AE Agent
Troubleshooting
Most issues come down to After Effects not being restarted, the wrong tool being installed, or a slow provider. Here are the common ones and how to fix them.
The panel doesn't appear
After installing the extension, the panel only loads on startup. Fully quit After Effects (not just the project) and reopen it, then check:
Window → Extensions → AE Agent
.zxp installed without errors. Reinstall with ZXP Installer if needed.After Effects not connected (red dot)
The top bar shows a status dot. Green means AE Agent is connected to After Effects; red means it isn't. A red dot almost always means After Effects isn't open or fully ready — make sure AE is running with a project open, then restart the panel if it doesn't turn green.
CLI not detected (subscription)
If AE Agent can't find your subscription CLI, the most common cause is that the desktop app is installed but the CLI is not.
npm (for example npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code), sign in once via the browser OAuth flow, then re-open the model picker.See Connecting a provider for the full install steps.
The model timed out
CLI subscriptions are slower than direct API calls, especially the Gemini subscription on long multi-step Agent tasks. If a request times out, click Retry, or switch to an API-key model for that task — API keys are generally the fastest path for heavy Agent work.
Models disappear on reload
Detected local or subscription models sometimes vanished after reloading the panel. This is fixed in the latest version. Update the extension, and if the list still looks empty click Re-check in the model picker to re-detect them.
License issues
If your license won't validate, confirm the key is entered exactly (no extra spaces), that the plan is active, and that you're within your device limit. You can review and manage keys at synthetic.com.ar/dashboard/licenses. See Activating your license for details.