After Effects MCP

Panel mode — 10× to 100× faster

AE MCP ships in Standalone mode by default: every tool call launches After Effects (or aerender). It works, but each command carries the process overhead. Panel mode skips that entirely — your MCP client pipes commands straight into the live ExtendScript engine of an already-open After Effects.

Standalone (default)

· AE doesn't need to be open
· Headless renders / overnight batch
· 10–30 s overhead per command
· Full aerender API

Panel (best for live sessions)

· 50–300 ms per command
· Undo, selection, live expressions accessible
· No extra processes, no spawn
· Built for iterative conversational editing

How to enable it

1. Download the signed CEP panel from /dashboard/downloads ("After Effects MCP" section).

2. Install it with ZXP Installer. The panel shows up in After Effects under Window > Extensions > Synthetic AE MCP.

3. Open the panel and click Start bridge. The status dot turns green when it's listening.

4. Add this line to env in your claude_desktop_config.json (or your MCP client's equivalent):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "after-effects": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@synthetic-ai/ae-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "AE_MCP_LICENSE": "your-license-here",
        "AE_MCP_MODE": "panel"
      }
    }
  }
}

5. Restart your MCP client. The next tool call goes straight through the panel instead of spawning AfterFX.exe.

You can flip between the two modes anytime. While iterating with AE open, use panel mode. For an overnight batch render, remove AE_MCP_MODE=panel and you're back to Standalone.

When to use which

Use case	Recommended
Creative editing session with AE open	Panel
Overnight render queue / large batch	Standalone
CI/CD automation (build server)	Standalone
Fast conversational iteration with Claude	Panel
Live undo and selection access	Panel
Unsupervised renders that may launch AE	Standalone

Same price, same MCP, same 220+ tools

Panel mode isn't an upgrade or an add-on. It's included in your AE MCP subscription — you just choose how commands execute based on your workflow. You can have Standalone and Panel configured at the same time across MCP clients (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex) and switch when it makes sense.

Installation Your first prompt