# Export & save
Choose Lottie JSON, dotLottie, MP4, transparent WebM, or PNG; control dimensions and backgrounds; download or save your animation.

Preview first, export when the motion looks right. Tell your AI agent the format, file name, dimensions, and destination you need.

## Choose a format

| Format          | Best for                                               | Delivery                                                    |
| :-------------- | :----------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Lottie JSON** | Animation playback in websites and apps                | Download or save to your LottieFiles workspace              |
| **dotLottie**   | Compact Lottie playback with bundled images and sounds | Download, save to your workspace, or open in Lottie Creator |
| **MP4**         | Social posts, presentations, and rendered previews     | Download; no transparency, includes any sound               |
| **WebM**        | Rendered motion and transparent overlays               | Download; request transparency, includes any sound          |
| **PNG**         | Cover images, thumbnails, and individual frames        | Download; specify the frame and full output size            |

### Lottie JSON

> Export this as hero.json for Lottie playback and give me the download link.

Lottie JSON is ready as soon as the export succeeds. Some effects and layer arrangements can render but cannot be represented by the Lottie exporter. If it reports `UNSUPPORTED_FEATURE`, ask the agent to inspect the details, adjust the structure, and compare the result with your preview. See [export troubleshooting](/en/developers/creator-mcp/troubleshooting#exports-and-downloads).

Text exports as a Lottie text layer with its glyph outlines, so it plays back without the font installed. Sounds are embedded in the file, with their volume levels. Some animated text features render in video but cannot be exported to Lottie; see [text](/en/developers/creator-mcp/reference#text).

### dotLottie

> Export this as hero.lottie and give me the download link.

A dotLottie file is the same Lottie animation compressed into a `.lottie` archive, with images and sounds stored as files instead of inline data. It is ready as soon as the export succeeds and follows the same exporter rules as Lottie JSON. A sound whose type has no matching file extension fails the dotLottie export. To put the animation in your workspace as dotLottie, [save it to your workspace](#save-to-your-workspace) or [open it in Lottie Creator](#open-in-lottie-creator); you don't need to export it first.

### MP4 and transparent WebM

> Export this as launch.mp4 at the composition's dimensions. Give me the download link when encoding finishes.

For a transparent overlay:

> Export this as overlay.webm with a fully transparent export background. Preserve the alpha channel and give me the download link.

**Video exports use the animation's background color**, which is white unless you set one. Ask the agent to set the background before exporting, or to export over another background. WebM preserves alpha; MP4 does not. If you request transparent pixels in an MP4, they are composited over black.

**Sound:** MP4 and WebM exports mix every sound in the scene into one 48 kHz stereo soundtrack, AAC in MP4 and Opus in WebM. A scene without sound exports a video-only file. Each video export has a shared 128 MiB budget for the decoded sounds and the mixed soundtrack. See [Add music or a sound effect](/en/developers/creator-mcp/workflows#add-music-or-a-sound-effect).

Video encoding runs after the scene is saved. While a file is `encoding`, the agent should wait for the returned retry interval and check again. You can continue refining the document; an existing export uses the scene captured when it was requested.

In clients that support MCP Apps, such as Claude and ChatGPT, you can also export an MP4 yourself from the [preview card](/en/developers/creator-mcp/preview#download-an-mp4): select **Download**, choose the size and frame rate, and select **Export MP4**. The card follows encoding progress and offers the file when it is ready.

### Full-size PNG stills

> Render the frame at 1.5 seconds as cover.png at 1080 × 1080 and give me the download link.

Specify dimensions for delivery. Stills without an explicit size are small previews, at most 320 pixels on the longest edge by default.

## Set the right dimensions

Renders and videos scale the whole composition while preserving its aspect ratio. With both width and height supplied, the output fits inside that box. A square scene requested at 1920 × 1080 produces a square output, not a landscape layout.

To change from square to vertical, ask the agent to resize the **composition** and rearrange its elements. Then preview and export. Pixel rounding, MP4's even dimensions, and server limits can slightly change the final size; the result reports the actual dimensions and an `output_resized` warning when applicable.

## Save to your workspace

> Save first-loop to my LottieFiles workspace as “Homepage hero” and give me the link.

The `creator_save_to_workspace` tool saves the animation's focused composition as a dotLottie file in your workspace's **Drafts** project and returns a link that opens it in Lottie Creator. You don't need to export it first. It can instead upload a ready Lottie JSON output, such as `hero.json`. Other files, such as videos and stills, can't be saved to the workspace; download them instead.

Each save creates a new file unless the agent passes the `fileId` of an earlier save; then it adds a new version of that file. To find where saves go, ask the agent which LottieFiles account and workspace it's connected to; `creator_account` reports the account, its workspace, and the Drafts project.

## Open in Lottie Creator

> Open this animation in Lottie Creator and give me the link.

The agent saves the animation's focused composition as a dotLottie file in your workspace's **Drafts** project and returns a link that opens it for editing in Lottie Creator. The first request for a document creates the file; later requests add a new version of the same file, so the link stays the same while the agent keeps editing. If that file was deleted, the agent creates a new one. The agent also writes the dotLottie as an `open-in-creator.lottie` output in the document, replacing any earlier one. Because it is a dotLottie export, it follows the same exporter rules and can fail with the same errors as [Lottie JSON](#lottie-json). Edits you make in Creator don't change the animation on the server; to bring them back, [load the file from your workspace](#load-from-your-workspace).

## Load from your workspace

> Load my workspace file into the onboarding animation, replacing what's there.

The `creator_load_from_workspace` tool reads a Lottie file from your workspace into the document by its file ID. **Replace** makes the document that file, dropping its current scene and output files, without asking for confirmation; ask the agent to restore an earlier revision if you need the previous scene back. **Add** puts the file's compositions beside the existing ones. After a replace, opening in Lottie Creator adds a new version of the loaded file. To save to that file with `creator_save_to_workspace`, ask the agent to pass the same file ID; otherwise the save creates a new file.

Files up to 12 MiB can be loaded, or less if the server sets a lower upload limit. Files created inside Lottie Creator can't be loaded yet.

## Download links and file lifetime

- **Download links last up to 15 minutes.** Anyone with the link can read the file until it expires. Ask for a fresh link when needed.
- **Output files are retained for seven days by default.** After a file expires, export or render it again. Retention can vary by deployment.
- **Reusing a file name replaces that output.** It also cancels an unfinished encode with the same name. Give variants distinct names.
- **Deletion can guard against replaced files.** When the agent names the export it last checked, deletion stops with `output_changed` if a newer export has taken the name since, instead of removing the newer file. Ask the agent to check the file again before deleting.
- **Resetting a document removes its outputs** and cancels their encodes. It also unlinks the document from its workspace file, so the next Open in Lottie Creator creates a new file. Download or save files you want to keep first.

If a client returns an MCP resource URI instead of a web download link, it must read that resource and provide the file. An MCP URI cannot be opened as a normal browser link.