Connecting an assistant

An assistant you already use — Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Antigravity — can build and edit motion graphics in the Premation project you have open. It makes ordinary layers, keyframes, effects, cameras, lights and sound, looks at the frames it made, and fixes them. You watch every change, you can stop it, and you can undo it.

Prefer a walkthrough? The connection lessons take each app step by step, with a video for Claude Desktop.

Where to connect

Dashboard ▸ Connections on Premation’s home screen. Inside the editor the same cards are under Settings ▸ AI Engine. There are two cards:

A browser tab cannot start a local assistant, so Connections only works in the desktop app.

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop’s + menu lists ready-made Premation workflows: Logo reveal, Kinetic typography, Product promo, Vertical social clip and Polish my animation.

Without the extension. Under Advanced, Use Claude’s settings file adds Premation to Claude Desktop’s config file instead (Claude then shows a generic icon). The card also shows the JSON to add under mcpServers by hand.

Claude Code

Under Advanced on the Claude card, click Turn on for Claude Code, copy the command it shows and run it once in a terminal. It has this shape — copy the real one, which carries the path to Premation on your computer:

claude mcp add premation --scope user --env <…> -- "<path to Premation>" <…>

--scope user makes Premation available in every folder. /mcp inside Claude Code lists it.

ChatGPT, Cursor and Antigravity

Click Connect ChatGPT, Connect Cursor or Connect Antigravity, then restart that app:

• ChatGPT desktop or Codex — restart it. ChatGPT in a web browser can only reach remote servers, so Premation is not added there. Premation sets a 10-minute limit per step in this file, because a full build or an export runs longer than Codex’s default.
• Cursor — quit it completely and open it again.
• Antigravity — restart it so it reloads its MCP servers.

Each file is yours: Premation adds or removes only its own premation entry, writes a backup first, and leaves a file it cannot parse untouched. Setup details on each row shows the file, the entry, and — for ChatGPT — a codex mcp add command if you would rather not have the file edited.

Each row’s status reads Ready (set up and accepting), Paused (set up, but Premation is not accepting assistants — click Turn on), Needs repair (Premation moved since — click Repair) or Needs a look (the file could not be read).

While it works

• The pill in the title bar shows the assistant’s state: green when connected, blue while working (with the current step named), amber when it needs you. Click it for the activity panel.
• The activity panel lists recent steps in plain words, has Stop while it works and Undo last change when it is done.
• Stop ends the request and throws away whatever it was in the middle of.
• Allow / Deny. Importing files and rendering video always wait for you, in the panel or in the editor’s badge.
• Undo. Each request is one step in Edit ▸ Undo, named in the History panel (for example “Claude: …”). If you start editing while it works, its part so far is saved as its own undo step first, so your edit stays yours.

Getting designed results, and sound

Name the result, its length and a look — Keynote, Swiss editorial, luxury film, broadcast sports — and the assistant uses Premation’s design system, motion techniques and a review of its own frames. It can also place built-in sound effects (whooshes, risers, impacts, clicks, drones) on the motion, set levels and fades, and duck music under a voice. Your own music files and voice-over ask first; voice-over uses generation credit.

Privacy

The assistant reaches Premation through a private local connection on your computer, not over the internet, and only Premation’s own editing tools are offered to it — no access to your files, no commands. What the assistant sends to its own service is covered by that company’s terms.

If something is wrong

Turning it off

Disconnect on the card stops Premation accepting that assistant and removes its entry from that app’s file. For the Claude Desktop extension, also remove it in Claude: Settings ▸ Extensions ▸ Premation ▸ Uninstall. For Claude Code, run claude mcp remove premation --scope user.