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after-effects-mcp

Control Adobe After Effects: run ExtendScript, render in the background and inspect comps and layers, with Arabic/RTL and multilingual support.

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About this tool

Purpose

after-effects-mcp is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for controlling Adobe After Effects from any MCP client (such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop) via natural language. It can create and inspect compositions and layers, animate, apply effects and presets, manage masks/cameras, render in the background, and run arbitrary ExtendScript, while providing Arabic/RTL-first support, and the tools work on After Effects in any UI language.

This version is an enhanced version, built on the original work of Dakkshin/after-effects-mcp, see CREDITS.md for details.

Main capabilities

  • A total of 57 tools (the official text also contains the wording "47 tools", the repository's actual state shall prevail).
  • Inspection and diagnostics: see-frame, contact-sheet, match-reference, inspect-comp, inspect-layer, get-results, check-bridge, run-bridge-test, get-help.
  • Compositions and layers: create-composition, set-composition-properties, create-text-layer, localize-comp, create-camera, create-adjustment-layer, duplicate-layer, delete-layer, center-layers, set-layer-mask, batch-set-layer-properties, set-layer-parent, reorder-layer, precompose-layers, populate-template.
  • Animation: setLayerKeyframe, setLayerExpression, get-layer-clip-frames, animate-to-audio, animate-from-data.
  • Effects: apply-effect, add-any-effect, apply-effect-template, list-layer-effects, list-available-effects, set-effect-property, set-effect-keyframe, remove-effect, mcp_aftereffects_get_effects_help.
  • Presets: list-presets, search-presets, apply-preset.
  • Audio and markers: get-audio-info, set-audio-levels, analyze-audio-waveform, add-marker, add-markers-bulk.
  • Project assets: import-footage, list-project-items, relink-footage.
  • Rendering: add-to-render-queue, render-queue, start-render, render-aerender, render-status.
  • Advanced: execute-script (arbitrary ExtendScript), run-script, test-animation.
  • Project/composition overview can also use run-script with getProjectInfo / listCompositions.

For the complete reference see docs/TOOLS.md (all 57 tools) and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md (how the bridge works).

How to use

Prerequisites

  • Adobe After Effects 2022 or later.
  • Windows or macOS. After Effects itself runs only on these two platforms, so the server should run on the same machine as After Effects. The Node process can start on Linux, and CI also builds and tests on Linux, but there is no After Effects available for it to drive.
  • Node.js 18+ (https://nodejs.org）。
  • An MCP client (for example Claude Code: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code).

In After Effects

  1. Enable scripts: On Windows, Edit > Preferences > Scripting & Expressions; on macOS, After Effects > Settings > Scripting & Expressions, enable "Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network".
  2. Restart After Effects.
  3. Window > mcp-bridge-auto.jsx, keep this panel open.

Register the server

Register the server with your MCP client.

First test

Ask the client to "check the After Effects bridge". It should report bridgeVersion: 1.13.0-mcp-enhanced and versionMatch: true.

After modifications

If you edited the server, rerun npm run build, then restart the MCP client. If you edited the bridge, also rerun npm run install-bridge and restart After Effects.

Use cases

  • Create, inspect, and modify compositions and layers in After Effects through natural language.
  • Create animations, apply effects and presets, manage masks and cameras.
  • Background rendering and render queue management.
  • Run arbitrary ExtendScript for custom automation.
  • Arabic/RTL and multilingual text processing.

Limitations

  • Requires Adobe After Effects 2022 or later, and only supports Windows or macOS; the server must run on the same machine as After Effects.
  • Requires Node.js 18+ and an MCP client.
  • You need to enable permission for scripts to write files and access the network in After Effects, and keep the mcp-bridge-auto.jsx panel open.
  • Full Arabic glyph shaping requires enabling the Middle-Eastern text engine in After Effects (Windows: Preferences > Type; macOS: Settings > Type), and using a font that supports Arabic (such as Tahoma, Cairo).
  • If timeouts or exceptions occur, first check the After Effects bridge; if versions do not match, rerun npm run install-bridge and restart After Effects; stale result files are usually because the panel is not running or cannot write files.
  • In a Windows + OneDrive environment, the shared folder is %LOCALAPPDATA%\ae-mcp-bridge (to prevent OneDrive interference); the AE_MCP_BRIDGE_DIR environment variable can be used to override both ends.
  • The pure logic is located in src/lib/bridge-core.ts, and the unit tests are in tests/bridge-core.test.ts. CI performs type checking and builds on Linux, macOS, and Windows for Node 18, 20, and 22, and runs the test suite on Node 20 and 22 (Vitest 4 requires Node 20+).

License

MIT License. Original work © 2025 Dakkshin; enhanced multilingual version © 2026 Abdelrahman Youssef. See LICENSE and CREDITS.md for details.

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