linked install: edits in the repo are live | | `./install.sh --copy` · `install.cmd --copy` | real copy, for when AE won't follow the link (re-run after edits) | | `./install.sh --global` | macOS: also register the MCP server for every directory | | `node bin/install-panel.js --uninstall` | remove the panel (either platform) | Where it goes: `~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions` on macOS, `%APPDATA%\Adobe\CEP\extensions` on Windows. Unsigned panels are enabled with `PlayerDebugMode` (macOS `defaults`, Windows `HKCU\Software\Adobe\CSXS.*`). The included `.mcp.json` registers the server for this project directory, so Claude Code picks the tools up automatically when run from the repo. --- ## Safety This bridge executes arbitrary ExtendScript inside After Effects. That is powerful and worth being deliberate about, so two independent protections ship switched on. ### The sandbox guard Reads and renders work on whatever project is open. **Writes are refused unless the open project is the one you designated as the sandbox.** Only a human can change that, from the panel UI — there is deliberately no tool that unlocks it, so a model working through these tools cannot talk its way past the guard. (It is not a sandbox against an agent that already controls your desktop — one with shell or Accessibility access can untick the box just as you would. See [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md).) Project-level operations (`ae_new_project`, `ae_open_project`) are refused outright while the guard is on: they close the current project, and a path comparison cannot make that safe. They also refuse to run unless you say explicitly what happens to unsaved work — no silent data loss, and never a modal dialog that would deadlock the bridge. ### Raw scripting switch `ae_run_jsx` and `ae_menu_command` can do anything the app can, including things the guard cannot see coming (a script can open another project). The panel's **Allow raw ExtendScript and menu commands** switch turns both off; the dedicated tools still work. With the guard on, the panel also checks whether a raw call changed the open project and flags it loudly if it did. ### Network protection The server binds loopback only and requires a 256-bit token, generated on first run into `~/.ae-mcp-bridge.json` (mode `0600`). It also refuses any request carrying an `Origin` or `Referer` header, and requires `Content-Type: application/json`. Those three checks close three different routes to the same hole. Without them, **any web page you happened to be visiting could drive After Effects** — a cross-origin POST with `Content-Type: text/plain` is a CORS "simple request", so the browser sends it with no preflight. The attacker can't read the response, but by then the code has already run. See [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md). --- ## Tools 47 tools, named and shaped after After Effects itself. **Read** — `ae_project_info` · `ae_comp_tree` · `ae_layer_detail` · `ae_find_animation` · `ae_selection` · `ae_list_items` · `ae_catalog` (effects, presets, fonts, render templates) **See & show** — `ae_render_frame` · `ae_review_motion` · `ae_goto` **Animate** — `ae_set_property` · `ae_add_keyframes` · `ae_edit_keyframes` · `ae_set_expression` · `ae_clear_expression` · `ae_apply_effect` · `ae_apply_preset` · `ae_text` · `ae_markers` · `ae_masks` · `ae_shape` · `ae_add_property` · `ae_remove_property` · `ae_property_meta` **Layers** — `ae_create_layer` · `ae_delete_layer` · `ae_set_layer_props` · `ae_layer_action` (duplicate, split, sequence, freeze frame, align, fit, centre anchor, copy to comp) **Project** — `ae_create_comp` · `ae_set_comp_settings` · `ae_duplicate_comp` · `ae_precompose` · `ae_import_file` · `ae_item_action` · `ae_essential_graphics` · `ae_delete_item` · `ae_new_project` · `ae_open_project` · `ae_save_project` **Render** — `ae_render_video` · `ae_render_status` · `ae_render_cancel` · `ae_render_queue` (Render Queue panel and Media Encoder) **Control** — `ae_undo` · `ae_batch` · `ae_menu_command` · `ae_run_jsx` ### Skills Sixteen skills ship in `skills/`. Claude Code loads them automatically in this repo, and every MCP client gets them as prompts of the same name. | Skill | What it teaches | |---|---| | `ae-mcp-bridge` | the tools: read → edit → look, addressing, guard refusals | | `ae-motion-principles` | timing in frames, easing that reads, overshoot, stagger, stomp type | | `ae-expressions` | a cookbook of expressions, each one verified to compile in After Effects | | `ae-effects` | glows, noise, particles, glitch, and every kind of blur and motion blur | | `ae-transitions` | whips, punches, shape, mask, luma and effect wipes | | `ae-morph` | shape, mask, letter and gooey morphs that don't twist | | `ae-camera-3d` | camera rigs, depth of field, lights, shadows, renderers, 3D models | | `ae-typography` | text animators and selectors: word reveals, waves, scatter, typing, text on a ring | | `ae-ui-motion` | app and product-launch motion: layered UI in 3D, streaming answers, devices, logo moments | | `ae-color` | Lumetri grading, looks and LUTs without dialogs, brand tints, matching shots | | `ae-audio-sync` | beat finder (tempo, hits, grid) to comp markers, cutting and pulsing to music | | `ae-templates` | Controls nulls, Essential Graphics controls, `.mogrt` export, robust templates | | `ae-data-driven` | CSV/JSON as footage in expressions, charts, one version per row | | `ae-deliver` | pre-flight, format variants with safe areas, renders, verifying the file | | `ae-reference-breakdown` | turn a reference film into a beat map and rebuildable techniques | | `video-reference-compare` | frame-by-frame comparison of a render against a reference | Effect, parameter and menu names in the skills were checked against a live After Effects. It speaks After Effects: - **Time** as seconds (`2.5`), frames (`"75f"`) or timecode (`"0:00:02:15"`). - **Easing** by name: `"easy"` is F9 Easy Ease, plus `"easy_in"`/`"easy_out"`. - **Colours** as `"#ff8800"` or 0–1 / 0–255 arrays. - **Many layers** in one call — `"selected"`, `"all"`, a list, or a name regex — as one undo step. `ae_batch` makes any sequence of calls one atomic step. - **Every write is one Edit ▸ Undo step**, labelled "MCP: Set Position" and so on, and writes that change a value return it **before and after**. - **Edits show up like hand edits**: the comp opens, the layers are selected, the playhead moves to the change. Switch it off in the panel. Property paths are arrays: `["Transform","Position"]`, `["Effects","Gaussian Blur","Blurriness"]`. Names or matchNames both work, and a wrong segment returns the list of valid children instead of a bare failure — so the model corrects itself rather than guessing. The server also exposes the usage guide as the MCP prompt `after-effects`, and the open project and current selection as resources (`ae://project`, `ae://selection`). --- ## Design notes Four things in the After Effects DOM will bite anyone building on it. They cost real debugging time here, so they're written down. **`elided` does not mean "ignore".** `PropertyBase.elided` marks a group that isn't drawn as its own row in the timeline — `Animators`, `Selectors`, `Properties` on a text layer are all elided. Their children are real, and are frequently where the animation lives. Skipping them made a typewriter-animated text layer report as "not animated", which produced a confidently wrong edit. Flatten elided groups; never skip them. **Transform is not where animation lives.** A layer can be fully animated with an empty Transform group — text animators, shape trim paths, mask paths and effect parameters all animate independently. `ae_comp_tree` returns `animatedProperties` from a full-tree scan for exactly this reason. **`saveFrameToPng` is asynchronous.** It returns roughly 450 ms before the PNG is on disk, and the file appears at size 0 first. Both sides of the bridge poll each frame until it exists and has stopped growing. **`Folder.temp` is a per-app sandbox.** Anything After Effects writes there is unreadable from outside the AE process. Frames go to `~/.ae-mcp-bridge/frames/`. And one that isn't about the DOM: **stills lie about motion.** A frame sampled mid-reveal is indistinguishable from a hard cut. That mistake is the reason `ae_review_motion` exists. --- ## Layout ``` panel/ CEP extension loaded by After Effects CSXS/manifest.xml index.html status, sandbox controls, live call log js/main.js HTTP server, auth, guard enforcement, aerender jobs jsx/bridge.jsx everything touching the AE DOM (ExtendScript, ES3) mcp/ae-mcp.js MCP server — zero dependencies, stdio JSON-RPC scripts/ check.js (npm test), live tests (npm run test:live), record-welcome.js docs/ the website (GitHub Pages) and the welcome animation bin/install-panel.js panel installer for macOS and Windows install.sh · install.cmd wrappers for a linked install from source skills/ ae-mcp-bridge skill — teaches a model how to use the tools ``` `bridge.jsx` is **ES3** — no `let`, `const`, arrow functions or native `JSON` (there's a polyfill at the top). Responses over 100 KB spill to a temp file, because `evalScript`'s return channel can't carry them. --- ## FAQ **What is this actually for?** Automating the repetitive half of motion graphics work — audits, bulk edits, format variants, expression authoring — while you keep the creative decisions. It is a scripting layer you talk to, not a replacement for a motion designer. **Does this need an API key?** No. The bridge holds no credentials. Your MCP client brings its own model. **Does it work with clients other than Claude Code?** Yes — it's a standard MCP stdio server. Nothing in it is Claude-specific. **Will it edit my project without asking?** Not unless you point the sandbox at that project, or switch the guard off. Reads and renders always work; writes are gated. **Can it render video?** Yes, via `aerender` as a background job that doesn't block the app. It saves the project first, because `aerender` reads the `.aep` from disk. **Does it work on Windows?** Yes. The installer, image scaling, `aerender` discovery and paths all handle Windows, and CI runs the checks on Windows and macOS. The live After Effects test suite has so far been run on macOS; reports from Windows users are welcome. **Why CEP and not UXP?** After Effects 2026 ships UXP, but it hosts only Adobe's own plugins — there's no public AE DOM API through it yet. CEP with ExtendScript is the only route to the full object model today. **Is the panel signed?** No. The installer enables `PlayerDebugMode`, which is how unsigned extensions load during development. Distributing to non-developers would need ZXP signing. --- ## Status **v0.1 — working, and honest about its edges.** The read, view and edit loop is proven against real production projects. The authoring and render tools are built and wired but have had less mileage. No tests or CI yet. Contributions welcome, particularly Windows test reports and ZXP packaging. ## License [MIT](LICENSE)