# Tools & capabilities Explore the animation capabilities, MCP tools, persistent document model, and agent reference lookup of Creator MCP. Creator MCP lets an AI agent build and edit scenes through JavaScript, inspect the result, and export deliverables. You can use it entirely through prompts; the details below help when configuring agents or understanding a tool result. ## Animation capabilities | Area | Available capabilities | | :------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Scenes | Multiple compositions; canvas dimensions, frame rate, duration, nested compositions, and markers | | Shapes | Rectangles, ellipses, polygons, stars, Bézier paths, groups, rounded corners, and offset paths | | Motion | Keyframes for position, scale, rotation, opacity, paths, and other properties; easing, timing, and motion helpers | | Easing | Linear by default; ease in, ease out, ease in and out, holds, and custom curves, including overshoot | | Time remapping | Freeze, reverse, slow down, or speed-ramp a nested composition; exports to Lottie | | Audio | MP3, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, AAC, and M4A sounds; start time, trimming, offset, speed, and volume fades | | Appearance | Solid and gradient fills, strokes, blend modes, blur, shadows, fill, tint, and tritone effects | | Text | Editable text, custom TrueType and OpenType fonts, styled runs, text boxes, text on a path, per-character animators | | Reveals | Trim paths, masks, inverted masks, and track mattes | | Imports | SVG, Lottie JSON, dotLottie (`.lottie`) with its images and sounds, and Rive `.riv`; PNG image assets (up to 2,048 × 2,048 pixels) | | Inspection | Named elements, scene descriptions, composition summaries, bounds, import warnings, and runtime warnings | | Preview | Filmstrips, evenly spaced or at chosen times; PNG stills; a preview card in clients that support MCP Apps | | Export | Lottie JSON, dotLottie, MP4, and WebM, with sound; PNG stills | ### Design around these limits Expressions and repeaters are not supported. Use explicitly duplicated elements instead. Boolean path operations are unavailable; masks can provide many cutout effects. Import warnings identify features that were omitted. Rendered output and Lottie export have different limits. Some transforms, effects, masks, mattes, and images need composition-level layers to export as Lottie. Lottie export also rejects repeating or mirrored gradients, gradients with their own transform, and animated colors that include transparency. Ask the agent to check export compatibility before building a complex scene for Lottie playback. ### Text Text is set in a bundled font that covers Latin characters, including accents. To use another font or script, supply a TrueType (`.ttf`), OpenType (`.otf`), or collection (`.ttc`) file. WOFF files are not read. An agent that can upload files imports the font into the document's media library with `creator_import_media`, up to 8 MiB. Otherwise the agent passes the font's contents in its request; each request to the hosted server is limited to 4 MiB, so keep the file below roughly 3 MiB, or supply a version subset to the characters you need. A subset font must keep its family and PostScript names (name IDs 1, 6, and 16). Loaded fonts are saved with the document. Text renders and exports to video. Lottie export writes a text layer with its glyph outlines, but refuses some features that still render: animated font size, line height, or letter spacing; animator timing; animated or translucent text colors; separately styled runs; and text placed inside a group or given shape modifiers. A `text_export_limit` warning flags many of these when they are set, and the export error names the fix. A `text_clipped` warning means text runs off the canvas in a previewed frame. ### Audio Supply an MP3, WAV, Ogg, FLAC, AAC, or M4A file the agent can read. As with fonts, an agent that can upload files imports it with `creator_import_media`, up to 8 MiB; otherwise the agent passes the file's contents in its request, so keep it below roughly 3 MiB, and trim longer audio. A sound starts at the time you choose and can run until the composition ends; a shorter sound does not loop, so silence follows it. The agent can trim it, skip into it, change its speed, and set or animate its volume in decibels for fades. | Format | Sound | | :----------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | MP4 | Every sound mixed into a 48 kHz stereo AAC soundtrack | | WebM | Every sound mixed into a 48 kHz stereo Opus soundtrack | | Lottie JSON | Sounds embedded in the file, with their volume levels | | dotLottie | Sounds stored as files in the archive; a sound type with no file extension fails | | Filmstrips, stills | No sound | A dotLottie import keeps the sounds packaged in the archive. ## MCP tools Clients and agents call the exact tool identifiers below. | Tool | Purpose | | :---------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `creator_exec` | Run JavaScript to build, inspect, edit, render, or export a document. | | `creator_docs` | Search documentation, look up method signatures, or read a focused topic. | | `creator_document` | List documents or one document's files, list or restore earlier revisions, or reset a document with confirmation. | | `creator_download_file` | Retrieve an output's or media file's download link, or an output's encoding status. | | `creator_delete_file` | Delete an output or media file; cancel an output's encode if it is still running. | | `creator_import_media` | Upload an image, SVG, Lottie, dotLottie, Rive, audio, or font file to the document's media library. | | `creator_account` | Show the connected LottieFiles account, its workspace, and the Drafts project that saves go to. | | `creator_save_to_workspace` | Save the animation as dotLottie, or a ready Lottie JSON output, to your workspace as a new file or a new version. | | `creator_open_in_creator` | Save the animation to its workspace file and return a link that opens it in Lottie Creator. | | `creator_load_from_workspace` | Load a Lottie file from your workspace into the document, replacing it or adding to it. | | `creator_preview` | Open the saved animation in the chat in the [preview card](/en/developers/creator-mcp/preview). | File download and deletion tools appear only when file storage is available. `creator_import_media` also needs an upload route on the server. `creator_account` needs a workspace connection, and the three workspace save and load tools also need file storage. `creator_preview` appears only in clients that support MCP Apps, such as Claude and ChatGPT, and only when document storage is available. Your agent sees up to 11 tools. In clients that support MCP Apps, the server also lists `creator_document_head`, `creator_describe_region`, and `creator_export_file`, which only the preview card calls; clients usually hide them. `creator_document` list results include the server version and Engine revision (`server.version` and `server.engine`). Include both when you report a problem to support. ## Documents and edits Each document has a `documentId`. If the agent omits it, the server uses `default`. Use separate IDs for independent animations and the same ID for follow-up edits and file operations. In normal operation, successful mutations create durable revisions before the tool returns. An uncaught error, including a timeout, rolls back that script's changes; an error the script catches does not undo earlier changes. Documents persist between calls and server restarts; JavaScript variables do not. The agent should inspect the current scene and look up named elements when resuming. `creator_exec` returns the script's result, logs, warnings, revision, and any named outputs. Rendered previews are attached as images. Treat warnings as feedback to inspect, even when the operation succeeds. A `local_recovery` durability result indicates temporary recovery mode; ask the agent to report it instead of treating it as a normal durable save. Each change the agent saves is a numbered revision. `creator_exec` takes an optional one-line `note` that labels the revision. To undo changes, ask the agent to list the document's history and restore an earlier revision: `creator_document` lists the last 32 revisions, newest first, and a restore saves that revision's content as a new revision, so nothing is lost. Restoring content the document already has saves nothing. A restore does not change output files, media, or the document's workspace file. History starts with the first change saved after the server's v0.7.0 release, so older revisions may not be listed. A reset clears the scene to an empty revision, removes the document's output files, and cancels active encodes; it keeps the document's imported media, and a restore can bring the scene back. A reset also unlinks the document from its workspace file, and a restore doesn't relink it, so the next Open in Lottie Creator creates a new file. A reset requires your confirmation through a client that supports MCP 2026-07-28 form elicitation; clients on older MCP versions cannot reset. Documents can't be deleted; to remove a media file, ask the agent to delete it with `creator_delete_file`. ## Give agents the right reference Use the server's own reference for the deployed API. `creator_docs` supports three ways to find it: Pass these arguments to `creator_docs`: ```json { "query": "fade a shape" } ``` Search returns relevant methods, matching guidance, and sections to read next. Check several names together before using them: ```json { "lookup": ["setParentInPlace", "PropertyType.Scale"] } ``` Lookups provide signatures, units, examples, and related calls. Up to 32 names can be requested at once. Read up to four topics or sections together: ```json { "topic": "guide/units,patterns/rig" } ``` Short topics include `overview`, `shapes`, `animation`, `paints`, `effects`, `masks`, `render`, `slides`, `video`, `edit`, and `import`; `text` opens the guide's text section. Requesting `guide`, `patterns`, `api`, `motion-defaults`, or `delivery` returns a contents page; select a section for the details. `motion-defaults` covers choices a brief leaves open, such as timing and easing, and `delivery` covers exact output sizes, frame rates, color, and accessibility. Within a script, `creator.help(name)` looks up a method and `creator.methods("grouped")` lists methods by area. `creator.describeComps()` summarizes compositions; `creator.describe()` inspects the focused scene. ### Suggested agent instructions ```text Use Creator MCP for animation work. Before using unfamiliar methods, look them up with creator_docs. Use a named document for each independent animation. Inspect the existing scene before editing it; preserve unrelated elements. Name important elements so follow-up edits can target them. Review filmstrips and warnings before exporting. Deliver a working download or workspace link, not an MCP resource URI. ``` ### Script conventions The `creator` API and its helpers are already in scope. Scripts run synchronously without network access, timers, imports, or top-level `await`. Times are absolute composition seconds, including `setCurrentTime`; rotations are in radians, and scale uses ratios. Colors use values from 0 to 1, including backgrounds. Entity IDs in tool results are decimal strings.