Tools

147 tools in 24 families: 40 always on, the rest in skills that load on demand. The names, descriptions and schemas are generated from the server itself, so they are exactly what the model receives in tools/list.

Skills load with ae_enable_skill, or through find_tool for the tools a search returns. A loaded skill stays loaded until ae_disable_skill, unless SNAIL_MCP_AFTEREFFECTS_SKILL_IDLE_MINUTES unloads idle ones; farm stays while a render job runs. The table shows the first sentence of each description.

Tool Family Skill What it does
ae_diagnose Diagnostics and the bridge — Health of this server and of the link into After Effects: the server version, whether After Effects has connected, the port the bridge dials, where the token…
ae_install_bridge Diagnostics and the bridge — Install the bridge this server ships into After Effects' user scripts folder (Startup runs it on every launch) and, when After Effects is running, start it t…
ae_skills Skills — The skills this server can load — groups of tools for animation, text, shapes, effects, 3D, compositing, rendering — with which are loaded and the tools each…
ae_enable_skill Skills — Load a skill: its tools join the tool list at once, and the client is told the list changed.
ae_disable_skill Skills — Unload a skill, taking its tools out of the list.
find_tool Finding a tool — Find the tool for a task across every skill, loaded or not, by saying what you want in English words.
run_program Programs — Run a small JavaScript program here on the server that calls the bridge commands itself — ae.layer_add({...}), ae.property_set({...}) — with loops and the re…
ae_undo Undo, menu commands, sequences and scripts — Undo the last steps in After Effects; every tool call is one step, run_tools is one step for its whole list.
ae_redo Undo, menu commands, sequences and scripts — Redo steps undone with ae_undo; the answer says it was asked for.
ae_run_menu_command Undo, menu commands, sequences and scripts — Run any command of After Effects' menus, by its name in After Effects' language or by its numeric id, on the current selection: ae_select_layers chooses the …
run_tools Undo, menu commands, sequences and scripts — Run a list of bridge commands in one call and one undo step: each step names a command — the tool name without ae_, parameters in snake_case as the bridge re…
ae_script Undo, menu commands, sequences and scripts — Run ExtendScript inside After Effects for what no tool reaches.
ae_project_info Project and items — The open project: its file, whether it has unsaved changes, how many compositions, footage items and folders it holds, the active item and the selection.
ae_project_new Project and items — Start a new empty project.
ae_project_open Project and items — Open a project file, replacing the open one.
ae_project_save Project and items — Save the project in place, or under the path given; the folder is created when it does not exist.
ae_project_close Project and items — Close the project and leave After Effects with a new empty one.
ae_list_items Project and items — The items of the project panel — compositions, footage and folders — with ids, sizes, durations and, for footage, the file and whether it is missing.
ae_item_info Project and items — Everything about one item: a composition's settings and its layer list, a footage item's source, a folder's children, and the compositions the item is used in.
ae_item_update Project and items — Rename an item, change its comment or label colour, or move it into a folder.
ae_item_remove Project and items — Delete an item from the project.
ae_folder_create Project and items — Create a folder in the project panel, at the root or inside another folder.
ae_import_file Project and items — Import a file into the project: video, audio, a still, an image sequence, a layered .psd or .ai as a composition, or another .aep merged in.
ae_create_comp Compositions — Create a composition with a size, duration and frame rate; 1920×1080 at 30 fps for 10 seconds unless told otherwise.
ae_update_comp Compositions — Change a composition's settings: name, size, duration, frame rate, pixel aspect, background colour, current time, work area, motion blur and shutter angle, s…
ae_duplicate_comp Compositions — Duplicate a composition, optionally under a new name; the layers keep pointing at the same footage and nested compositions.
ae_open_comp Compositions — Open a composition in the viewer so the user sees it, and set its current time; later calls that name no composition work on it.
ae_list_layers Layers — The layers of a composition from top to bottom with index, kind, switches, in and out points, parent and source; filter by kind or name.
ae_layer_info Layers — Everything about one layer: kind, switches, timing, parent, blending mode, transform values with which of them are animated, effects, mask count, and the tex…
ae_add_layer Layers — Add a layer to a composition: a solid, null or adjustment layer, a text layer (a box when width and height are given), an empty shape layer, a camera or ligh…
ae_update_layer Layers — Change a layer's switches and timing: name, video, solo, shy, lock, in and out points, start time, stretch, parent, blending mode, 3D, motion blur, adjustmen…
ae_transform_layer Layers — Set a layer's anchor point, position, scale, rotation, opacity and, for 3D layers, orientation and X/Y rotation.
ae_remove_layers Layers — Delete one or more layers from a composition; the footage they used stays in the project.
ae_duplicate_layer Layers — Duplicate a layer right above the original, with its effects, masks and keyframes, optionally under a new name.
ae_move_layer Layers — Move a layer to an index, to the top or bottom, or right above or below another layer.
ae_select_layers Layers — Select layers in the timeline, which is what menu commands and the user's next action act on.
ae_property_tree Properties — The property tree of a layer, which is where everything After Effects animates lives: Transform, Effects and their parameters, Masks, Text, Material Options,…
ae_get_property Properties — One property by path: its value at a time, type, limits, keyframe count, expression and expression error.
ae_set_property Properties — Set any property of a layer by path: transform values, effect parameters, mask settings, text (a string or an object with font, size and colours), shapes, ma…
ae_capture_frame Pictures — A frame of a composition as a picture, scaled to width and laid over the composition's background colour (After Effects renders the background as transparenc…
ae_list_keyframes Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Every keyframe of a property: time, value, interpolation on each side, ease (speed and influence), and for spatial properties the tangents and roving.
ae_set_keyframes Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Set keyframes on a property in one call: a list of {time, value} pairs, each optionally with its own easing, plus a preset or interpolation, influence and sp…
ae_remove_keyframes Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Remove keyframes of a property: the ones at the indices or times given, or all of them when neither is.
ae_ease_keyframes Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Change the interpolation and ease of existing keyframes: a preset as the Animation menu offers them, or interpolation per side with influence (percent) and s…
ae_separate_dimensions Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Separate the dimensions of a position or another multi-dimensional property, so each axis has keyframes of its own, or join them again; the answer names the …
ae_set_expression Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Put an expression on a property and check it compiles: a broken expression is reported with After Effects' own error message and not left on the property, so…
ae_list_markers Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation The markers of a composition, or of a layer when one is named: time, comment, duration, label, chapter, URL, cue point name and, for composition markers, whe…
ae_set_marker Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Add a marker on the composition, or on a layer when one is named, at a time with a comment and optional duration, label, chapter, URL, frame target and cue p…
ae_remove_markers Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Remove markers of the composition, or of a layer when one is named: those at the indices or times given, or all of them.
ae_time_remap Keyframes, expressions, markers and time remapping animation Time remapping of a footage or nested composition layer: switch it on, which puts keys at the layer's start and end, and set the keys that map composition ti…
ae_text_info Text text Everything about a text layer: the document with its text, font, size, colours, character and paragraph settings, whether it is point or box text, its paragr…
ae_text_style Text text Style a text layer: the text itself, the font (by PostScript name, or by family and style as ae_text_fonts lists them), size, fill and stroke, justification,…
ae_text_layout Text text Paragraph and box settings of a text layer: direction, leading type, composer engine, digit set, hyphenation, hanging punctuation, start and end indents, lin…
ae_text_fonts Text text The fonts installed on this machine as After Effects sees them: family, style and PostScript name, with a query to narrow the list, or only one font by PostS…
ae_add_text_animator Text text Add a text animator to a text layer: the properties it animates (opacity, position, scale, tracking, fill colour and the rest, with their values) and a selec…
ae_update_text_animator Text text Change a text animator: rename, switch on or off, add or set properties, change its selector or add another one.
ae_remove_text_animator Text text Remove a text animator, or only one of its properties or selectors when one is named.
ae_text_path Text text Run the text of a layer along one of its masks, or take it off the path: which mask, reversed, perpendicular to the path, forced alignment, and the first and…
ae_shape_contents Shape layers and masks shapes The contents of a shape layer as a tree: groups with their transform, the shapes (rectangle, ellipse, star, path), the paint (fill, stroke, gradients) and th…
ae_add_shape Shape layers and masks shapes Add an item to a shape layer: a group, a rectangle, ellipse, star or path, a fill or stroke, or an operator, into the layer's contents or a group, with its s…
ae_update_shape Shape layers and masks shapes Change an item of a shape layer by path: rename, switch on or off, set any of its settings (a group's transform when it is a group), or move it to another po…
ae_remove_shape Shape layers and masks shapes Remove an item of a shape layer by path, with everything inside it.
ae_list_masks Shape layers and masks shapes The masks of a layer: name, mode, inverted, feather, opacity, expansion, colour, how many vertices the path has and whether it is animated.
ae_add_mask Shape layers and masks shapes Add a mask to a layer: a rectangle or an ellipse from [x, y, width, height] in layer pixels, or a path from vertices with tangents; with mode, inverted, feat…
ae_update_mask Shape layers and masks shapes Change a mask: a new shape (rectangle, ellipse or vertices, as a keyframe when time is given), name, mode, inverted, feather, opacity, expansion, colour, loc…
ae_remove_mask Shape layers and masks shapes Remove a mask from a layer.
ae_effects_catalog Effects, presets and layer styles effects The effects this After Effects can apply: display name, match name, category and version, narrowed by a query or a category.
ae_add_effect Effects, presets and layer styles effects Apply an effect to a layer by match name or display name, with its parameters set in the same call by their names or indices.
ae_effect_info Effects, presets and layer styles effects The effects on a layer, or one effect in full: every parameter with its type, value at a time, limits, keyframes and expression.
ae_update_effect Effects, presets and layer styles effects Change an effect on a layer: rename, switch on or off, set parameters by name or index (as keyframes when time is given; a layer parameter takes a layer name…
ae_remove_effect Effects, presets and layer styles effects Remove an effect from a layer.
ae_set_dropdown_items Effects, presets and layer styles effects Write the entries of a Dropdown Menu Control effect's menu, which expressions and templates then read by index; the only popup whose items a script may change.
ae_find_presets Effects, presets and layer styles effects Animation presets (.ffx) installed with After Effects and in the user's presets, found by a word in their name or folder: Text, Transitions, Backgrounds, Beh…
ae_apply_preset Effects, presets and layer styles effects Apply an animation preset to layers, by the name ae_find_presets gives or a path to an .ffx file.
ae_layer_styles Effects, presets and layer styles effects The layer styles on a layer (drop shadow, glows, bevel, satin, overlays, stroke) with every parameter.
ae_set_layer_style Effects, presets and layer styles effects Add a layer style to a layer, or change one it has: switch it on or off and set its parameters by name (as keyframes when time is given).
ae_remove_layer_style Effects, presets and layer styles effects Remove a layer style from a layer.
ae_3d_info Cameras, lights, materials and the renderer threed The 3D state of a composition (renderer, cameras, lights, how many 3D layers) or of one layer: its transform, point of interest, camera lens and depth of fie…
ae_set_camera Cameras, lights, materials and the renderer threed Set a camera: position and point of interest (or look_at a layer), one or two node, zoom or focal length in millimetres, depth of field with focus distance, …
ae_set_light Cameras, lights, materials and the renderer threed Set a light: type, position and point of interest (or look_at a layer), intensity, colour, cone angle and feather for spots, falloff with its start and dista…
ae_set_material Cameras, lights, materials and the renderer threed Set the material options of a 3D layer (switching it to 3D if it is not): casting and accepting shadows, accepting lights, ambient, diffuse, specular intensi…
ae_set_geometry Cameras, lights, materials and the renderer threed Set the geometry options of a 3D layer under a renderer that extrudes (Advanced 3D, Cinema 4D): extrusion depth, bevel style, direction and depth, hole bevel…
ae_set_renderer Cameras, lights, materials and the renderer threed The renderer of a composition: Classic 3D, Advanced 3D or Cinema 4D by name or a word of it; with no renderer the answer only reports the current one and the…
ae_precompose Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Move layers into a new nested composition in their place: the layers named, the new composition's name, and whether their attributes (transform, effects, mas…
ae_comp_tree Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing The compositions nested in a composition, as a tree with the layer each sits on, down to a depth; and the compositions this one is used in.
ae_replace_footage Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Relink or replace a footage item for every layer that uses it: with a file (or an image sequence starting at that file), with a solid of a colour, or with a …
ae_interpret_footage Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Interpret footage as the Interpret Footage dialog does: alpha as ignored, straight or premultiplied (or guessed), inverted, frame rate to conform to, field s…
ae_set_proxy Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Set, switch or remove the proxy of a footage item or composition: a file, an image sequence, a solid or a placeholder stands in while use is true, and the fu…
ae_replace_layer_source Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Put another footage item or composition on a layer, keeping the layer's transform, effects, masks and keyframes; expressions that name the old source are fix…
ae_project_footage Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing The footage of the project with the file each points to, whether it is missing and how many compositions use it; only the missing or only file-backed items w…
ae_project_cleanup Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Tidy the project as the File menu does: consolidate duplicate footage, remove footage no composition uses, or reduce the project to the items named and what …
ae_collect_files Precomposing, footage, proxies and the project's files compositing Collect the project into a folder: every file the footage points to is copied into a (Footage) folder, the items are relinked to the copies, and the project …
ae_render_queue The render queue rendering The render queue: every item with its composition, status, span, render flag and output modules (file, format and settings, post-render action), whether Afte…
ae_render_templates The render queue rendering The render settings templates (Best Settings, Draft Settings and the user's own) and output module templates (Lossless, H.264, PNG Sequence and the rest) thi…
ae_add_render The render queue rendering Put a composition in the render queue: render settings and output module templates by name, the output file (or a folder, which takes the composition's name …
ae_update_render The render queue rendering Change an item of the render queue that has not rendered yet: templates, output file, span, skip frames, render flag, post-render action, render or output se…
ae_remove_render The render queue rendering Remove items from the render queue: one by index, all of them, or those with a status such as DONE.
ae_render The render queue rendering Render the queued items (or only the ones named) inside After Effects.
ae_render_control The render queue rendering Stop, pause or resume a render that ae_render started without waiting, switch the finished notification, or bring the Render Queue to the front.
ae_save_render_template The render queue rendering Save a queue item's render settings or output module as a named template, so later ae_add_render calls can name it instead of listing every setting.
ae_watch_folder The render queue rendering Turn this After Effects into a watch folder render node, as File > Watch Folder does, or stop or pause it.
ae_render_in_media_encoder The render queue rendering Send the render queue to Adobe Media Encoder, which renders in its own process and leaves After Effects free; with render_immediately it starts at once.
ae_farm_submit Background renders through aerender farm Queue a render of a composition on the farm: aerender renders the saved project in its own engine, so After Effects stays free and the job runs on after this…
ae_farm_jobs Background renders through aerender farm The farm's jobs, newest first, or one job by id: state (queued, running, done, failed, cancelled), frames rendered against the total when the span is known, …
ae_farm_cancel Background renders through aerender farm Stop a queued or running job; a running render is killed and its partial output stays on disk.
ae_farm_retry Background renders through aerender farm Queue a finished, failed or cancelled job again as a new job with the same request.
ae_farm_cleanup Background renders through aerender farm Forget finished jobs older than a number of minutes, and delete their logs; 0 forgets every finished job.
ae_template_info Motion graphics templates templates A composition as a motion graphics template: its template name, the controllers exposed in Essential Graphics, and the instances of templates among its layer…
ae_update_template Motion graphics templates templates Name the template a composition exports as, or open it in the Essential Graphics panel.
ae_add_template_property Motion graphics templates templates Expose a property of a layer as a controller of the composition's template, under a name of your choosing: a number, colour, checkbox, popup, text, 2D point …
ae_fill_template Motion graphics templates templates Fill an instance of a template: set the essential properties of a nested composition layer by controller name (text as a string, colours as #rrggbb or [r, g,…
ae_substitute_template Motion graphics templates templates Customise a template composition directly by layer name: new text for text layers, a colour for solids, text, shape fills or a Fill effect, and new footage o…
ae_export_template Motion graphics templates templates Export a composition as a .mogrt motion graphics template, to a file or folder, or into the Essential Graphics library when no path is given.
ae_import_template Motion graphics templates templates Import a .mogrt file into the project as a composition, with its controllers; into a folder when one is named.
ae_files Files between the client and the server transfer The files this server keeps, by area: files (the project folder: footage, uploads), captures, renders, jobs (farm logs with each job's state).
ae_upload Files between the client and the server transfer Bring a file or folder from the client's machine into the files area.
ae_download Files between the client and the server transfer Take a file or folder of an area to the client's machine: over HTTP a shell command with a signed link (a folder as one tar), over stdio the local path, sinc…
ae_layer_bounds Measuring, guides and placing layout The pixel bounds of a layer at a time: the rectangle in the layer's own space (what sourceRectAtTime measures, text and shapes included) and, for a 2D layer,…
ae_convert_point Measuring, guides and placing layout Convert a point between a layer's own pixels and the composition's, at a time: where a corner of a text lands on screen, or which pixel of a footage sits und…
ae_selection Measuring, guides and placing layout What the user has selected in a composition: the layers, and the properties with the layer and path of each; the composition's current time comes along.
ae_guides Measuring, guides and placing layout The guides of a composition or a footage item: index, orientation and position in its pixels.
ae_set_guides Measuring, guides and placing layout Change the guides of a composition or footage item in one call: add guides by orientation and position, move or remove them by index, or clear them all.
ae_split_layer Measuring, guides and placing layout Split a layer at a time into two, as Edit > Split Layer does: the part before keeps the name and goes below, the part after sits above.
ae_copy_layer_to_comp Measuring, guides and placing layout Copy a layer with everything on it into another composition, at the top of its stack; the original stays.
ae_place_layer_corners Measuring, guides and placing layout Place a 2D or 3D layer so that its top-left, top-right and bottom-left corners land on three points of the composition, as calculateTransformFromPoints solve…
ae_find_layer Measuring, guides and placing layout Find a layer anywhere in the project by its id, which ae_layer_info and ae_list_layers report, and answer with its composition and its full description; ids …
ae_project_settings Project and application settings settings The project settings as Project Settings shows them, read and set in one call: time display (timecode or frames, the start frame), colour depth, linear blend…
ae_replace_in_expressions Project and application settings settings Replace text in every expression of the project, as After Effects does when it renames something: a layer name, a property name, a comp name that expressions…
ae_project_fonts Project and application settings settings The fonts the project uses, each with the layers that use it, and the fonts that are missing or substituted on this machine.
ae_replace_font Project and application settings settings Replace one font with another across the project, by PostScript names as ae_text_fonts gives them.
ae_import_placeholder Project and application settings settings Add a placeholder footage item of a size, frame rate and duration, to lay out a composition before the footage exists; ae_replace_footage swaps the file in l…
ae_purge Project and application settings settings Purge After Effects' caches: all, memory, images, snapshots or undo, as the Edit > Purge menu offers.
ae_performance Project and application settings settings Memory and multi-frame rendering of After Effects: the image cache and total memory percentages, and multi-frame rendering on or off with a CPU ceiling; the …
ae_system_info Project and application settings settings The machine After Effects runs on and the application itself: machine and user name, operating system and version, After Effects' version, build and language…
ae_set_application Project and application settings settings Application-wide switches: rendering of previews off while scripts work, an error on missing footage frames, saving the project on a crash, writing the prefe…
ae_read_swatches Project and application settings settings Read an Adobe swatch file (.ase or .aco) through After Effects: each swatch's name, colour space and values.
ae_system_call Project and application settings settings Run a shell command on After Effects' machine through After Effects and return its output; it waits for the command to finish.
ae_preference Project and application settings settings Read one After Effects preference by section and key, as the preferences file spells them (ae_system_info says where it is), read as a string, long, float or…
ae_set_preference Project and application settings settings Write, remove, reload or save to disk After Effects' preferences by section and key; a value takes effect when the preference is read next, some only after a…
ae_script_setting Project and application settings settings Read a setting scripts keep between sessions in After Effects, by section and key: the key-value store of app.settings.
ae_save_script_setting Project and application settings settings Keep a text under a section and key in After Effects' script settings, where it survives restarts.
ae_quit Project and application settings settings Quit After Effects: with unsaved changes it saves first or drops them as save says, and refuses when save is not given.
ae_viewer The viewer viewer The active viewer: composition, layer or footage viewer, whether it is maximized, its views with the active one, and each view's channels, checkerboards, exp…
ae_set_viewer The viewer viewer Change a view of the active viewer: the channel shown, transparency checkerboards, exposure in stops, fast preview mode, rulers, guides visibility, snapping …
ae_workers After Effects workers of your own workers The pool of After Effects workers: each one's name, state (starting, ready, leased, stopping, gone), origin (launched by this server, or adopted when a named…
ae_lease After Effects workers of your own workers Take an After Effects of your own: binds this client to a free worker, to the one named, or to a fresh one the server launches when the pool has room, waitin…
ae_stop_worker After Effects workers of your own workers Quit a worker, dropping its project unsaved, and free whoever held it; the pool launches another when it is below its minimum.

Prompts

Name What it does
animated_title_card Build a composition with an animated title from a brief, check it as a picture, and render it.
fill_motion_graphics_template Bring in a motion graphics template, fill its controllers, check the result as a picture and render it.
render_delivery Check a composition, choose between rendering in place, the farm and Media Encoder, and deliver with the right template.