AE-MCP-IMT + SKILLS — After Effects for AI agents, built to be safe to hand over

Let an AI assistant (Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, Google Antigravity or any MCP client) work inside your running Adobe After Effects: read the project, build and edit comps, layers, effects, keyframes, text, masks and expressions, render check frames — from plain language.

Two parts, made to work together:

• The MCP server — ~270 small, safe operations behind two tools, with a dry run, one undo group per call, checkpoints, a project lock and honest errors.
• The skill (skills/ae) — what the agent should know: the order of work, what a script cannot do in After Effects and how to get around it safely, step-by-step recipes (camera tracking, 3D content on footage, plug-in tests, render, motion graphics, masks), and plug-in knowledge files.

By Immersive Media Technologies — the After Effects layer of our Deep Artisan agent system, released for other agent builders.

macOS and Windows · After Effects 2024–2026 (26.5 verified on both, English and Russian UI) · Node.js 22+ (none needed with the Claude Desktop extension — verified on macOS and on the Windows Store build of Claude Desktop).

[!CAUTION] This edits real After Effects projects and sends project contents (names, expressions, footage paths, rendered previews) to the AI service you use. Work on a copy, check your provider's data policy for NDA work, and keep AE_MCP_ENABLE_EVAL off unless you need raw scripting.

What you can ask for

• "Point out anything broken in this project — missing footage, fonts, expression errors."
• "Add a glow to every text layer in Intro, 30 % lighter than now, and show me frame 2.0."
• "Import this Illustrator file and animate the title with the text-pop preset."
• "Track the camera on this clip, put a 3D null on the floor and parent the logo to it." (skill)
• "Here is a reference frame: build this lower third natively, with a Speed slider and the texts in Essential Graphics." (skill)
• "Test this plug-in on a solid, dump its parameters, render a frame and tell me if it works." (skill)

The agent combines the operations itself and checks the project between steps; the skill keeps it on the rails.

Install

You need After Effects running on this computer and two permissions:

• macOS — Automation: the first call asks whether your AI client may control After Effects (a refusal shows up later as error −1743: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation).
• Scripting file access: After Effects → Settings → Scripting & Expressions → Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network.

| Client | How | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Claude Desktop | download aftereffects-mcp-imt.mcpb, double-click, Install (Windows: drag it onto Settings → Extensions). No Node needed. | | Cursor | | | Google Antigravity | Settings → Customizations → Installed MCP Servers → View raw config → add the snippet below. | | ChatGPT (remote servers only) | on the After Effects machine: npx -p @immersive-media-technologies/aftereffects-mcp-imt aftereffects-mcp-imt-chatgpt — it starts the server behind a tunnel and prints the URL to paste into ChatGPT. | | Any MCP client | the snippet below in its mcpServers. |

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aftereffects": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@immersive-media-technologies/aftereffects-mcp-imt"],
      "env": { "MCP_TIMEOUT": "120000" }
    }
  }
}

From source, with a live self-test (the route we use):

git clone https://github.com/Immersive-Media-Technologies/aftereffects-mcp-imt.git
cd aftereffects-mcp-imt && ./install.sh        # Windows: .\install.ps1

The installer checks After Effects and Node, builds, pings the running AE, names what is wrong (−1743, scripting access, Node path) and — after asking — writes the entry into Claude Desktop's, Cursor's and Antigravity's configs, backing them up.

• spawn npx ENOENT on macOS: GUI apps do not see your shell PATH — put the absolute path of a Node from Homebrew or nodejs.org in place of npx (nvm's Node is invisible to them).
• Set MCP_TIMEOUT to 120000: a cold After Effects start does not fit the default 30 s.
• A timeout with a DIALOG_OPEN message: After Effects is showing a dialog (save prompt, missing footage, a plug-in warning) — the error quotes it; the agent can close it with ae_dialogs or you click it away. On macOS reading and closing dialogs needs Accessibility permission for the client app.
• Windows: AE_MCP_EXE must point to AfterFX.exe when After Effects is not under C:\Program Files\Adobe. No supported GPU (a VM): dismiss the «System Compatibility Report» first. The .mcpb needs no Node.js on the machine — Claude Desktop runs it on its built-in Node (verified with the Microsoft Store build on Windows 11 ARM). Server log: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude\logs\mcp-server-<name>.log; mailbox: %TEMP%\mcp-aftereffects.
• If your client caps tool output, raise it to 50 000 — ae_project_info on a real project is bigger than the usual 25 000.

How it stays safe

| | | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Dry run | ae_do {dryRun: true} shows the ExtendScript that would run and never touches After Effects. | | One undo group per call | every ae_do — even a 30-step batch.run — is one Cmd+Z. batch.run {atomic: true} undoes itself when a step fails and says so (rollback.verified). | | Checkpoints | project.checkpoint keeps a copy of the .aep next to the project; project.revert brings it back after a crash, a relaunch or a bad idea — things undo cannot do. | | Project lock | AE_MCP_PROJECT_LOCK=/path/to/one.aep — the agent may change only that project; your other open work is untouchable. | | Read-only mode | AE_MCP_READONLY=1 for a first session: inspection and check frames only. | | Honest errors | every failure has a code (DIALOG_OPEN, TIMEOUT, INVALID_ARGS, OPERATION_FAILED …) and a hint; a batch reports which step failed. | | Nothing installed inside AE | the server talks to After Effects from outside (osascript / AfterFX.exe -r); uninstall = delete the folder. |

What to forbid on the client side, if you gate at all: what Cmd+Z cannot revert — eval.run, project.new / open / revert, the purge/consolidate operations, pref.*, render.start. The list and a reference implementation are in docs/AGENT-POLICY.md.

How the agent sees the project

• ae_project_info / ae_comp_info / ae_layer_info — the full picture when needed.
• comp.snapshot → edit → comp.diff — a cheap fingerprint before and after: which layers were added, removed or changed, and in what. Verification in a few dozen tokens.
• ae_render_frame — a PNG the agent can look at; compareWith an earlier frame answers "did the picture change, and where" without opening the image.
• property.sample — a camera's position / orientation / zoom at start, middle and end in one call; expression.validate and project.audit — errors before the user hits play.

The skill

skills/ae/SKILL.md is a short router the agent reads first; it points to the one file the task needs:

| | | | ---------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | SKILL.md | the call budget (what made a live plug-in test cost 76 calls an hour — and how not to), the order of work (know the state → checkpoint → operate → verify by values, then by frame), and a table of what a script cannot do in After Effects with the safe workaround for each. | | recipes/camera-track.md | 3D Camera Tracker end to end: start the analysis from the menu, wait in one call, press «Create Camera» with a real click (a synthetic click crashed AE 26.5), set the ground plane, read the camera back as numbers. | | recipes/attach-3d.md | put a splat, a model or a solid on tracked footage: null at the origin, parent or expressions, scale, and a script that measures slide in pixels instead of eyeballing it. | | recipes/plugin-test.md | test a third-party plug-in: inspect the files before installing, apply on a solid, dump parameters by matchName, feed it a model layer, render, time it, write the verdict. | | recipes/render.md | frames, segment renders, templates on a localized AE, where files go. | | recipes/motion-graphics.md | titles, lower thirds, logo stings, infographics as an editable AE comp: breakdown table, CONTROLS rig, real easing, Essential Graphics, a frame per phase. | | recipes/masks-roto.md, recipes/tracking-mocha.md | masks and track mattes, Object Matte / Roto Brush, the Tracker panel and Mocha — what to script, what the user clicks. | | plugins/<name>.md | one knowledge file per plug-in (matchNames, how it takes input, what is UI-only, quirks, timing). First: irrealix Gaussian Splatting. Template in plugins/README.md. | | scripts/ | only the UI steps no script can do: hardware-level mouse events, window and display geometry, menu clicks by localized name, dialogs, a one-call wait for an analysis, screenshots, a frame strip, the slide measurement. No script duplicates a server operation. |

Use it as a skill in clients that support them (copy skills/ae into ~/.claude/skills/, or point your system prompt at SKILL.md). The motion-graphics recipe routes to topic references from five open MIT skill sets; they are fetched, not bundled — run skills/ae/fetch-vendor.sh once.

Tools

| Tool | Purpose | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ae_catalog / ae_do | discover the operations (24 categories) and run one — or several in one batch.run | | ae_project_info / ae_comp_info / ae_layer_info / ae_version_info / ae_context | read | | ae_render_frame | one frame as PNG (viewer-accurate colour; compareWith for metrics) | | ae_save_project, ae_project_export_json / ae_project_import_json | save; whole-project JSON round trip | | ae_dialogs | see and dismiss the modal dialogs that block scripting |

Full list with parameters: docs/TOOLS.md; the operations are listed by ae_catalog at runtime.

| Variable | Default | Meaning | | ------------------------- | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | | AE_MCP_EXE | auto-detect | the After Effects .app bundle (macOS) or AfterFX.exe (Windows) | | AE_MCP_READONLY | off | 1 → nothing may modify the project | | AE_MCP_PROJECT_LOCK | off | path of the one .aep the agent may change | | AE_MCP_CHECKPOINT_DIR | next to the project | where project.checkpoint keeps its copies | | AE_MCP_ENABLE_EVAL | off | 1 → eval.run (arbitrary ExtendScript) becomes available | | AE_MCP_ALLOW_CATEGORIES | all | comma-separated allow-list of operation categories | | AE_MCP_RUNTIME_DIR | OS temp | where the IPC mailbox lives | | MCP_TIMEOUT | client | set 120000 in the client config |

Why this one

There are several After Effects MCP servers; most stop at "the AI can run ExtendScript". This one is built around what an autonomous agent needs — and what the person handing over a project needs: a small stable tool surface (two tools instead of 270), a real dry run, undo-safe operations, checkpoints and a project lock, honest errors, an installer that says what is wrong, and a skill that teaches the agent the parts of After Effects no API covers. Verified on AE 2026, macOS and Windows, English and Russian UI.

Releases

Each version is described on the Releases page; every change is in CHANGELOG.md. Upstream fixes are merged from kumoproductions/mcp-aftereffects by topic.

• v0.5.5 · 2026-10-11 — the After Effects skill (skills/ae), checkpoints + revert, atomic batches, comp snapshot/diff, expression validation, project audit, dialog detection, project lock, frame compare.
• v0.4.4 · 2026-10-04 — Windows: Claude Desktop from the Microsoft Store.
• v0.4.3 · 2026-10-04 — Windows verified (AfterFX.exe -r launch path).
• v0.4.2 · 2026-10-01 — ChatGPT gateway fix; v0.4.1 — ChatGPT in one command; v0.4.0 — one-click installs (.mcpb, Cursor, npm, installers).
• v0.3.5 · 2026-09-30 — the AE Motion skill; v0.3.0 — first public release of the IMT fork.

A note for contributors: the offline transport tests (npm test) expect After Effects to be closed on macOS — with it open the live AE answers the stand-in requests and a few of them fail.

License

IMT Non-Commercial License — © Immersive Media Technologies.

• Non-commercial use only. Selling this software, offering it as or inside a paid product or service, or using it in commercial client work requires a separate written license.
• Attribution is mandatory. Every use, copy, fork or derived product must credit the creator, visibly to its users: AE-MCP-IMT by Immersive Media Technologies — https://github.com/Immersive-Media-Technologies.
• No warranty.

Full terms: LICENSE. Third-party notices (upstream MIT code, vendored skill sets): THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.