Prism MCP
The MCP panel is what you install into After Effects, and it is the same panel in every application Prism ships in. It has exactly two tabs and no third: MCP, where your AI client connects, and Prism AI, where the generative capabilities run.
This page covers the MCP tab: the one that lets any MCP-capable client (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf and others) read your live composition and write back real keyframes and layers, not a script. You drive it with a plain-language prompt. It runs in After Effects 2024, 2025 and 2026. See compatibility.
Set it up
What the panel can do
Each area is a set of capabilities you drive straight from a prompt:
- Animation & keyframes: real, eased keyframes at real frames.
- Lifelike motion: Disney principles, spring physics, and named eases.
- Working with layers: create, order, parent, and style layers.
- Compositions: build and nest comps.
- Effects & presets: apply and configure effects.
- Expressions: when an expression is the right tool.
- Timeline & markers: retime layers and place markers.
Every change is reversible in a single undo, and your project files stay on your machine.
Your MCP URL
Clicking Connect shows the Prism address. Three things are worth knowing about it:
- It is permanent. It does not rotate, and it does not change when your plan does. Paste it into a client once and it keeps working.
- It is the same for everyone. The address holds no secret: what identifies you is your sign-in, so there is nothing to protect and nothing to regenerate.
- Your state follows your account. Pinned compositions, pinned layers and brand palettes live server-side against your account, which is why they survive a panel reload and follow you to another machine.
What the panel needs to be open
Prism acts on the composition you have open, so two things have to be true for any request to succeed: the panel is open in After Effects, and a composition is active. If either is not, your AI client will report that it cannot see a project rather than guessing at one.
Common questions
Which AI clients work with the MCP panel?
Any MCP-capable client. Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor and Windsurf are the common ones, and Prism is model agnostic. It does not care which model is on the other end. See connect your AI client.
Do I need a different setup for each client?
No. The URL is the same everywhere. Each client has its own place to paste an MCP server, and those config blocks are in connect your AI client, but the URL you paste does not change.
Can I undo what the AI does?
Yes. Every action lands as a single step in After Effects history, so one press of undo reverts it completely. Anything destructive is preceded by a restore point you can step back to. See how it works.
Does the panel need updating when new tools ship?
No. The tools live on the server, so new capability appears without a reinstall. The panel is an executor, not the product.
What happens if I close the panel mid-request?
The request stops. Nothing half-finished is left in your project, because each action is applied as one undo group rather than a running script.
Related
- Connect your AI client: paste Prism's address into your client and start sending requests.
- Your first prompts: see the panel read and write a comp.
- The Prism AI: the six generative capabilities.