After Effects MCP

Control Adobe After Effects through MCP using a bridge panel running inside AE. This project is optimized for practical automation workflows: effects, presets, keyframing, markers, and audio-aware tooling.

- Full composition and layer automation.
- Deep effect inspection and property editing.
- Advanced effect graph controls (temporal + spatial).
- Preset search/list/apply workflows.
- Marker and audio automation, including waveform-to-marker pipelines.
- Installed effect catalog discovery (list-available-effects).

- Edit -> Preferences -> Scripting & Expressions -> Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network

git clone https://github.com/TheLlamainator/after-effects-mcp.git cd after-effects-mcp npm install

- Window -> mcp-bridge-auto.jsx
- Keep this panel open during MCP usage.

Use an absolute path tobuild/index.js.

{ "mcpServers": { "AfterEffectsMCP": { "command": "node", "args": ["<absolute-path-to-repo>/build/index.js"] } } }

If you use an MCP-capable VS Code extension, add this server in that extension's MCP server settings.

- command:node
- args:["<absolute-path-to-repo>/build/index.js"]

{ "mcpServers": { "AfterEffectsMCP": { "command": "node", "args": ["C:\\Users\\<you>\\Documents\\Projects\\AEMCP\\build\\index.js"] } } }

- Restart VS Code.
- Open After Effects and keepWindow -> mcp-bridge-auto.jsxopen.
- Call a simple tool likeget-helporrun-scriptwithgetProjectInfo.

Edit Claude Desktop config and add the MCP server entry.

- %APPDATA%\\Claude\\claude_desktop_config.json

{ "mcpServers": { "AfterEffectsMCP": { "command": "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe", "args": [ "C:\\Users\\<you>\\Documents\\Projects\\AEMCP\\build\\index.js" ] } } }

- Fully restart Claude Desktop.
- Open AE bridge panel.
- Verify withtools/listin logs or by calling a known tool.

Configure the same server command/args in your Claude Code MCP configuration.

{ "AfterEffectsMCP": { "command": "node", "args": ["<absolute-path-to-repo>/build/index.js"] } }

- Restart Claude Code or reload MCP servers.
- Ensure After Effects is open withmcp-bridge-auto.jsxpanel running.
- Test withget-resultsafter a queued command.

flowchart LR A[AI Client<br/>VS Code / Claude Desktop / Claude Code] --> B[MCP Server<br/>build/index.js] B --> C[Bridge Files<br/>ae_command.json / ae_mcp_result.json] C --> D[After Effects Bridge Panel<br/>mcp-bridge-auto.jsx] D --> E[Adobe After Effects] E --> D D --> C C --> B B --> A

sequenceDiagram participant Client as MCP Client participant Server as MCP Server participant Bridge as AE Bridge Panel participant AE as After Effects Client->>Server: tools/call (example: apply-effect) Server->>Server: write ae_command.json Server-->>Client: queued response (or waits) Bridge->>Bridge: poll command file Bridge->>AE: execute command AE-->>Bridge: result/error Bridge->>Bridge: write ae_mcp_result.json Client->>Server: get-results Server-->>Client: final result JSON

- Start your MCP client (it starts this server).
- Keep AE bridge panel open.
- Call tools.
- If response says queued, callget-resultsafter 1-3 seconds.

Note: some AE operations finish slightly after tool timeout windows;get-resultsusually contains the final state.

- create-composition
- create-adjustment-layer
- center-layers
- get-layer-clip-frames

- apply-effect
- add-any-effect
- mcp_aftereffects_applyEffect
- apply-effect-template
- list-layer-effects
- list-available-effects
- set-effect-property
- set-effect-keyframe
- remove-effect
- apply-preset
- list-presets
- search-presets

- add-marker
- add-markers-bulk
- set-audio-levels
- get-audio-info
- analyze-audio-waveform

- test-animation
- run-bridge-test
- mcp_aftereffects_get_effects_help
- get-audio-infoon target layer.
- CopysourceFilePath.
- analyze-audio-waveformwith optionalnumPoints.
- ConvertpeakTimestomarkers[].
- add-markers-bulk.

- src/index.ts- MCP server and tool definitions
- src/scripts/mcp-bridge-auto.jsx- AE bridge panel
- install-bridge.js- bridge installer

- Runnpm run build.
- Check MCP logs for startup exceptions (for example duplicate tool registration).

- Ensure AE bridge panel is open.
- Confirm AE scripting/network permission is enabled.
- Retry and callget-resultsafter a short delay.

- Reopen bridge panel.
- Send a new command and then callget-results.

- Expected without elevated permissions.
- User AppData script paths are usually sufficient.

https://github.com/Dakkshin/after-effects-mcp

An MCP server for integrating with the Claude Desktop application on macOS. Requires the Claude Desktop app to be installed and configured.