The JSON Pipeline — edit your whole After Effects comp as one document

Serialize an After Effects comp or project to structured JSON, let your AI read and rewrite the whole structure, then import it back as real, editable layers.

The MCP tools edit one thing at a time inside your active comp. The JSON pipeline does the opposite: it serializes a whole comp or project into a single structured document, hands the entire tree to the AI at once, and imports the edited version back as native After Effects layers. Reach for it when a change touches many layers together — retiming a sequence, restructuring a comp, or rewriting copy across every text layer.

The short version

Export your comp or project to structured JSON that mirrors layers, properties, keyframes, and markers.

The AI reads and modifies the whole structure at once, then you import it back as real, editable layers.

Best for multi-layer restructures that one-at-a-time tool calls would make tedious.

A JSON operation is one export OR one import; it is metered per plan — see usage and limits.

Which surface to use: MCP, JSON, or Tools

Prism gives the AI three ways to act, surfaced as the panel's three tabs (the three-tab model lives here). All three produce the same kind of result — native, editable After Effects objects. They differ in scope.

Surface	Reach for it when	Scope
MCP tools	Quick, conversational edits in the live comp — add or tweak a single layer, adjust a few keyframes, apply one effect or preset	One thing at a time
JSON pipeline	A change touches many layers together — restructure a comp, reorder or regroup layers, retime a whole sequence, rewrite copy across every text layer	The whole comp or project tree at once
Tools	A self-contained capability runs to completion — transcribe audio to subtitles, detect a beat grid, import an SVG	One end-to-end job

The rule of thumb: edit one thing → MCP; coordinate many layers → JSON; run a standalone job → Tools.

How it works

You run the JSON pipeline by a plain-language prompt to your AI client, the same way you drive the MCP tab. You do not click a button in the JSON tab. You ask your AI to serialize the comp ("export this comp to JSON"), describe the change, then ask it to import the result back. The JSON tab is a status surface that shows the current export or import; the work is started from your prompt.

The export, edit, and import all run through Prism's server. The panel reads your active project, the server serializes it, the AI reasons over the full document, and the result imports back into After Effects.

Export

comp → JSON

Edit

AI rewrites the tree

Import

back as real layers

Export, edit, import — one structured round trip

Run it end to end

Export to JSON

Open the comp (or project) you want, then ask your AI to serialize it. Prism captures layers, properties, keyframes, and markers as one structured document — the true state, not a description.

Edit the structure

Describe the change in plain language: retime the sequence, regroup layers, or rewrite the on-screen copy. The AI reads the whole tree and modifies it in place, so cross-layer changes stay consistent.

Import back

Bring the edited JSON back in. It arrives as real, editable After Effects layers — the same objects you'd build by hand. The import is undoable in one step, and a restore point precedes anything destructive.

A worked example

Say your comp is a 12-shot product montage and the client wants the whole thing 20 percent faster.

You say	Prism does
"Export this comp to JSON, speed the whole sequence up by 20 percent, keep every layer in sync, and import it back."	Serializes the comp, scales every layer's in/out points and keyframe times by 0.8 across all 12 shots at once, then imports the result as native layers.

What you get back: the same comp, retimed as one coherent piece — every shot, transition, and keyframe still aligned, all as editable After Effects layers.

If it doesn't fit: on a very large comp the import may return "document too large to process in one pass." Split the work — export and edit one comp at a time, or hand the heaviest sections to the MCP tools instead.

What survives the round trip

Imported content is native: standard layers, keyframes, and markers you can keep editing by hand. Nothing is flattened or baked. Your project files stay on your machine — only the specific export or import you request round-trips (how Prism works).

Editing the structure as JSON is how you make large, coordinated changes the AI can keep coherent across many layers — then get them back as ordinary After Effects objects.

Notes and limits

What counts as a JSON operation. A JSON operation is one export OR one import — one crossing of the JSON boundary. So a full round trip on one comp (export it, then import the edited version) is two operations. The editing the AI does in between is free; only the export and the import are metered. Free includes 3 JSON operations per month; Pro is unlimited — see usage and limits.
Project size. Very large projects have a practical ceiling. As a rule of thumb, a single comp of up to roughly 500 layers round-trips cleanly; past that the document gets too big for the AI to hold in one pass and the import may return "document too large to process in one pass." For projects above that, work on one comp at a time, or use the MCP tools for the heaviest sections.
Text and fonts. If a text layer round-trips with missing glyphs, it's an After Effects text quirk — see troubleshooting.

If something doesn't round-trip cleanly, see troubleshooting. Once your AI client is wired up, the JSON pipeline needs no extra setup. If you haven't connected a client yet, start with connect your AI.

The MCP server for After Effects — the one-thing-at-a-time surface this page compares against
The MCP panel — the three tabs (MCP / JSON / Tools) and how work is triggered
How Prism works — the read → reason → write loop, reversibility, and privacy
Usage and limits — JSON operation caps, metering, and the full credit-cost table

JSON pipeline