Undo and safety

Cue works in your real project, so it’s fair to ask what happens when it gets something wrong. Short answer: you step back with undo, or return to a restore point.

Every change is a step in your History

Each change Cue makes (a new layer, a keyframe, an effect, an expression) lands as its own named step in After Effects‘s undo history, exactly as if you had done it by hand. One request usually makes several changes, so it adds several steps.

• Cmd+Z (Mac) or Ctrl+Z (Windows) steps back one change at a time.
• Edit ▸ History lists every step by name. Click the step just before a request started to go straight back to that point.
• Redo (Cmd+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z) brings changes back.
• The panel lists each change a request made, so you know what you’re stepping back through.

This is After Effects‘s own undo system, the same one you use every day. Nothing is hidden from it.

Restore points before big changes

Before a large change, such as rebuilding a comp or following a long tutorial, Cue can save a restore point: a copy of the comp, kept inside your project. If you don’t like where things went, ask it to go back to the restore point and it puts the comp back as it was, in place. It asks before reverting, and can save the current state first so nothing is lost.

A restore point covers one comp, not your whole project, so saving your project often is still a good habit.

What it can do in your project

It works inside the project you have open, through After Effects‘s normal scripting features:

• create, edit, rename, reorder and delete layers and comps
• set keyframes, easing and expressions
• add and adjust effects, text, shapes and masks
• import footage you point it to
• render preview frames so it can check its work, and render outputs when you ask

What it never does

• It doesn’t touch other projects, or files outside the ones you point it to.
• It doesn’t change After Effects‘s preferences or install anything.
• It doesn’t save over your project without saying so.
• It doesn’t run in the background. It only acts while you have a request in progress, and you can stop a request at any time with the stop button.

When it can’t act

If After Effects is busy (rendering, showing a dialog, or waiting for you in a text field), the panel waits or tells you what’s blocking it, rather than forcing anything. See AE busy or dialogs open.

What leaves your computer

To do its job, the panel sends your request, information about the relevant parts of your comp (layer names, properties, keyframe values), and the preview frames it renders to our servers, which pass them to the AI model. Your project file and your footage stay on your computer. Conversations are saved so you can pick up where you left off, and you can delete any conversation from the panel. The full details are in the privacy policy.