Can Claude Code control After Effects directly?

Not on its own. Claude Code is a command-line agent; it has no way to click inside After Effects' window. After Effects does support scripting and expressions that Claude can write for you to run, but that's Claude producing a script from outside, not holding a project the way it holds a codebase.

Is there a claude code after effects MCP server?

Community MCP servers that wrap After Effects' scripting exist, built by third parties, not Adobe or Anthropic. Check exactly what a given one exposes before pointing it at a real project.

Are there claude code after effects skills worth installing?

A Claude Code skill can package prompts and steps for writing After Effects scripts or expressions, but it still runs through that scripting layer, with the same limits. It doesn't give Claude a timeline it can see and edit directly.

Is there a claude code after effects plugin?

Not an official one from Adobe or Anthropic. Any plugin claiming to connect them is a third-party project wrapping After Effects' own scripting; check what it actually does before trusting it with a real project.

How do I get a Claude-edited cut into After Effects?

Edit on a timeline Claude can actually read and write, then export a format After Effects can bring in: EDL, FCPXML or OpenTimelineIO. In Shoty, Claude Code edits the project directly over a local MCP server, and the cut leaves as one of those formats.

Claude Code After Effects: What Works Today, and the Real Route

"Clean up this shot and get it into After Effects." Say that to Claude Code in a plain chat window today and you get a script to paste into After Effects, or an explanation of where its panels live. Say the same thing while Claude is holding an actual timeline, and the cuts and the VFX fix happen first, then the project leaves as a file After Effects can open. Same request, different outcome, because of what's on the other end of it.

Can Claude Code actually drive After Effects?

Honestly: not by itself. Claude Code reads and writes files and runs commands; it has no way to click a button inside After Effects' window. The paths people reach for to bridge that gap, for After Effects specifically:

After Effects' own scripting and expressions. Claude can write a script or an expression for you to run inside the app, add a layer, nudge a keyframe, trigger Content-Aware Fill on a composition. It's real automation, but it's Claude handing you a script, not Claude looking at the composition and acting on it directly.
Community MCP servers that wrap that scripting layer so Claude can call it as a tool. These are third-party projects, not Adobe's or Anthropic's, so check what a given one actually exposes before trusting it with a real project.
Having Claude write the script and you run it. This keeps Claude out of the loop on what actually happened; it hands you homework instead of doing the edit.

None of these give Claude a timeline it can see, reason about and edit the way it edits code. The scripting layer is real, but it's still Claude operating After Effects from outside, one script at a time.

The route that gives Claude a real timeline

Shoty is a desktop video editor (Mac and Windows) with an agent chat built in. Pick Claude · my subscription in the model picker and the shape of the problem changes:

Shoty runs the official claude CLI on your machine, signed in with your own Claude account. It never sees your token and charges no fee for the agent.
For each turn, Shoty opens a local MCP server and hands Claude tools: look at a frame, read and update the timeline, generate a shot, export. Every call shows up in the chat.
The timeline is a text format (.shoty), so Claude reads and edits a structure, the same way it reads and edits code, instead of writing a script for a separate app to run.
When the cut is done, Shoty exports it as EDL, FCPXML or OpenTimelineIO. That file is what After Effects, Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve opens for the finish.

Claude never touches After Effects directly in this flow. It edits a project After Effects can later import, which sidesteps the scripting layer for the part Claude is actually doing.

1. Do the cut and the VFX fix in Shoty, not in After Effects

Ask for the rough cut, a mask-and-remove pass, the subtitle pass, whatever Claude is good at, while the project is still in Shoty.

Cut the dead air out of the first five minutes, keep room tone under the cuts, and add burned-in English subtitles.

2. Name what must not change

The clip above swaps the wall behind the person on the sofa for a rooftop at dusk, with the person, their motion and the camera move left exactly as they were. That's the pattern for any VFX instruction before export:

Replace the background behind the person on the sofa with a rooftop at dusk. Keep them, their motion and the camera move exactly as they are.

3. Export for After Effects

Export this project as an FCPXML for After Effects.

EDL and OpenTimelineIO work too. If you still want layer-level scripting inside After Effects after the import, that's unchanged and separate from this workflow.

4. Finish where you already work

Compositing passes that need After Effects specifically, Roto Brush touch-ups, Mocha AE planar tracking, run like they always have. Shoty's job ends at the cut and the AI shots; After Effects' part of the job doesn't change.

Where this still needs you

Picking the beat. Claude finds every pause fast; which one actually lands is still an editor's call, and you can always grab the Shoty timeline and trim by hand.
Reviewing generated shots. Anything Claude sends to a video model costs credits, so set the run mode to review if you want to approve shots before they render.
Round-trips. If a note from the After Effects side means a shot needs to change again, that change happens back in Shoty, not by re-scripting After Effects.

Download the free Shoty editor and connect Claude Code from the model picker. For the general case across any host, see how to edit video with Claude, or for the same question about DaVinci Resolve, Claude Code DaVinci Resolve.