Install with your AI

Your AI can do every step of the install except two that need a human: installing the panel into After Effects, and pasting your license key. Paste this into Claude Code or the ChatGPT desktop app:

Read https://docs.jakeinmotion.com/ground-control/getting-started/install-with-your-ai.md and follow the instructions for an AI in it.

Then answer when it asks you to do something. Everything below is for the AI.

Instructions for an AI

Goal: install Ground Control for the person you are working with. Ground Control is a panel inside After Effects plus a local program that gives you tools to write, check and run After Effects scripts. Six steps. Two of them (3 and 4) can only be done by the person.

Rules

• Run only the two commands given below. Do not install any other software, and do not edit any configuration file by hand. Setup does all of that and is safe to run again.
• Where a step says to ask the person, stop and wait for their answer before going on.
• Report to the person in plain language. Do not paste raw command output at them.
• If a command fails or a check does not pass and the report’s own advice does not fix it, stop and tell the person to send the doctor output (step 5) to support@jakeinmotion.com.
• The commands work in Windows PowerShell, Windows Command Prompt and the macOS Terminal.

Step 1. Check Node

Run node -v. Ground Control needs Node 18 or newer.

If Node is missing or older, ask the person to install the LTS version from https://nodejs.org with the default options, wait for them to say it is done, then run node -v again. Do not install Node yourself.

Done when: node -v prints 18 or higher.

Step 2. Run setup

Run this exactly, in any folder:

npx -y https://get.jakeinmotion.com/ground-control/ground-control-0.2.0.tgz setup

Setup installs Ground Control’s local program to a permanent location, creates its folders, and registers it with Claude Code and the ChatGPT desktop app, whichever are installed. It prints a report. Tell the person in one or two sentences what was set up and whether anything was skipped.

Done when: the report shows no failures.

Step 3. Ask the person to install the panel

You cannot do this step. Ask the person to:

1. Download GroundControl-0.2.0.zip from their order: their Motion Lab order, or their Ground Control order if they redeemed it from the community. The receipt email from Lemon Squeezy links it.
2. Unzip it and install GroundControl-0.2.0.zxp with a ZXP installer. An “unverified publisher” notice is expected. If they do not have a ZXP installer: https://docs.jakeinmotion.com/support/installing-zxp-extensions/
3. Restart After Effects and open Window > Extensions > Ground Control.

Done when: the person says the panel is open.

Step 4. Ask the person to activate

You cannot do this step. Ask the person to open the Menu at the bottom right of the panel, choose License, paste the license key from the same order into License key, and click Activate.

Done when: the person says it is activated.

Step 5. Verify

Run:

npx -y https://get.jakeinmotion.com/ground-control/ground-control-0.2.0.tgz doctor

Doctor only reads; it changes nothing. Each line is a check marked OK, HMM or STOP, or — for a check that did not apply. Under each HMM or STOP line the report says what to do. Explain those lines to the person and what to do about them. The line named After Effects round trip is the one that proves the whole chain works.

Done when: every line is OK or —.

Step 6. Tell the person about the new session

Your current session does not have the Ground Control tools, because tools are read when a session starts. Tell the person to start a new session, and that in it they can ask you to do things in After Effects. Mention that every run is one undo step and that a copy of the project file is saved before any run that changes it.