Surehand MCP › Setup guide
Use Claude with Adobe® After Effects®.
Surehand MCP connects Claude Desktop and Claude Code to After Effects. Claude reads your project, edits comps, layers and keyframes, and every edit comes back with an exact list of what changed. Claude Desktop also shows Preflight, proofs, X-ray and stress-test results as views in the chat.
Works with Claude Desktop, Claude Code · Tested on After Effects 2025 and 2026, macOS and Windows 11 · Free and MIT licensed
Set it up
Four steps.
No administrator rights and no account. Node.js comes with the installer.
Install Surehand MCP
Run the Mac
.pkgor the WindowsSetup.exefrom the download page and keep Claude Desktop and Claude Code ticked. Using only Claude Desktop? TheSurehand-MCP.mcpbfile installs as a Claude Desktop extension instead.Restart After Effects once
The Surehand bridge starts with After Effects from then on.
Quit Claude Desktop completely
Cmd+Q on a Mac, or tray icon › Quit on Windows; closing the window is not enough. Then open it again. For Claude Code, start a new session.
Check the connection
Ask Claude: "Check After Effects is connected." The Surehand panel in After Effects shows Ready · Claude.
With an installer, Claude Desktop's entry goes into claude_desktop_config.json (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/, Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\). The server is called surehand-ae in every app.
What to ask
Ask in your own words.
Claude picks the tool; the tool does the measuring.
"Check Endcard against our broadcast spec before I send it."
"Stress-test the lower third with long German names and Arabic."
"Un-precompose Logo_Lockup and prove nothing changed."
"I inherited this project. What does the render queue actually pull in?"
With Claude
What you get.
In-chat views
Preflight, proven edits, X-ray and the stress test show their results inside Claude Desktop, with Show in AE and Ask the AI to fix this.
Agent Skills
Four Surehand skills are installed for Claude Code. In Claude Desktop, upload them under Customize › Skills › Upload a skill; the zips are in ~/.surehand/ae/skills.
Chat inside After Effects
The Surehand panel can also chat through Claude Code on your own sign-in, under the same Full / Ask / Read-only setting.
Questions
Claude and After Effects.
Can Claude control After Effects?
Yes, through Surehand MCP. Claude calls Surehand's tools, which run inside the open After Effects: it can create and edit comps, layers, keyframes, expressions, effects and text, render frames to look at, and run any After Effects script when no tool fits. Every edit is one undo step with a change report.
Does it work with Claude Desktop and Claude Code?
Both. The installers connect either or both; Claude Desktop can also use the .mcpb extension. Claude Desktop shows in-chat views; Claude Code gets the four Surehand skills.
The Surehand tools don't show up in Claude Desktop. What now?
Quit Claude Desktop completely and open it again. A Claude Desktop that was running while its settings changed can write its old settings back when it quits; the installers offer to restart it for that reason. The Troubleshooting page in the docs covers the rest.