remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

Studio playback controls are not ready.

Error message

Studio playback controls are not ready.

What it means

The play tool requires Internals.timeValueRef.current to be non-null; it is null when the Studio player/playback UI has not mounted yet.

Source

Thrown at packages/studio/src/components/WebMcp.tsx:1533

						type: 'object',
						properties: {},
						additionalProperties: false,
					},
					annotations: {readOnlyHint: false},
					execute: () => {
						const compositionId = currentCompositionRef.current;
						if (compositionId === null) {
							throw new Error('No composition is currently selected.');
						}

						if (getCurrentDuration() <= 1) {
							throw new Error(
								'The current composition is a still and cannot play.',
							);
						}

						if (Internals.timeValueRef.current === null) {
							throw new Error('Studio playback controls are not ready.');
						}

						play();
						return Promise.resolve({
							currentContent: currentContentRef.current,
							playing: true,
						});
					},
				},
				{signal: controller.signal},
			),
			modelContext.registerTool(
				{
					name: 'pause',
					title: 'Pause Studio composition',
					description:
						'Pause the current Remotion Studio composition at the current frame.',
					inputSchema: {

View on GitHub (pinned to b2f4e34732)

Solutions

1. Wait for the Studio player UI to be mounted (composition fully loaded) before calling play
2. Retry after load completes

try { await playTool(); } catch (e) { if (e.message.includes('not ready')) { await waitForStudioReady(); await playTool(); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling play very early during Studio bootstrap before the player controls are mounted, or in an environment where the player did not render.

Common situations: Racing MCP tool calls against Studio startup.

Related errors

• The current composition is a still and cannot play.
• The artifact filename ${artifact.filename} was emitted more
• compositionName must be a string.
• Composition ${compositionName} not found.
• sequenceId must be a non-empty string.

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@b2f4e34732 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9a8231b9c0bbf250. Report an issue: GitHub.