One Windows installer covers all five apps. It takes about two minutes: run it, paste your licence key once in the Launcher, and open the panel in whichever app you work in.
If you are here because something already went wrong, the fixes are at the bottom and each one names the actual cause.
The whole install in 31 seconds: the installer, activation in the Launcher, and the panel opening in After Effects.
Windows, 64-bit. macOS is on the waitlist and has not been released.
Not needed. Everything installs inside your own user folder.
After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and DaVinci Resolve. A running app locks its own folders.
Your licence key. The installer asks for it and uses it to decide what to install.
Five steps, and only the fourth changes depending on which apps you use.
After purchase the download sits on your order page, alongside your licence key. It is a single Windows installer, around 26MB, and you do not need a separate download for each app: one installer carries every bridge your key covers.
The installer asks for your licence key early, and that answer decides what gets installed: a key that covers Figma only will grey out the Illustrator and Photoshop options rather than install panels you cannot use. Close After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator and DaVinci Resolve first, because a running app holds its extension folder open.
The Launcher is the one window behind every panel: it holds your licence and runs the local bridge the apps talk to. Open it from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut the installer made, paste your key on the Connections page, and every app you installed unlocks at once. There is no second key to enter inside After Effects.
After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator all share the same menu path. Figma runs a free Community plugin instead, and DaVinci Resolve gets a Fusion script because it has no extension system at all. The cards below give the exact path for each.
Open After Effects with a composition ready, then select a few layers in Figma, Illustrator or Photoshop and press the send button in the Prism panel there. The layers are rebuilt in the open composition as editable native layers. If nothing arrives, the Launcher is the first place to look: its Connections page shows which apps are talking to the bridge right now.
Three of the five share one panel and one menu path. Figma and DaVinci Resolve are different because their apps are, not because Prism treats them differently.
Window > Extensions > Prism
After Effects is the destination for all four other apps, so its panel is installed whichever plan you hold. It is also the panel that builds the layers, so it has to be open when a design arrives.
Plugins > Prism (free, from the Figma Community)
The Figma half is a free Community plugin, not part of the installer. The installer opens its page for you when it finishes. It works in the browser and in the Figma desktop app equally.
Window > Extensions > Prism
Same panel, same menu path as After Effects. The installer only lays it down when your key covers the Illustrator bridge, so if the checkbox was greyed out during setup, that is why.
Window > Extensions > Prism
Same panel and menu path again. Layer masks and vector masks arrive as real masks rather than flattened pixels, so the Photoshop panel is worth opening even for a single masked layer.
Workspace > Scripts > Prism Receive
Resolve has no extension system, so there is no panel here and nothing to dock. Prism installs two Fusion scripts instead, and Resolve lists them in its own Scripts menu. Restart Resolve once after installing or the menu will not have re-read its folder.
The Launcher has an Updates page that patches itself and every panel in place, so a fix does not mean downloading the whole installer again. Each app carries its own badge, and you can update one without touching the others.
After any update, reopen the panel in the app. A panel loads its code once when it opens, so an open one keeps running the old version until it is closed and opened again. The Launcher itself needs quitting from the tray rather than just closing its window, because the part that runs the bridge lives in the tray process.
Six failures with known causes. If yours is not here, the bug report link in the Launcher reaches us with the details already attached.
Almost always the app was open while the installer ran, so its extension folder was locked and the panel landed nowhere. Close After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator completely and run the installer again. If the menu is still empty, the app was installed somewhere the installer did not expect, or Adobe has reset the setting that allows unsigned extensions, which the installer writes during setup.
This one has a single common cause: the window was opened by running Prism.exe directly instead of through the Prism shortcut. The shortcut starts the tray process that hosts the local server; the executable on its own opens the window without it, so the window has nothing to talk to. Quit it and open Prism from the Start menu or the desktop icon.
Resolve reads its scripts folder when it starts, so a script copied in while it was running will not be listed. Restart Resolve once. If it is still missing, your licence key does not cover the DaVinci Resolve bridge: the installer only copies those scripts when it does, which is why nothing appeared even though the install reported success.
Close the panel and open it again from Window > Extensions. The panel loads its code once when it opens, so it will keep showing the old state for as long as it stays open, including right after an update. Reopening is also the correct step after any Prism update: the update reaches the files, the open panel does not re-read them.
Each bridge is part of a plan, and a key unlocks the bridges its plan includes. The message is not a fault, it is the licence answering honestly. Your order page lists what the key covers, and the store page lists what each plan includes.
SmartScreen warns about any installer it has not seen signed, which includes this one. Choose More info, then Run anyway. The installer needs no administrator rights and writes only inside your own user folder, which you can confirm before running it.
Yes, the free Prism plugin from the Figma Community. It is not part of the Windows installer, though the installer opens its page for you when it finishes. It works the same in the browser and in the Figma desktop app.
No. It installs for your user account only and writes inside your own AppData folder, which is also why it does not ask for a password.
No. Activation happens once in the Launcher and covers every app you installed. The panels ask for nothing.
Not yet. Prism is Windows only today. There is a macOS waitlist on the store page, and joining it is the way to be told when it is ready.
Almost never. The Launcher has an Updates page that patches itself and each panel in place, and every app carries its own badge so you take only what you need. A full installer is needed again only when the Launcher's own runtime changes, and the Launcher says so when that happens.
Yes, with a composition, because the After Effects panel is what builds the arriving layers. The Launcher can run without it, but a transfer has nowhere to land.
The guide walks through what each app sends and what arrives on the other side.