prpr

The missing CLI, Python library, and MCP server for Adobe Premiere Pro.

Declarative. Scriptable. LLM-friendly. Structural sibling of dvr (the same project for DaVinci Resolve) — same namespaces, same routing, same error model.

prpr is a command-line tool, a typed Python library, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for automating Adobe Premiere Pro — editing, sequencing, effects, and export. It drives Premiere's UXP API through a bundled bridge plugin, wraps it in clean idempotent operations with structured JSON output, and makes it usable by humans, scripts, and AI agents (Claude, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible client).

pip install prpr

$ prpr timeline inspect
{
  "name": "Edit_v1",
  "fps": 23.976,
  "duration_frames": 4274,
  "frame_size": {"width": 1920, "height": 1080},
  "tracks": {
    "video": [{"index": 0, "name": "Video 1", "clips": 2, "items": [...]}],
    "audio": [{"index": 0, "name": "Audio 1", "clips": 2, "items": [...]}]
  },
  "markers": [{"name": "start", "start": {"seconds": 1.0}, ...}]
}

How it connects

Premiere has no external scripting socket — its UXP API runs inside the app, and UXP plugins can only dial out. So prpr inverts the connection:

prpr CLI / library / MCP  ──hosts──▶  ws://127.0.0.1:8855  ◀──dials in──  prpr bridge panel (UXP, inside Premiere)

One-time setup:

prpr plugin install     # installs the headless bridge via Adobe's installer
# restart Premiere once so it registers the plugin
prpr doctor --probe     # verify the whole chain

The bridge is headless — a command-entrypoint UXP plugin that starts with Premiere automatically. There's no panel to open or keep open.

Why prpr exists

Premiere's UXP API is powerful but locked inside the app:

• No external process access. Resolve ships a Python API; Premiere gives you a JavaScript sandbox in a panel.
• Action/transaction ceremony. Every mutation needs lockedAccess + executeTransaction + action objects.
• Ticks. Time is measured in 254,016,000,000ths of a second.
• Silent failures. importFiles() returns false and moves on with its day.
• No batch operators, no inspection. You loop getVideoTrack(i) → getTrackItems(...) → six async getters per clip.

prpr wraps all of it: one inspect() call returns full structured state, mutations are single undoable transactions, every failure decodes into an error with a cause, a fix, and a state snapshot.

Three ways to use it

1. Python library

from prpr import Premiere

p = Premiere()                        # hosts the bridge, launches Premiere if needed

p.project.ensure("MyShow")            # open-or-create ~/Documents/prpr Projects/MyShow.prproj
p.media.import_(["/footage/a.mp4"], bin="Footage")

tl = p.timeline.ensure("Edit_v1")
tl.append("a.mp4")
tl.add_marker(1.0, name="start", note="first pass", color_index=1)

p.effects.set_param("Motion", "Scale", 50, clip_name="a.mp4")     # transforms
p.effects.add_transition("ADBE Film Dissolve", clip_name="a.mp4")

job = p.render.submit(target_dir="/exports", preset="prores-422", wait=True)
print(job.output_path)

2. CLI

$ prpr project ensure MyShow
$ prpr media import /footage/*.mp4 --bin Footage
$ prpr timeline inspect | jq '.tracks.video[].items'
$ prpr render submit --target-dir /exports --preset prores-422 --wait
$ prpr apply spec.yaml            # terraform-style declarative reconcile

3. MCP server (for LLM agents)

$ prpr mcp install-claude     # one-shot Claude Desktop setup
$ prpr mcp serve              # or run the stdio server yourself
$ prpr mcp tools              # introspect the typed tools

dvr ↔ prpr: one convention, two apps

prpr and dvr share naming, routing, output envelopes, and the error model. An agent (or human) that knows one knows the other:

Operations one app can't perform fail loudly with a structured NotSupportedError explaining why and what to use instead — never silent degradation. The machine-readable support matrix ships in both packages:

$ prpr schema show parity | jq '.operations["render.queue"]'
{"status": "dvr-only", "reason": "no enumerable render queue in UXP"}

Requirements

• Adobe Premiere Pro 25.6+ (26.x recommended; built and tested against 26.5)
• Python 3.10+
• macOS or Windows (daemon mode is macOS/Linux-style Unix sockets; Windows uses direct mode)

Documentation

• Getting started
• Library guide · CLI reference · MCP server
• Declarative specs · Daemon mode
• dvr ↔ prpr parity

License

MIT © M Hadi