Let AI work inside After Effects.
Not a code generator that hands you a script. A live connection to the app you have open. It reads your real comp, renders real frames to look at, makes real edits, and every edit is one ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows).
Read. Edit. Look.
The model works the way an animator does: it reads what's there, makes one change, and renders the frame to check its own work before telling you it's done.
READ
The real property tree: keyframes, eases, expressions, text animators, trim paths, masks. It sees animation that lives outside Transform too.
EDIT
Keyframes, expressions, effects, presets, text, masks, shapes and markers, on one layer or fifty, as a single undo step.
LOOK
It renders frames and a motion contact sheet, so it judges timing as motion, not as numbers that merely look right.
It speaks After Effects.
No translating between how you think about a comp and how a script wants it said.
- Time
- 2.5 · "75f" · "0:00:02:15" Seconds, frames or timecode, wherever a time goes.
- Easing
- "easy" · "easy_in" · "easy_out" F9 Easy Ease by name, or influence and speed by the number.
- Layers
- "selected" · "all" · {"match": "^BG"} One call, many layers, still one undo step.
- Undo
- Edit ▸ Undo “MCP: Set Position” Every write is one labelled step, and it tells you the value before and after.
- Colour
- "#ff7a3d" · [1, .48, .24] Hex or channels, on any colour property or effect.
- Menus
- "Convert to Editable Text" Any menu command by its menu text. Dialogs are refused so nothing freezes.
50 tools. Nineteen skills. Seven templates.
The skills teach the craft as well as the tools: motion principles, typography, expressions, effects and blur, transitions, morphs, camera and 3D, colour, audio sync, templates and MOGRTs, data-driven charts, UI and product-launch motion, delivery, reverse-engineering a reference, and frame-by-frame review against it. Clients that don't load skills get the same guides as MCP prompts. And seven AI-native templates (lower third, kinetic title, word reveal, app card, bar chart, logo sting and the welcome) build from a brief in any format with ae_template.
Your project stays yours.
A sandbox guard
Writes only land in the project you mark as the sandbox, and only you can change that, from the panel. No tool can unlock it.
Locked to your machine
Loopback only, a 256-bit token, and browser requests refused. A web page you happen to visit can't drive After Effects.
A raw-script switch
The two tools that can run anything are one toggle away from off. The dedicated tools keep working.
Questions.
What is an After Effects MCP server?
MCP (the Model Context Protocol) is the standard way AI assistants call tools. AE MCP Bridge is an MCP server whose tools reach into a running copy of Adobe After Effects, so an assistant like Claude can read your comps, render frames to look at, and make edits directly. You don't have to copy scripts back and forth.
Which AI clients does it work with?
Any MCP client. Claude Code and Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP-capable tools all connect the same way. Nothing in the bridge is specific to one client, and it needs no API key: your client brings its own model.
Will it change my project without asking?
No. A sandbox guard only allows edits to the project you mark as the sandbox, and only you can change that, from the panel. Reads and renders always work. Every edit is one step in Edit ▸ Undo.
Which versions of After Effects are supported?
After Effects 2022 (22.0) and later, on macOS and Windows, using a CEP panel and ExtendScript, which is the route to After Effects' full scripting object model.
Can it render video?
Yes. It runs background renders with aerender, so After Effects stays usable. It can also drive the Render Queue panel and hand jobs to Adobe Media Encoder.
Three steps.
install.cmd instead of ./install.sh.git clone https://github.com/solomondivyananth/aftereffects-mcp.git && cd aftereffects-mcp && ./install.shWindow ▸ Extensions ▸ AE MCP Bridgeclaude mcp add after-effects -- node "$PWD/mcp/ae-mcp.js"