PremierePilot by Shotbyx

Product name: PremierePilot (technical repo name: premiere-mcp-server — to rename the product, search-replace "PremierePilot" across site/, docs/, and this README).

Created by Shotbyx.

A Windows-first MCP server that lets an AI chat client drive Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects with natural-language prompts: open projects, import footage, build timelines and compositions, animate, apply effects, and export — from anywhere.

ChatGPT / Muse  --->  HTTPS  --->  Cloudflare Tunnel  --->  127.0.0.1:8787/mcp
                                                       (this server, bearer auth)
                                   +-- file queue --> Premiere CEP panel --> ExtendScript
                                   +-- file queue --> AE ScriptUI panel  --> ExtendScript

Video generation: no paid APIs, no API keys. The assistant generates video itself (e.g. media.generate_video), uploads it to a share URL, and the server downloads + imports it via import_media_from_url / ae_import_media_from_url.

Architecture

See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md for upstream attribution.

Related MCP server: Media-Editor-MCP

Quick start (on the Windows PC)

Prerequisites: Windows 10/11, Premiere Pro + After Effects installed, Adobe CC signed in, PC set to never sleep (see below).

1. Clone + install (PowerShell, from the repo root):

   .\scripts\install-windows.ps1

   With a Cloudflare Tunnel token for remote access:

   .\scripts\install-windows.ps1 -TunnelToken "<token>" -PublicHostname "mcp.example.com"

   The installer: installs Node 20+ (winget) if needed, npm install + build, copies both bridge panels, enables PlayerDebugMode, creates the bridge folders, generates PREMIERE_MCP_TOKEN in .env, and registers a logon scheduled task so the server starts with Windows.

2. Open the bridge panels (once per Adobe app launch):

   • Premiere: Window > Extensions > MCP Bridge (bridge starts automatically).

   • After Effects: Window > MCP Bridge Auto.jsx — keep auto-run ON.

3. Connect your AI client. Give it:

   • the public MCP URL: https://<your-host>/mcp

   • the bearer token from the repo's .env (PREMIERE_MCP_TOKEN)

4. Run the live remote test (in this order):

   1. verify_premiere_connection → connected: true

   2. import_media_from_url with a generated clip URL → returns a local path

   3. create_sequence + add_to_timeline → clip on the timeline

   4. export_sequence → MP4 on disk

   5. (AE) ae_verify_connection → ae_create_composition → ae_import_media_from_url → ae_render_comp

Meta Muse (recommended): PremierePilot is being submitted to the public connector platform at muse.ai/platform as an "Existing MCP" connector. Until it's listed, connect today via Muse's custom-connector path (paste your server URL in chat — about a minute, no review). A bundled skill also ships in ~/workspace/skills/premiere-mcp/ (SKILL.md), whose CLI posts JSON-RPC to the public URL with Authorization: Bearer <PREMIERE_MCP_TOKEN>.

ChatGPT: there is no public app-directory path for a self-hosted product (OpenAI's directory requires one fixed URL for all users; every user runs their own server). ChatGPT users connect via developer-mode manual setup: paid plan → Settings → enable Developer mode → chatgpt.com/plugins → + → paste your server URL → choose OAuth → create. The server speaks OAuth 2.1 with Dynamic Client Registration, so ChatGPT registers itself, you approve the scopes on the owner's consent page, and it connects — no token to copy.

Claude: connects through a custom connector with OAuth (https://claude.ai/api/mcp/auth_callback is an allowed redirect).

Any other client that can send an Authorization: Bearer header works with the current build.

Authentication (OAuth 2.1)

The server co-hosts its own authorization server — no third-party identity provider, no accounts. Two ways to authenticate:

Endpoints

How ChatGPT / Claude connect. Paste your public server URL (the tunnel hostname) as the MCP server URL and pick OAuth. The client discovers the metadata, registers via DCR (or presents a client-ID metadata document — supported), and opens /authorize. You (the owner) enter the owner passphrase and approve the requested scopes on the consent page; the client receives an authorization code (PKCE S256, single-use, 10 min) and trades it for tokens.

Scope model. Every tool requires a scope, derived from its MCP annotations:

ChatGPT requests mcp + offline_access by default: mcp is treated as read + write (never admin). A token lacking the required scope gets an insufficient_scope tool error (audited).

Revocation. POST /revoke with a refresh token kills its whole family (access tokens included). Refresh tokens rotate on every use: presenting an already-rotated token is treated as replay and revokes the entire family.

Owner passphrase. PREMIERE_MCP_OWNER_SECRET gates the consent page. If unset, the server generates one on first start, stores it 0600 in the server home dir, and prints it to the console once. Rotate it by setting the env var (or deleting the stored file and restarting). The static PREMIERE_MCP_TOKEN keeps working as the admin fallback regardless.

Token storage. Clients, codes, and tokens live in <server-home>/oauth.json (hashes only — raw secrets are never stored), mode 0600. Server home: PREMIERE_MCP_HOME, else %APPDATA%\PremierePilot on Windows, ~/.premiere-mcp-server elsewhere. Set PREMIERE_MCP_PUBLIC_URL (e.g. https://mcp.example.com) so the OAuth issuer is stable; it also allow-lists the tunnel hostname through the server's Host validation.

Configuration (.env)

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the token.

Keeping the remote rig healthy

• Power: Settings → System → Power → never sleep on AC. A sleeping PC kills the tunnel and both apps.

• Adobe sign-in: stay signed in to Creative Cloud; sign-out popups wedge the bridge.

• Interactive session: Premiere/AE must run in a logged-in desktop session (RDP counts). No headless operation — Adobe apps need a GUI.

• Modal dialogs are the #1 unattended failure mode. A native dialog (missing media, save prompts, plugin errors) wedges the bridge until a human dismisses it. Run probe_modal_dialog when tools start timing out; the tool tells you exactly what to dismiss. Prefer workflows that avoid dialogs: relink media first, disable "show save dialog" style prompts, keep plugins licensed.

Audit log

Every tool call is appended to audit.jsonl (JSONL): timestamp, caller, tool, argument summary, outcome. Tokens and large/base64 payloads are redacted.

Tool catalog

36 Premiere tools: connection + auto-launch, modal probe, version/project info, create_project, open/save, project items + bins, import_media, import_media_from_url, sequences (list/activate/create), timeline insert / overwrite / trim / move / split / remove, playhead, markers, detect_beats (BPM + beat-grid, optional one-call beat markers), effects + transitions (QE DOM), keyframes, audio levels/mute, MOGRT text overlays, AME export, frame export, raw ExtendScript escape hatch, and search_tools.

23 AE tools: connection probe, project/comp/layer info, create comp/text/shape/ solid/camera, layer properties (single + batch), duplicate/delete layer, keyframes, expressions, effects + templates, import_footage, import_media_from_url, save_project, ae_render_comp (aerender), raw command escape hatch.

Beat detection

detect_beats analyzes an audio file on the Windows PC and returns BPM, beat times (seconds, ms precision), and a 0..1 confidence score — pure TypeScript DSP (ffmpeg decode → spectral-flux onsets → autocorrelation tempo → beat-grid snap → time-domain transient refinement), no extra installs beyond ffmpeg (the installer adds it via winget).

With writeMarkers: true the beats are also written to the active sequence as "Beat N" markers in a single bridge call — no per-marker round-trips.

Typical "cut to the beat" flow:

1. detect_beats with audioPath: "C:\\Music\\track.mp3", writeMarkers: true → e.g. { bpm: 96, beatCount: 214, beats: [0.496, 1.12, ...], confidence: 0.96 }

2. split_clip at each beat time on the video track to razor the footage on the music.

3. Optional: add_transition / trim_clip between the new segments, then export_sequence via Media Encoder.

Tip: point audioPath at the song file in your project assets. Long songs take a few seconds to analyze; the tool runs locally, so no audio ever leaves the PC.

Roadmap

• OAuth 2.1 + Dynamic Client Registration — shipped (see Authentication above).

• UXP panel port when Adobe stabilizes Premiere's UXP scripting surface.

• Program-monitor screenshot tool (frame export exists today).

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Upstream bridge code is MIT with its own copyright — see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.