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mcp

How MCP works

The panel and MCP clients are both first-class: the tools the panel uses are also served over MCP, so Claude, Codex or any MCP client can work in your project, on the account you already have. The 83 operations are available to the panel and to every MCP client. The MCP surface is 35 tools, and new capabilities arrive as operation types inside ae_propose_plan.

Reference images and long runs are panel features. MCP clients use the same operations, checks and receipts, but not those.

The flow

  1. Read. Your AI asks extynt about the project: the open comp, the selection, layers, effects, installed plugins. These tools never change anything.
  2. Plan. Changes are typed operations, the same ones the panel uses. ae_get_build_kit returns the exact shapes a request needs. Your AI builds in a few stages.
  3. Apply and check. Each stage is one ae_propose_plan call with apply set. extynt applies it, reads the values back from After Effects, and returns the receipt, so your AI works from what happened, not what it assumed.
  4. Check the request. Before it answers, your AI is told to call ae_check_request. It lists any feature of the request that is still missing and any layer that sits off-frame or is clipped.

The same rules as the panel

  • No raw scripts. MCP clients cannot run arbitrary code in After Effects.
  • Every change is a plan, applied by extynt, verified and undoable.
  • Plans from an AI client show up in the panel’s Activity, so you can see what it did and undo it.
  • Your AI approves its own plans. Your client’s tool permissions decide whether it asks you first.

Next: connect your client.