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For those who don’t know the tool: Sekondo connects AI assistants to Adobe applications and works inside editable projects. Developed by Jose Manuel Fernández at Colectivo Zulú, it supports After Effects and Premiere Pro, alongside Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, InDesign and Illustrator.
Creative work. Again. Again. Again.
It is strange how much creative work consists of doing the same thing again. Invent the look, solve the timing, make the important decisions. Then change the same field 500 times. Apparently, creative freedom includes the freedom to develop a very personal relationship with copy and paste. This is where an assistant starts sounding useful.
Sekondo provides a conversational layer for automation inside the application. The AI use that interests us here is not generating another image, but filling in that field 500 times: repeated changes, naming and project assembly, with editable results. Think of the same text change across a pile of deliverables. Give the repetitive part to the machine; retain the decisions that require eyes, a brain and at least some taste.
For the editor visiting the comp
The After Effects demonstration builds a brand presentation with compositions, masks, centred anchor points, named layers and expression-driven animation. The Premiere example organises clips into bins, assembles a highlights sequence and adds lower thirds. These are developer demonstrations, not our own production tests.
But that offers an interesting starting point if you know Premiere and occasionally need After Effects, or live in After Effects and have been handed an edit. Describe the intended job instead of starting with a search for the relevant panel. Knowing what the result should do remains essential (And yes, these days we feel the need to say that), but finding the panel in the tool you don’t use every day?
Translate the handoff, not just the catalogue
Repetition is only part of the appeal. Translation, inspection and organising a messy project require interpreting what is already there. Sekondo’s workflow overview covers captions and document translation, repairing links, creating missing styles, handling overset text and tidying unnamed layers, swatches and clips. The result stays in the application, where you can inspect it. This helps with an existing job, rather than requiring you to invent another picture.
A useful request would be to translate project notes for a colleague who reads a language less comfortably, while retaining shot IDs, frame numbers, technical terms, and the original alongside the translation. So, the Swabian Editor, for example. That is a suggested handoff workflow, not a claim that Sekondo exposes every kind of note or marker in every host. Ask it to identify the accessible text first. Marketing’s preferred dialect can have a glossary of its own. “Make it pop” remains regrettably international.
In the InDesign demonstration, translation works through text frames and table cells while retaining their styling and adjusting overflow. That does not make a translation automatically ready for delivery: names, terminology and any changed line breaks still deserve a review. A translator who can also reach the layout controls is an appealing combination, particularly when the new language declines to fit inside the old rectangle.
The cleanup we were definitely going to do
Renaming layers, grouping related elements and applying a studio’s naming rules are documented use cases. In After Effects, the demonstration names and colour-codes layers; the Premiere example renames clips by scene and organises bins. The interesting request is more specific than “clean up”: inspect the contents, propose descriptive names, preserve meaningful identifiers, and show the mapping before changing anything.
“Look inside each layer and suggest a title describing its role” is a worthwhile test brief. It depends on what the host exposes and what can actually be inferred from the content. Ask it to flag uncertain names rather than confidently turning an unexplained adjustment layer into “Final Colour”. Cleaning a project should make it easier to understand, not introduce a second mystery with better spelling. We all enthusiastically endorse this housekeeping, usually in somebody else’s project.
The folder beside the project matters too
The desktop connection also makes a broader repair workflow interesting. Where Codex has been granted access to the relevant asset folder, you can ask it to search for candidates for missing links, compare names and paths, and propose replacements. That combines the assistant’s permitted filesystem access with Sekondo’s documented relinking capability. Installing Sekondo does not by itself establish unrestricted access to every drive or network share.
A sensible job would start with a missing-link report, search only the supplied locations, and present ambiguous matches before relinking. A file called “logo_final” is still optimism, not proof that it is the correct logo. The assistant cannot restore an absent asset merely by locating its name in the project, and an available replacement still needs checking for version, dimensions and content. Treat this as a workflow to validate on a copy, not a guaranteed repair of any broken project.
A brief still helps
The setup and operating guide names tested connections through Claude Code and ChatGPT via Codex, not browser ChatGPT. Sekondo is a standard MCP server; other compatible clients are possible, but those two are the documented tested choices. The installer adds Adobe panels and the bridge. Enter the licence key, open a document and check the panel’s connection indicator. As with Autograph’s MCP integration, the assistant gets application tools.
Name the document explicitly: switching the frontmost window can otherwise redirect a later command. Inspect first and divide large changes into batches; interrupted commands can leave partial work. Commands normally form one undo group, except in Illustrator. Undo followed by a fresh edit loses redo. Sekondo excludes administrator-password operations and emptying the trash; Generative Fill requires your click. A modal dialog or unfinished transform can block execution. The panel distinguishes working, disconnected and ready states; a static Adobe viewport may simply mean a script is running.
One assistant can work per application at a time. Different applications can have separate assistants sharing the bridge, including mixed Claude and ChatGPT sessions. The panel-to-bridge connection is local and needs no inbound ports.
The data-flow distinction matters: Sekondo says it does not receive or store the documents, while relevant text, measurements and sometimes screenshots go to your chosen AI provider. Local files do not make the whole process offline.
One high point that needs pointing out these days: If you stop using it, files remain ordinary Adobe documents after cancellation, including the styles, expressions and actions already created.
Sekondo runs on macOS 11+ and Windows 10+, supporting Adobe releases from 2024, with Premiere Pro requiring 25.6+. Plans cost €15, €29 or €47 monthly for one, three or six apps, excluding VAT; Studio is €39 per seat monthly, minimum five. Your AI subscription is separate. Each licence covers up to two computers. Annual billing charges ten months for twelve; Studio adds seat reassignment and consolidated invoicing. The card-required seven-day trial becomes paid unless cancelled, with a 15-day refund window after the first payment. Cancellation leaves access until the paid period ends and does not alter the documents.
Image workflows in Photoshop and Lightroom Classic
And then you draw the short straw
There is also help for the occasional InDesign or Illustrator assignment. In every team, somebody has to do the presentation, and if it’s you? Get the masterfiles, and before changing a layout, ask for an inventory of fonts, text frames and overflow, then specify which styles and sizes must survive. A sensible next request is to list available replacements and propose a mapping for review, where the installed tools expose that information. It is not permission to replace the corporate typeface with whatever happens to fit, no matter how ironically in love you are with Comic Sans.
If you drew the short straw and now have to make the company presentation, the brand-manual and layout workflows become rather more relevant. Ask it to repair the inherited document, reconcile styles, check links and report what still needs a human decision. The “quick favour” has acquired eighteen pages. At least you may have someone to help move the boxes, list the fonts and translate the notes before the marketing department requests a “small adjustment”.
| Tool / company | Sekondo / Sekondo Solutions, S.L.U. |
| Platforms | macOS 11+; Windows 10+ |
| Monthly plans, excl. VAT | €15 / €29 / €47 for 1 / 3 / 6 apps |
| Studio | €39 per licence/month; minimum 5 |
| Trial | 7 days; card required |
Topics
Adobe After Effects337 postsA busy playground for layers, keyframes and the occasional expression. Explore After Effects news, techniques and motion-design workflows for turning graphic ideas into animation and assembled elements into finished shots.
Adobe Premiere Pro239 postsFollow the story along the timeline. Explore Premiere Pro updates, editing techniques and production workflows, from organising source material to refining the cut and handing work on to the next department.
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- Bela Beier
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