The Assistant panel is a chat with an AI model that can read the open scene and make edits to it. Open it from Window ▸ Assistant or with ⌘⇧A (Ctrl+Shift+A).
Setup
The assistant needs an Anthropic API key. Add it in Preferences… (⌘, / Ctrl+,) ▸ Assistant, or set the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable. The key stays in the app's back end; the panel never sees it.
Using it
- Type a request in Ask the assistant… — for example "make me a red square", "add a vignette", or "fade the logo in over one second".
- Press Return to send. ⇧Return adds a new line.
- Watch the reply. While the model is thinking you see a timer; afterwards "Thought for Ns", which you can expand for a summary. Each tool call it makes appears as a chip you can open for details.
- Each reply is one undo step. The reply's undo button (or ⌘Z) takes back everything it changed.
Use the stop button to end a reply early.
Toolbar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Model | Pick the model. Latest Opus follows the newest Opus your key can use. The list comes from your key's available models. |
| Allow edits | When off, the assistant can only read the scene; no editing tools are available to it. |
| Permissions | Set Allow, Ask or Off for each group of edits, with per-tool overrides. Reading the scene is always allowed. |
| History | Earlier conversations in this project. Open one to continue it, or delete it. |
| New | Start a new conversation. The current one stays in History. |
Approving edits
With a permission set to Ask, each edit waits with Allow this edit? and three buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Approve | Run this edit. |
| Deny | Skip it. |
| Always allow | Run it and stop asking for this tool. |
Tips
- Conversations are saved per project, after every reply.
- With the After Effects keymap preset ⌘⇧A is Deselect All, so open the panel from the Window menu.