Aerendercore won't execute my jsx using AppleScript

[J_Nas]

Hello, on OSX I try to run a script without the After Effects GUI using AppleScript. But I get the error

aerendercore got an error: "/Users/jochem/Desktop/hello.jsx" doesn’t understand the “DoScriptFile” message.

I read here that this can be done succesfully:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/is-it-possible-to-run-jsx-script-without-gu... 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/return-values-of-the-osascript-running-the-... 

tell application "aerendercore"
to activate
end tell

works, starts aerendercore

tell application "aerendercore"
DoScriptFile "/Users/jochem/Desktop/hello.jsx"
end tell

throws error: aerendercore got an error: "/Users/jochem/Desktop/hello.jsx" doesn’t understand the “DoScriptFile” message.

tell application "Adobe After Effects 2020"
to DoScriptFile "/Users/jochem/Desktop/hello.jsx"
end tell

works, but just to check that the script is working and the syntax of the applescript is right.

the script hello.jsx to test is opening a file and saving it as another

var my_file = new File("/Users/jochem/Desktop/hello.aep");
if (my_file.exists) {
var new_project = app.open(my_file);
app.project.save(File("/Users/jochem/Desktop/bye.aep"));
}

Is it something obvious I miss here? Does my script need anything additional? Any pointer into the right direction is much appreciated.

Running AfterEffects 2020 on OSX 10.15.7

[Justin T - Hyper Brew]

Using aerendercore is undocumented and unsupported, but some devs have found ways to use it, so you really just have to do trial and error to get stuff to work with it. In this case it probably doesn't recognize the DoScriptFile command like the regular ae does. Maybe try After Effects flags? ( I forget if they work on Mac or not ). Or mabye add a script to the AE Startup Scripts folder and check if the process is aerendercore somehow.