Conform Labs Conform Labs

AI operators for post-production

It operates the app. It proves what it did.

Conform Labs builds operators that let the AI you already use work inside professional editing and post-production software: precisely, on your machine, and with a record of every change it made.

Get Surehand MCP Read the principles
Free and MIT licensed No credits, no account Runs locally
Change report · 5 edits 00:00:04:12
› ae_batch "Retime the title, add a glow" Compared in: Main + layer "Headline" in "Main" ~ layer "Plate": renamed "Background", locked + Headline › Effects › Glow ~ Headline › Transform › Opacity: keyframes 0 → 2 ~ Headline › Transform › Position: y 540 → 620
Verified 1 undo step · checkpoint saved · logged

Why the name

Every cut has to line up.

In post-production, the conform is the step where the offline edit is rebuilt, frame for frame, against the full-quality media. Nothing is approximated. A cut one frame out is a cut that is wrong.

We hold our software to that standard. An operator does exactly what was asked, shows you exactly what it changed, and can check its own work before you deliver. Exact, checkable, quiet.

An offline edit and its online conform. Each cut lands on the same frame in both tracks. OFFLINE EDIT · PROXY ONLINE · FULL QUALITY 00:00:05:08 00:00:09:02 00:00:15:19 3 CUTS · 0 FRAMES OFF

Product one

Surehand MCP for Adobe® After Effects®

It connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex or any MCP client to After Effects. The AI can build and edit comps, animate at Graph Editor level, render and look at frames, and measure its own work. Every edit comes back with a list of exactly what changed.

Surehand MCP for Adobe After Effects Surehand MCP for Adobe After Effects A Conform Labs product A Conform Labs product

An operator, not a generator. It makes no pixels of its own and charges no credits. It works on your keyframes, your layers and your expressions, and treats them as yours.

Download the latest release How it works
  • Host appAfter Effects 2020 (17.0) or newer
  • SystemsmacOS and Windows
  • AI appsClaude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, any MCP client
  • Tools98, with a core set of 29 loaded
  • Tested onAfter Effects 2025 and 2026
  • Connection127.0.0.1 only, token required
  • LicenceMIT, free

Tool count is for 1.4. Any After Effects language works: property, effect and menu names are mapped to internal match names.

What you get

Control, proof, and no catch.

01 · CONTROL

Your project stays yours.

Choose how much the AI may do, and change it mid-session without a restart.

  • Full access, ask before every change, or read-only
  • Each request is one undo step
  • Checkpoints save a copy; the original is never overwritten
  • Pause AI, answered only inside After Effects
02 · PROOF

It shows its work.

Claims are replaced by measurements the software takes itself.

  • A change report on every edit
  • Structural edits proven pixel-identical
  • Preflight against your own delivery spec
  • Project X-ray and version diffs
03 · NO CATCH

Free, local, open.

No account, no subscription, no credits. It runs on your machine.

  • MIT licence, source on GitHub
  • Works with the AI app you already pay for
  • Signed After Effects extension
  • Every call written to a local activity log

Proof, not promises

Four ways it checks itself.

Professionals are not worried that an AI is too weak. They are worried it says it did something it didn't, breaks a comp, or fails QC after delivery. Each of these answers one of those.

Available now

Change report

After Effects takes a snapshot before and after every call and lists the difference: layers, properties, keyframes, expressions, effects and masks. If a script fails halfway, the report lists what it had already changed. Undo reports what it reverted.

Changes · Mainae_set_keyframes
~ Title › Transform › Scale: keyframes 0 → 3 @00:00:00:00 [0,0] ease out 80% @00:00:00:12 [108,108] ease in/out 33% @00:00:00:18 [100,100] ease in 80% ~ Title › Transform › Opacity: 0 → 100, keyframes 0 → 2
Changed2 properties · 5 keyframes
New in 1.4

Proven identical

Some edits should not change the picture: un-precomposing, baking expressions, reordering effects, simplifying a rig. It renders reference frames, makes the change, renders again and compares pixel by pixel. The answer is identical, identical within tolerance, or differs, with a difference image of the worst frame.

ae_prove_identical · runMain · 1920×1080
Edit: un-precompose "Logo Precomp" into "Main" frame time max Δ pixels changed 1 00:00:00:00 0 0 2 00:00:02:12 0 0 3 00:00:05:00 0 0 4 00:00:07:12 0 0 5 00:00:09:24 0 0
Identical5 of 5 frames · bit-exact
New in 1.4

Preflight

Check the comp, and the rendered file, against the numbers in your client's delivery document. Nothing is built in and there are no house presets: a check runs only when your spec asks for it, and a check that could not run is never reported as a pass.

ae_preflight · spot_30s.jsonSpot_30s
FAIL (2) ✕ Safe areas Title: outside title-safe 00:00:02:03–00:00:03:10, 46 px past it on the right ✕ Text Legal: 31 characters per second (spec: 20 max) ■ Video 1920×1080, 25 fps, 00:00:30:00 ■ Audio −23.1 LUFS integrated, −2.4 dBTP ■ Project no missing footage, fonts or effects
Fail2 findings, each with a fix
New in 1.4

Project history

"What changed between v11 and v12?" Snapshots record every item, layer, animated property, expression and effect without touching the project. A diff lists the differences grouped by comp, with a summary first.

ae_project_history · diffv11 → v12
Summary: 1 layer added, 1 renamed, 1 keyframe change, 1 expression changed Comp "Main" (id 12): + layer #1 "Logo" (shape) ~ layer #2 "Title": renamed from "Headline" ~ Title › Transform › Opacity: @1s 100 → 80 ~ Title › Transform › Position: expression - wiggle(2, 10) + wiggle(3, 10)
4 changesread-only · no undo step

Works with

The AI you already use.

Surehand MCP speaks the Model Context Protocol, so it plugs into the assistant you already have. The installer registers it with the apps it finds.

Anthropic

Claude

Desktop and Code. One-click .mcpb for Desktop.

OpenAI

ChatGPT

Desktop app directly; web through a tunnel.

OpenAI

Codex

Registered in its config by the installer.

Anysphere

Cursor

Registered if installed.

Standard

Any MCP client

Point it at the local server over stdio.

Privacy, exactly

Your project files stay on your machine. Your prompts, and any frames the AI looks at, go to the AI provider you chose.

What we are working on

One app at a time, done properly.

We ship small, reversible steps, each with green checks and a test on real After Effects installs on macOS and Windows before it goes out.

Want to try a build before it ships? Watch the repository on GitHub, or open an issue with the version of After Effects you use.

Follow on GitHub
  1. Available

    Surehand MCP 1.3

    Change reports, permission modes, checkpoints, activity log, frame and contact-sheet rendering. Published as AE MCP; it updates in place to the new name.

  2. In progress

    The shared operator core

    Change reports, permission modes, checkpoints, the activity log and the signed installer pipeline, extracted into one package each new product starts from.

  3. Research

    Product two

    We are scoring professional apps on scripting access, real professional pain and how much of the core they can reuse. No code until the choice is made.

Start

Hand off the versioning and QC grind. Keep the record.

Install Surehand MCP View source