AEP

Prefer the installed py-aep CLIs on PATH. After Effects does not need to be running. Docs: https://forticheprod.github.io/py-aep/

A running After Effects app is a different skill (after-effects). .aepx is XML — read it as XML, not with these commands.

First commands

command -v aep-visualize aep-inspect aep-compare aep-validate
aep-visualize project.aep --depth 2 --no-properties
aep-visualize project.aep --format json --depth 2

Start with --depth 2 --no-properties. Raise depth only after that tree names the comps or layers that matter.

Route