mcp-after-effects

Instructions

Implementation Reference

• src/index.ts:282-309 (registration)

  Registration of the "get-results" MCP tool, including the inline async handler function and empty input schema ({}).

  server.tool(
    "get-results",
    "Get results from the last script executed in After Effects",
    {},
    async () => {
      try {
        const result = readResultsFromTempFile();
        return {
          content: [
            {
              type: "text",
              text: result
            }
          ]
        };
      } catch (error) {
        return {
          content: [
            {
              type: "text",
              text: `Error getting results: ${String(error)}`
            }
          ],
          isError: true
        };
      }
    }
  );

• src/index.ts:286-307 (handler)

  Inline handler function for the "get-results" tool that calls readResultsFromTempFile() to retrieve results and returns them as text content, with error handling.

  async () => {
    try {
      const result = readResultsFromTempFile();
      return {
        content: [
          {
            type: "text",
            text: result
          }
        ]
      };
    } catch (error) {
      return {
        content: [
          {
            type: "text",
            text: `Error getting results: ${String(error)}`
          }
        ],
        isError: true
      };
    }

• src/index.ts:87-123 (helper)

  Helper function readResultsFromTempFile() that reads the 'ae_mcp_result.json' file from the system temp directory, checks if it's stale (older than 30s), logs debug info, and returns the content as string or error/warning JSON.

  function readResultsFromTempFile(): string {
    try {
      const tempFilePath = path.join(process.env.TEMP || process.env.TMP || '', 'ae_mcp_result.json');
      
      // Add debugging info
      console.error(`Checking for results at: ${tempFilePath}`);
      
      if (fs.existsSync(tempFilePath)) {
        // Get file stats to check modification time
        const stats = fs.statSync(tempFilePath);
        console.error(`Result file exists, last modified: ${stats.mtime.toISOString()}`);
        
        const content = fs.readFileSync(tempFilePath, 'utf8');
        console.error(`Result file content length: ${content.length} bytes`);
        
        // If the result file is older than 30 seconds, warn the user
        const thirtySecondsAgo = new Date(Date.now() - 30 * 1000);
        if (stats.mtime < thirtySecondsAgo) {
          console.error(`WARNING: Result file is older than 30 seconds. After Effects may not be updating results.`);
          return JSON.stringify({ 
            warning: "Result file appears to be stale (not recently updated).",
            message: "This could indicate After Effects is not properly writing results or the MCP Bridge Auto panel isn't running.",
            lastModified: stats.mtime.toISOString(),
            originalContent: content
          });
        }
        
        return content;
      } else {
        console.error(`Result file not found at: ${tempFilePath}`);
        return JSON.stringify({ error: "No results file found. Please run a script in After Effects first." });
      }
    } catch (error) {
      console.error("Error reading results file:", error);
      return JSON.stringify({ error: `Failed to read results: ${String(error)}` });
    }
  }