Altar Bridge troubleshooting.

Find the message you see, try the fix, then ask again.

“Altar bridge not running”

Cause. After Effects is closed, or Altar’s connection stopped.

Fix. Keep After Effects open with Altar installed. If it stays down, press Reconnect in Altar Chat’s Settings.

Your AI app doesn’t list Altar

Cause. Most apps only load new connections in a new conversation or session.

Fix. Start a new conversation. For Claude Desktop, finish the extension install first. For other apps, restart the app.

“Install Claude Code, then try again” or “Install ChatGPT or Codex, then try again”

Cause. Altar couldn’t find the app on this Mac.

Fix. Install the app, open it once, then press Connect again in Altar Chat.

“An Altar connection already exists with different settings”

Cause. Your AI app already has a server called altar that points somewhere else, often an older install.

Fix. Remove it, then connect again. In Terminal, run claude mcp remove altar --scope user for Claude Code or codex mcp remove altar for ChatGPT and Codex.

“This Altar install is missing its AI connection”

Cause. The Altar Bridge file is missing from this install.

Fix. Reinstall Altar from the download page, restart After Effects and connect again.

“Update Altar” or an unsupported operation

The message starts with UPDATE_ALTAR or UNSUPPORTED_OPERATION.

Cause. Your AI app’s connection is newer than the Altar running in After Effects.

Fix. Update Altar, restart After Effects, then try again.

A request times out or says it stopped waiting

Cause. After Effects was busy, for example rendering or showing a dialog.

Fix. Finish what After Effects is doing and check the comp before you ask again: the change may already have landed. If Altar shows a red banner, press Reset.

ChatGPT in the browser can’t connect

Cause. Altar Bridge runs on your Mac, and chatgpt.com can’t reach local apps.

Fix. Use the ChatGPT desktop app or Codex. See Connect ChatGPT and Codex.

Windows

Altar Bridge is macOS only for now.