remotion-dev/remotion · error

Could not serialize the visual control value

Error message

Could not serialize the visual control value

What it means

applyVisualControl() rewrites the second argument of a visualControl() call in source. It serializes the codemod's new value via stringifyDefaultProps; when that serializer returns undefined (it cannot produce a printable value for the given props), the codemod aborts with this error instead of writing a broken replacement.

Solutions

1. Check the change's newValueSerialized / newValueIsUndefined fields and supply a serializable props value
2. Update @remotion/studio-shared and studio-codemods to matching versions
3. Apply the value change manually in the source file instead of running the codemod

Example fix

// before: change = { id: 'my-control', newValueSerialized: '{}', enumPaths: [] }
// after:   change = { id: 'my-control', newValueSerialized: '"#ff0000"', enumPaths: [] }

const props = JSON.parse(change.newValueSerialized);
if (props === undefined || props === null) throw new Error('Visual control change has no serializable value');

const isSerializable = (v: unknown) => v !== undefined && (typeof v !== 'object' || v === null || Object.keys(v).length > 0);

try {
  applyVisualControl({input, transformation});
} catch (e) {
  if ((e as Error).message.includes('Could not serialize the visual control value')) {
    // fall back to manual edit / re-generate codemod with a valid value
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: A transformation.change with newValueIsUndefined=false whose newValueSerialized parses (via JSON.parse) to a props object that stringifyDefaultProps cannot serialize (e.g. an unsupported or empty value shape).

Common situations: A Studio codemod payload produced by a newer Remotion version contains a new value kind the local serializer does not understand; manually crafted codemod JSON with an empty or malformed value.

Understand the failure class

Background: "JSON serialization failed", "not JSON serializable", "Failed to serialize": why JSON marshaling errors happen and how to fix them — this error's family across 46 libraries.

Related errors

• Could not find as a reorder target
• Expected sequence prop update result
• New composition ID does not match installation target
• New composition source does not match installation target
• No changes were made to the file

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@46a3a6bf13 (2026-09-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b3115b685d11f6ad. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/studio-codemods/src/apply-visual-control.ts:83

			const firstArgument = node.arguments[0];
			const str = expectString(firstArgument);
			const matchingChanges = transformation.changes.filter(
				(candidate) => candidate.id === str,
			);
			const change = matchingChanges.at(-1);
			if (!change) {
				return this.traverse(path);
			}

			const serialized = change.newValueIsUndefined
				? 'undefined'
				: stringifyDefaultProps({
						props: JSON.parse(change.newValueSerialized),
						enumPaths: change.enumPaths,
					});
			if (serialized === undefined) {
				throw new Error('Could not serialize the visual control value');
			}

			const secondArgument = node.arguments[1];
			if (secondArgument) {
				if (!secondArgument.loc) {
					throw new Error('Could not locate the visual control value');
				}

				const start = recastLocToOffset(input, secondArgument.loc.start);
				const end = recastLocToOffset(input, secondArgument.loc.end);
				const lineStart = input.lastIndexOf('\n', start - 1) + 1;
				edits.push({
					start,
					end,
					replacement: formatSerializedValue({
						input,
						linePrefix: input.slice(lineStart, start),
						previousValue: input.slice(start, end).trim(),

View on GitHub (pinned to 46a3a6bf13)