Root Property Keys

Table 1: Property keys in templater-options.json for basic Templater operation

Key Name	Type	Default	Description	Notes
log_location	String	empty	Specifies a path to a directory that Templater uses to output the templater.out and templater.log files	Do not use a path to a file for this key. If you have an application that can examine a text buffer then use templater.out, but if you need to examine the logs using a standard text editor, use the templater.log. For example, you could use the `tail -f templater.out` command on OSX to see what Templater is logging in real-time.
data_source	String	empty	Specifies an absolute path to a TSV file or a URL to a Google Sheets feed	To get the URL feed of a Google Sheets document, copy it from After Effects>>Templater panel>>Google button>>Google Spreadsheet Setup dialog.
aep	String	empty	Specifies an absolute path to the project file to be versioned using the specified data source	The referenced project file should have no missing dependencies. It should not provoke After Effects error or message dialogs when opening it through its GUI.
source_footage	String	empty	Specifies an absolute path to where Templater imports source footage from	Footage sources not local to the machine get downloaded to a subfolder named [TEMPLATER DOWNLOADS] within this path.
output_location	String	empty	Specifies an absolute path to where Templater outputs all renders from the After Effects render queue	Note that you should avoid make a syncing folder a location for rendering. If you can, avoid using Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. as output destinations.
render_settings	String	empty	Specifies the Render Settings Template and used when Templater loads versioned compositions into the After Effects render queue	The value for this key is a string that should match the name as found in After Effects' Render Setting Templates dialog. This key is case sensitive.
output_module	String	empty	Specifies the Output Module Template used when Templater loads versioned compositions into the After Effects render queue	The value for this key is a string that should match the name as found in After Effects' Output Module Templates dialog. This key is case sensitive.
output_prefix	String	empty	A text string that gets prepended to the output	Useful for identifying which files belong to which batch job from within a file explorer.
row_start	Integer	2	Specifies the start row in the data source to begin versioning processes	For Google Sheets and TSV files, value must be greater than 1. For JSON object arrays, value must be greater than 0.
row_end	Integer	7	Specifies the end row in the data source to end versioning processes	Must be greater than 'row_start'
prefs	Object	{...}	A group of keys that configure Templater's preferences	See Prefs Property Keys for details on keys within this object.
save_on_completion	Boolean	false	Specifies whether Templater should save the versioned project file after running its tasks	This is a required key.
quit_on_completion	Boolean	false	Specifies whether Templater should quit after running its tasks	This is a required key.
quit_on_errors	Array	empty	An array that enumerates Templater's error codes. If Templater encounters any error code found in this array, it will force quit the task and After Effects.	See Troubleshooting the Templater CLI for more information of error codes.
tasks	Array	["render"]	An array of one or more string constants referring to specific tasks that Templater can execute. Possible values include the following: `"render"` invokes Templater rendering. `"replicate"` invokes Templater replication. `"bot_enable"` invokes Templater Bot to monitor a data source. `"spot_check"` invokes Templater spot checking. `"sat_register"` invokes Templater to register the current machine as a QUE Satellite. `"sat_auth"` invokes Templater to authorize the current machine as a QUE Satellite. `"sat_deauth"` invokes Templater to deauthorize the current machine as a QUE Satellite. `"sat_remove"` invokes Templater to remove the current machine as a Satellite from QUE.	Multiple tasks can be specified in this array, but it is most common to specify a single task. For example, to register and authorize the machine as a Satellite in QUE this key's value could be set to `["sat_register", "sat_auth"]`. Similarly, if you wanted to de-authorize and remove the machine from your QUE account, you can use `["sat_deauth", "sat_remove"]`. When using `["bot_enable"]` ensure that the `-ui` switch is used when launching the CLI because enabling Bot requires an After Effects' GUI to function properly. Also, ensure that you have set property key `"quit_on_completion"` to `false`. Use `["spot_check"]` when you want Templater to exclusively export Spot Checks. If you want Spot Checks exported while Templater renders or replicates, use either `["render"]` or `["replicate"]` for the array, and set the `"on_render"` or `"on_replicate"` keys in the `"spot_checking"` object to `true`.