Comparison · checked 2026-09-10
Where does your FileMaker script go?
Several tools now move FileMaker script steps in and out of the Script Workspace. They differ on three things that matter more than features: whether you edit readable text or raw XML, whether that text goes back in, and where the conversion runs. Every fact below is taken from the vendor’s own pages on 2026-09-10 and linked.
Side by side
| Tool | What it does with script steps | Readable text back in? | Where the conversion runs | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BaseElements · Codence FM Clipboard Tool | Puts the raw clipboard XML (fmxmlsnippet) on the text clipboard and takes it back. | No. You work in XML. | Locally | Free |
| MBS FileMaker Plugin | A real button MBS adds to FileMaker's own Script Workspace toolbar (macOS): one click copies styled, colored script text; Option-click copies HTML. A scriptable sibling does the same from a hotkey. 15.4 clipboard converter: XML both ways. | Out only. Text does not go back in. | Locally | MBS plug-in license |
| ai2fm | A VS Code extension: readable text in its own fmscript format, converted to FileMaker XML and back. | Yes. | Their server (privacy policy, quoted below). A local pipeline is announced for v3. | IDE layer free; conversion is a 21-day trial, then an annual subscription (their home page lists $120 per year) |
| Claris, built in | FileMaker 2025/2026 AI script steps generate responses and embeddings inside your file; Claris MCP lets an AI run scripts. | Not the job: neither edits script code as text. | Your file plus the AI provider you configure | Included in FileMaker |
| FMScriptBridge (FMSB) | Readable text out of the Script Workspace and the same text back in, losslessly, by hotkey, with a secret scan before the copy and reference and calculation checks on the paste. | Yes, both ways. | Locally, inside FileMaker. No editor extension. | One-time $199, 2 machines, 14-day full trial; no subscription |
Sources for this table
MBS’s Copy Text button tutorial (“We have a button in the Script Workspace for macOS to copy the text of the script… The text includes styles, so all the colors for the lines are included. If you press the option key, you get html text instead.”; toggle added plugin v5.2, the button itself older), the scriptable ScriptWorkspace.CopyScriptText function (v10.1, 2020, same result from a script), and the 15.4 clipboard-converter post for the XML-both-ways half; Claris’s MCP tools guide (“One tool is generated for every script, allowing agents to execute predefined business logic”) and the AI script steps help.
Looking for an ai2fm alternative? Start with where the script goes
ai2fm is the closest tool in purpose: readable script text, edited in an editor, converted back. The architectural difference is stated in its own privacy policy:
“When you use the utility to translate a FileMaker XML script into human-readable text (or vice versa), the XML or text is transmitted over TLS to our transformation engine, processed in volatile memory only, and the response is returned to your device.”
FMScriptBridge converts inside FileMaker on your machine and sends no script content anywhere; the only network traffic is licensing and an optional update check. If your client contracts say code stays on your hardware, that is the row to read first. It is also the row most likely to change (ai2fm announces a local pipeline for a future v3), so here is what does not expire.
The differences that do not expire
- Existing scripts survive the trip. Every step pastes back exactly as FileMaker resolves it by name; a step is only converted to text if it can be reproduced exactly, and anything unrecognized is preserved rather than guessed. All 216 step types through FileMaker 2026, verified on 293 real captured scripts. See a real round trip.
- No editor extension. The conversion lives in the plug-in, so the same clean text works in any editor, any chat window, any agent, on the same day a new one appears.
- You are the gate. A copy that contains a likely secret stops before it reaches the clipboard and offers one-click redaction. On the way back, broken references and calculations that will not compile are surfaced before they break the script.
- One-time license. $199 once for 2 machines, 12 months of new builds from activation, an optional one-time $39 update pass after that, and the build you have works forever either way.
If free is the requirement
For moving raw XML between FileMaker and a text editor, BaseElements and Codence’s FM Clipboard Tool do the job at no cost, and ai2fm’s editor layer is free without its conversion. What you pay FMSB for is the readable text going both ways, locally, with the safety checks, and no extension to keep installed. Try the whole tool free for 14 days before deciding.
What FMScriptBridge does not do
It does not generate scripts or run an AI of its own; you bring the AI. It does not replace Claris’s built-in AI script steps or MCP, which do different jobs. It does not run on FileMaker 2024 or older. The beta is Mac today; the Windows build is planned for launch.
Related: how to copy a FileMaker script as text, and paste it back · the functions FMSB adds · the text format, for AI agents. Product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners; FMScriptBridge is independent of all of them. Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected].