Adobe MCP Servers (Rust)

Rust-based MCP servers and Adobe host bridge panels for LLM-driven local automation.

This repository was renamed from after-effects-mcp-rs to adobe-mcp-rs so the project can grow beyond After Effects. The current codebase contains the most complete implementation for After Effects, plus experimental Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign paths.

• Japanese: README-ja.md

Status

Last synchronized with the code on 2026-07-15.

Host app	Binary	Bridge runtime	Status	Current boundary
After Effects	ae-mcp	Startup / ExtendScript JSX	Primary	Uses a headless Startup bootstrap and the serve-daemon broker
Premiere Pro	pr-mcp	UXP 25.6+, CEP / ExtendScript 24.0+ fallback	Experimental	Initial sequence/export surface; serve-daemon broker required
Photoshop	ps-mcp	UXP 23.3+ (API v2)	Experimental	Initial generic execution and read-only document/layer surface
Illustrator	ai-mcp	CEP / ExtendScript 24.0+ (CSXS 10)	Experimental	Initial document/artboard/layer/export surface; runtime packaging needs validation
InDesign	id-mcp	UXP Startup Script 18.5+ PoC	Experimental	Panel-free raw app.doScript and document/page/story reads; real-host verification required

Primary means the default operational path is implemented. Experimental means a binary, bridge, and minimal MCP surface exist, but real-host E2E, packaging, runtime compatibility, or broker/service parity still needs hardening. Planned is reserved for hosts without a usable binary-and-bridge pair. See the host status source of truth for the full criteria, runtime constraints, and verification procedure.

Current Architecture

The workspace is split into reusable Rust crates and host-specific binaries:

Path	Role
crates/ae-mcp	After Effects CLI, MCP stdio server, daemon, and bridge commands
crates/pr-mcp	Premiere Pro CLI and MCP stdio server
crates/ps-mcp	Photoshop CLI and MCP stdio server
crates/ai-core	Illustrator tool specs, prompts, and allowlisted script names
crates/ai-mcp	Illustrator CLI and MCP stdio server
crates/id-core	InDesign raw-first tool specs and allowlisted read templates
crates/id-mcp	InDesign CLI and MCP stdio server
crates/mcp-core	Shared config, MCP tool/prompt specs, bridge path defaults
crates/bridge-core	File bridge client, instance discovery, request registry, result retention
crates/daemon-core	Shared TCP broker/client, per-instance scheduler, global-exclusive gate
crates/platform-service	Windows current-user autostart and macOS launchd helpers
crates/pr-core	Premiere Pro tool specs, prompts, and allowlisted script names
crates/ps-core	Photoshop tool specs, help text, and allowlisted script names
src/scripts	After Effects JSX bridge and helper scripts
src/premiere/uxp	Premiere Pro UXP bridge panel
src/premiere/cep	Legacy Premiere Pro CEP bridge fallback
src/photoshop/uxp	Photoshop UXP bridge panel
src/illustrator/cep	Illustrator CEP / ExtendScript bridge panel
src/indesign/uxp	InDesign UXP Startup Script bridge

All five binaries use the same local TCP broker model: serve-stdio proxies normal MCP execution to serve-daemon, which routes file-bridge commands to instances/<instanceId>/ and retains results by requestId. Jobs are FIFO within one instance, may run in parallel on separate instances, and can request a host-wide global-exclusive gate.

Default loopback addresses are host-specific: After Effects 127.0.0.1:47655, Premiere Pro :47656, Photoshop :47657, Illustrator :47658, and InDesign :47659. daemon_addr in a host-specific config can override the default. The root command/result files and each binary's bridge CLI remain available only for compatibility and diagnostics; they are not the normal MCP transport. See ADR 0001.

Setup

Prerequisites:

• Rust stable and Cargo
• The Adobe host app you want to automate
• For UXP bridges, Adobe UXP Developer Tool and host developer mode where required

Build all Rust binaries:

cargo build --release

Build one host binary:

cargo build --release -p ae-mcp
cargo build --release -p pr-mcp
cargo build --release -p ps-mcp
cargo build --release -p ai-mcp
cargo build --release -p id-mcp

After Effects

Install the headless bridge runtime and Startup bootstrap:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\install-bridge.ps1

bash ./scripts/install-bridge.sh

In After Effects:

1. Enable Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network.
2. Restart After Effects.

The repository bridge is designed to start from Scripts/Startup without opening a panel or enabling an Auto-run checkbox. This headless lifecycle still requires real-host validation across supported AE versions; see After Effects bridge lifecycle.

Run the broker:

.\target\release\ae-mcp.exe serve-daemon

Register the MCP server:

codex mcp add aftereffects -- "<ABSOLUTE_PATH>\target\release\ae-mcp.exe" serve-stdio

Premiere Pro

Build the binary:

cargo build --release -p pr-mcp

Load the UXP bridge from src/premiere/uxp/mcp-bridge-premiere with Adobe UXP Developer Tool, then open Window > UXP Plugins > Premiere MCP Bridge in Premiere Pro and enable Auto-run commands.

Start pr-mcp serve-daemon before registering or using the MCP server.

Register the MCP server:

codex mcp add premiere -- "<ABSOLUTE_PATH>\target\release\pr-mcp.exe" serve-stdio

Photoshop

Build the binary:

cargo build --release -p ps-mcp

Load the UXP bridge from src/photoshop/uxp/mcp-bridge-photoshop with Adobe UXP Developer Tool, then open Photoshop MCP Bridge from the Photoshop Plugins menu and keep Auto-run commands enabled.

Start ps-mcp serve-daemon before registering or using the MCP server.

Register the MCP server:

codex mcp add photoshop -- "<ABSOLUTE_PATH>\target\release\ps-mcp.exe" serve-stdio

Illustrator

Build the binary:

cargo build --release -p ai-mcp

Install or copy src/illustrator/cep/mcp-bridge-illustrator into a CEP extensions directory, then open Window > Extensions > Illustrator MCP Bridge in Illustrator and enable Auto-run commands.

Start ai-mcp serve-daemon before registering or using the MCP server.

Register the MCP server:

codex mcp add illustrator -- "<ABSOLUTE_PATH>\target\release\ai-mcp.exe" serve-stdio

InDesign

Build id-mcp, copy src/indesign/uxp/mcp-bridge-indesign.idjs into the installed InDesign version's Scripts/Startup Scripts folder, restart InDesign, and start id-mcp serve-daemon. The repository design has no panel or Auto-run toggle, but Startup Script persistence remains a real-host PoC gate.

The raw-first run-script surface uses InDesign's documented app.doScript String input instead of eval/Function. Inline and file sources are synchronous function bodies that receive args and return a value, not general top-level .idjs programs; top-level await and caller-owned script.setResult are unsupported. This is a real-host-unverified PoC; see InDesign MCP PoC and E2E gate before relying on it for production documents.

codex mcp add indesign -- "<ABSOLUTE_PATH>\target\release\id-mcp.exe" serve-stdio

Quick Validation

After Effects:

.\target\release\ae-mcp.exe health
.\target\release\ae-mcp.exe serve-daemon

In another terminal:

'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list-ae-instances","arguments":{}}}' | .\target\release\ae-mcp.exe serve-stdio

Premiere Pro:

.\target\release\pr-mcp.exe health
.\target\release\pr-mcp.exe serve-daemon

In another terminal:

'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list-premiere-instances","arguments":{}}}' | .\target\release\pr-mcp.exe serve-stdio

Photoshop:

.\target\release\ps-mcp.exe health
.\target\release\ps-mcp.exe serve-daemon

In another terminal:

'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list-photoshop-instances","arguments":{}}}' | .\target\release\ps-mcp.exe serve-stdio

Illustrator:

.\target\release\ai-mcp.exe health
.\target\release\ai-mcp.exe serve-daemon

In another terminal:

'{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"list-illustrator-instances","arguments":{}}}' | .\target\release\ai-mcp.exe serve-stdio

MCP Tool Surface

After Effects currently exposes:

• run-jsx
• run-jsx-file
• get-jsx-result
• list-ae-instances
• get-results
• get-help
• save-frame-png
• cleanup-preview-folder
• run-bridge-test

This nine-tool list is the complete After Effects public contract returned by tools/list. Historical names such as run-script, create-composition, effect helpers, render-queue helpers, and project lifecycle helpers remain accepted only by hidden compatibility dispatch. A legacy call includes a deprecation notice and its public replacement; prompts and setup instructions do not depend on hidden names.

run-script is intentionally not republished. Its allowlist remains useful for old clients, but its asynchronous direct-file behavior does not match the synchronous daemon-backed public contract. New host-specific operations should use explicit run-jsx calls (mode: "unsafe"). The aftereffects://compositions resource and every operation named by an After Effects prompt use the daemon broker; prompts themselves only return reusable instructions.

Premiere Pro currently exposes:

• run-jsx
• run-jsx-file
• run-script
• get-jsx-result
• get-results
• get-help
• list-premiere-instances
• run-bridge-test

Photoshop currently exposes:

• run-jsx
• run-jsx-file
• run-script
• get-jsx-result
• get-results
• get-help
• list-photoshop-instances
• run-bridge-test

Illustrator currently exposes:

• run-jsx
• run-jsx-file
• run-script
• get-jsx-result
• get-results
• get-help
• list-illustrator-instances
• run-bridge-test

For arbitrary code execution, pass mode: "unsafe" and a short description. unsafe does not mean sandboxed: host-side JavaScript/JSX runs with the Adobe host's authority. See the run-jsx-file trust policy for allowed roots, trusted path/hash entries, extensions, migration behavior, and retained audit metadata.

Expansion Plan

The public API follows a raw-script-first direction. When an LLM can compose the host JavaScript/JSX directly, generic script execution, structured input, recipes, and result recovery take priority over one Tool per operation. Static deletion detection and confirmation can reduce accidents but do not create a sandbox, so they are described as risk policies rather than a "safe mode." See the capability matrix for the host comparison, proposed schemas, guard limitations, and Tool admission criteria.

1. Done: Extract host metadata into HostSpec.
2. Done: Normalize the bridge protocol and retained request records across hosts.
3. Done: Share the daemon-core broker model across all five binaries; keep direct file bridge only for compatibility and diagnostics.
4. Introduce a common script contract, capability reporting, payload limits, and explicitly non-sandboxed risk preflight in phases.
5. Validate and harden the InDesign UXP Startup Script PoC and After Effects automatic-start/reconnect PoC on real hosts.
6. Harden Photoshop write/modal/export and Illustrator export/packaging behavior against real host versions.

Detailed notes are in docs/adobe-host-roadmap.md.

Worktree Workflow

The repository container keeps the bare Git data, the main checkout, and issue worktrees separate:

Documents/GitHub/adobe-mcp-rs/
  .repo.git/          # central bare repository
  main/               # main worktree
  worktrees/          # issue/feature worktrees

Useful commands:

cd .\main
git worktree list
git worktree add ..\worktrees\issue-123 -b codex/issue-123 main
git worktree remove ..\worktrees\issue-123

See docs/worktree.md for the local workflow notes.

Docs

• Adobe host roadmap
• Adobe host capability matrix and raw-script-first policy
• After Effects MCP public surface
• Worktree workflow
• Codex MCP setup
• Operations runbook
• Bridge contract and Adobe host smoke testing
• InDesign MCP PoC and E2E gate
• Installer E2E guide
• Release checklist
• Rust migration specification
• TS to Rust migration guide

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.