v0.6.1

• Screenshots, contact sheets and .mogrt thumbnails work again on macOS; in 0.6.0 every screenshot failed with "Corrupt frame … no IEND chunk" (#299)
• When the system refuses access to a rendered frame, the error now says so instead of reporting a corrupt frame (#299)

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.6.1.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.6.0...v0.6.1

v0.6.0

• Render from your assistant: queue comps, render in the background with progress and cancel, while After Effects stays usable (#137)
• A render no longer refuses over missing footage on switched-off or out-of-range layers (#144)
• A render no longer risks placeholders when a project folder was moved and footage is found only relative to it (#145)
• A render saved beside the project is no longer lost with "output cannot be verified" (#215)
• Two render items with the same output file are refused up front, instead of the render quietly writing nothing (#228)
• Restore points: save a comp and revert to it, without relying on Undo (#136)
• Your assistant can see what you have selected and where the playhead is, so "this layer" and "here" just work (#179)
• Move, stretch, reverse or stagger existing keyframes, and copy animation between layers, keeping the eases (#180)
• Fill the Essential Graphics panel from the tools, with no manual drag before exporting a .mogrt (#177)
• Read the eases and timings off comps you already animated, for your style guide (#244)
• Layer and comp switches: motion blur, collapse, adjustment, guide layer, quality, frame blending, auto-orient and more (#181)
• Also from the tools now: separate dimensions, box text, keyframe flags, per-dimension eases, repeater transform and composite; gradient fills are refused with what to use instead (#181)
• Colours can be given as hex, and a mistyped property path now lists what is there (#170)
• A shorter tool list, so a session starts with less to read (#170)
• A setting a tool doesn't take is refused, instead of being ignored while the tool says done (#147)
• Every step of a batch is checked before anything runs, so a bad step can't leave a batch half-done (#157)
• create_shape_layer no longer claims to take a fill, stroke or shapes it never applied (#148)
• A track matte layer set through set_layer is now actually set (#149)
• Unknown blend mode, matte type or mask mode names are refused instead of ignored (#150)
• keyframe: true without a time is refused instead of writing a static value (#151)
• 3D rotations and orientation on a 2D layer are refused instead of dropped (#152)
• A z given to a 2D layer is refused instead of dropped behind a success; a z on a camera or light now lands (#291)
• Setting only one side of an ease no longer resets the other side (#153)
• add_text_animator no longer says ok over an empty animator (#154)
• set_mask now applies closed and tangents without needing vertices (#207)
• Deleting a comp other comps use is refused unless forced, and deleting a layer reports what it affected (#160)
• A value that landed is no longer reported as failed with "invalid numeric result" (#129)
• Screenshots no longer show dark fringes on soft edges (#130)
• Screenshots no longer flip the comp's Resolution or solo switches (#282)
• "Restart After Effects" no longer keeps appearing after you already restarted it (#156)
• An out-of-date panel is always caught, whichever panel file changed, with one message saying what to do (#243)
• The panel ships signed, so setup no longer depends on Adobe's debug setting (#182)
• setup_panel refuses while After Effects is open, so an install can't half-take (#262)
• The panel no longer opens at every After Effects launch; it runs in the background (#283)
• The tools only reach an After Effects you can see, never Premiere's hidden render engine (#288)
• Other scripts and extensions can no longer break the tools by sharing After Effects' script engine (#185)
• No After Effects dialog can freeze the tools; what it would have said comes back to your assistant (#225)
• A script's own undo-group calls can no longer break Undo (#221)
• Several sessions on one After Effects now take turns in one queue, and say who they are waiting for (#223)
• Long batches are driven by the server, and stop cleanly if the client goes away (#220)
• Calls made while After Effects is stuck come back at once instead of each timing out; "EvalScript error." is explained (#281)
• check_setup says what a busy After Effects is busy with (#266)
• cancel_job confirms the stop and keeps the partial result (#158)
• await_job fails at once on an unknown job instead of hanging for 10 minutes (#159)
• A finished batch no longer reads as running at 575/600 (#222)
• The final progress update is no longer lost (#261)
• export_mogrt can no longer raise a save dialog, and says when it saved your project (#280)
• Assorted small reliability fixes, including dropped connections reported as their own failure (#163)
• Read-only mode, and a switch to turn off running scripts (#135)
• The "turn off running scripts" setting no longer wrongly says rendering stops (#161)
• Delete, purge and revert can ask you first, in clients that support it (#245)
• A comp timeline view in clients that support MCP Apps (#246)
• Live project resources that update as the project changes (#248)
• Tools are marked read-only or destructive, for clients that show it (#165)
• Tool results use fewer tokens (#166)
• README: footage import listed correctly, uninstall steps, debug setting, plugin updates, and why claude.ai on the web and ChatGPT can't connect (#133, #174, #247)

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.6.0.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.5.2...v0.6.0

v0.5.2

• Parenting to a shape or text layer no longer makes the child jump (#120)
• Effect reads are capped at 200 parameters per effect, so heavy plugins like Trapcode Particular no longer return 1 MB in one call (#115)
• Screenshots leave at most one Undo entry instead of burying your edits (#116)
• Setting an effect parameter on non-English After Effects now explains the miss and lists the valid parameters (#121)

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.5.2.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.5.1...v0.5.2

v0.5.1

• #106 — the bridge on 127.0.0.1 took no authentication, so any web page open in your browser could reach it and run scripts inside After Effects. It now requires a token only a local process can read. The fix is in the panel: run setup_panel and restart After Effects after updating.

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.5.1.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.5.0...v0.5.1

v0.5.0

• #82 — Progress for a long run_batch now arrives while await_job waits; before, no real client ever saw it.
• #83 — delete_comp reports the solids it would leave behind, and purgeUnusedSolids: true removes them in the same undo step. New purge_unused_footage tool sweeps the project, with dryRun.
• #85 — place_audio_cues takes loop, fadeIn/fadeOut and stretch per cue.
• #87 — find_layers takes include and returns {matches, count, compsSearched, included}, a small record per match by default.
• #88 — place_audio_cues results are one small entry per cue, and dryRun no longer echoes the resolved cue list.
• #91 — check_setup reports CEP refusing the panel's signature on Windows, with the self-signing steps, instead of a restart loop.
• #92 — The server follows the panel's port on a refused call; the panel waits on a stale copy of itself instead of moving to another port.
• #93, #94 — set_text and create_text_layer read the justification back after every write and re-assert it if it moved.
• #97 — set_expression fails when After Effects cannot evaluate the expression; get_expression returns expressionError.
• #98 — The after-effects guide is a short core plus nine references opened by subject (animation, shapes, text, assembly, extendscript-gotchas, sound, mogrt-and-footage, issue-journal, whats-new).
• #99 — ae_guide({topic: "whats-new", since}) returns only the releases after that version; the absorb-release prompt applies them to a project's notes once.
• #100 — The report flow checks the tracker before drafting, sends bodies through a file, and takes one approval for all of them.
• #102 — A failed call ends with the journal entries matching it; entries merge on error text, archive themselves after 30 days or an older server version, and archive_issue retires one by hand.
• #86, #94, #95, #96, #101, #103 — Four measured After Effects facts and the craft rules projects had been keeping in their own notes are in the references.
• init_project refuses the home directory and the filesystem root however they were arrived at.
• set_house_style writes Unix line endings; on macOS every line break used to become a bare carriage return.
• check_setup under a wrong AE_MCP_PORT pin reports the pin rather than a dead panel.

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.5.0.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.4.0...v0.5.0

v0.4.0

Install — npx @engine-room/after-effects-mcp, the .mcpb below for Claude Desktop, or a signed standalone binary if you have no Node.

Upgrading — the panel ships inside every distribution and only loads at launch. Quit After Effects, run setup_panel, then reopen it; installing while it is open leaves the panel half-written.

---

Known and filed, not blocking: progress notifications arrive after the tools/call response so a spec-compliant client sees none (#82); delete_comp leaves each solid's footage item in the project (#83).

Full commit history: v0.3.1...v0.4.0

v0.3.1

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.3.1.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.3.0...v0.3.1

v0.3.0

The first release where the tools were checked against a real After Effects
session rather than only reviewed as code. Three new tools, twelve fixed
problems, and a fair amount of guidance rewritten because measuring it showed
the old advice pointed the wrong way.

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.3.0.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

New

Bring footage in. import_footage and create_footage_layer handle video,
images, audio, PSD and AI files. The import checks what After Effects actually
produced rather than trusting it: an SVG whose viewBox asks for one shape and
imports at another is a real After Effects bug that renders as nothing at all,
with no error and no warning. Those are now refused with an explanation instead
of quietly costing you an afternoon.

Send a template to Premiere. export_mogrt writes a Motion Graphics
template. It suppresses the modal dialogs that would otherwise sit there waiting
for a click — a comp using a non-Adobe font used to simply hang — and it can take
the thumbnail from any frame you name, instead of the first one, which is usually
black on anything that fades up.

Ask for less. The reading tools can now return part of a layer instead of all
of it. This matters more than it sounds: everything your assistant reads stays in
its memory for the rest of the session, so one enormous read makes it slower and
more forgetful for everything that follows. A shape rig that used to come back as
15,259 characters can now come back as 739. Anything left out is named and
counted, so a short answer never passes for a complete one.

Fixed

• Text alignment no longer drifts. Asking for left-aligned text used to
  measure the words and bake the offset in. Retype the text, or edit it in
  Premiere, and the layout jumped. It now sets real justification, so it stays
  correct however the text changes later.
• Text no longer inherits your Character panel. A layer created with no
  styling picked up whatever tracking that panel was last left on — the same
  request rendered differently on two machines. Tracking is now set explicitly.
• Screenshots can no longer lie to you. After Effects sometimes hands back a
  frame it rendered earlier — a different comp, at a different time, and it looks
  perfectly valid. Your assistant would then describe a picture of the wrong
  thing with complete confidence. Those are now caught and refused. (This one
  fired repeatedly during testing; it is not rare.)
• Screenshots of 16-bit projects work. They were being produced in a format
  many readers reject outright.
• Large comps screenshot sensibly by default, rendering smaller rather than
  full size unless you ask otherwise.
• The project list reports what things actually are. Every item in a project
  was labelled "folder" — comps, footage, solids, all of it — for two releases.
• Copying rigged layers between comps works. Anything with a parent or a
  linked expression refused to copy.
• Scripts return their whole answer. Results containing lists or nested data
  came back empty, which looks exactly like a script that did nothing — inviting
  a re-run of something that had already made its changes.
• Shape layers build in the order you'd expect, and the tools now say plainly
  that the first shape added sits on top, which is the opposite of the layer
  stack and had been silently producing solid slabs.
• A busy After Effects is no longer reported as a dead one. They have
  opposite remedies, and "restart After Effects" told to someone whose script is
  still running throws away their work for nothing.
• The panel starts. On some setups it silently never came up.
• Upgrades stop asking you to restart for nothing. The check that decides
  whether After Effects is running current code was comparing when it was
  built rather than what it contains.

Known gap

Calls can still hang while you are on another macOS desktop and recover when you
switch back. It is real but not yet understood, and the suspected fix could not
be validated — so nothing was changed on a guess. The experiment that would
settle it ships in the repo. Tracked as
#25.

Two other things worth saying plainly: Windows is built and tested on every
change, but no test machine has After Effects on it, so the Windows panel install
is the least-proven part of this. And the macOS builds are signed and notarized;
the Windows one is not, so SmartScreen may warn on first run.

Keep each downloaded folder together — the After Effects panel ships alongside
the executable.

Full changelog: v0.2.1...v0.3.0

v0.2.1

Install

Claude Desktop — download after-effects-mcp-0.2.1.mcpb below and open it. Nothing else to install.

Any other MCP client — either npx -y @engine-room/after-effects-mcp if you have Node 22+, or download the
standalone build for your machine below and point your client at the executable inside it.

Then open After Effects and ask your assistant to set up After Effects.

Notes

The macOS builds are signed and notarized. The Windows build is unsigned — SmartScreen may warn on first run.
Keep each downloaded folder together: the After Effects panel ships alongside the executable.

Full changelog: v0.2.0...v0.2.1