Hermoso is a marketing MCP server: 830+ tools over one OAuth’d endpoint that let an agent research the ads already running in a market, generate finished image and video ads, publish them, and build the paid campaigns behind them. Claude Code reaches all of it through one connection. This page is about one slice of that — what Claude Code can actually do on TikTok, and what TikTok will not let it do.
Connect Hermoso to Claude Code
- One command, and no key.
Already inside a session? Typeclaude plugin marketplace add hermoso-ai/hermoso && claude plugin install hermoso@hermoso/plugin marketplace add hermoso-ai/hermoso, then/plugin install hermoso@hermoso. It installs four Hermoso skills (research, ad-from-brand, generate, product-photoshoot) that run thehermosocommand throughnpx, so no tool list is loaded into your sessions and nothing costs context until it runs. - Sign in once.
It opens a browser sign-in on loopback, the waynpx -y hermoso auth loginghdoes, and stores an owner-only credential in~/.hermoso/config.json. Claude Code runs it for you the first time it needs Hermoso. No browser on that machine, say CI, a remote box or a container? Create a key under Settings → Agents & API keys and runnpx -y hermoso auth login --token hmk_…. A key carries real spend authority, so treat it like a password. - Optional: the MCP server as well. If you also want Hermoso’s tools in Claude Code’s own tool list, run
claude mcp add hermoso -- npx -y hermoso mcpafter signing in. It reads the same stored credential, so no key goes into.claude.json. The skills reach every tool without it. - Ask Claude Code for something. “Pull my three closest competitors’ longest-running ads and remix the best hook into a 9:16 video,” or “post this render to the channel.” The agent picks the tools; you approve the spend.
The plugin and the optional MCP server reach the same tools and the same account. The difference is context: a tool list is loaded into every session before you type anything, while the skills cost nothing until a command runs.
Then connect TikTok itself, once, under Settings → Connectors in Hermoso. That is an OAuth consent screen, so it is the one step that needs a browser — everything after it is a tool call.
The TikTok tools Claude Code gets
post_to_tiktok— uploads a finished video, or a photo post of up to 35 images, either straight to the profile or into your TikTok drafts. It also carries the interaction settings — comments, duet, stitch — the cover frame, and the branded-content disclosure.schedule_post— queues it for later on the shared calendar.tiktok_account / tiktok_creator_info— the account’s bio, verification, follower and video counts, and what privacy levels the account itself allows.list_tiktok_videos— recent posts with views, likes, comments and shares.search_tiktok— keyword search across public TikTok — the research half.
Two more operational facts. TikTok photo posts are pulled from a URL rather than uploaded, so the host serving the images has to be verified in TikTok’s developer portal before photo posts can go out at all. And there are no TikTok comment or moderation tools here — publishing and reading are covered, replying is not.
TikTok limits worth knowing before you automate anything
| Text | A TikTok video caption is capped at 2,200 characters, a photo-post caption at 4,000, and a photo title at 90. It is enforced when the post is created or queued — refused while you are still there to fix it, rather than silently cut on the way out. |
|---|---|
| Visibility | This is the one to read before you plan anything. TikTok’s content-sharing guidelines restrict an unaudited app to self-only posts, TikTok enforces it at post time, and Hermoso refuses up front rather than failing hours later: “until the app passes TikTok’s review, their content-sharing guidelines restrict it to SELF_ONLY (private-to-you) posts. Two things that DO work right now: post with privacy SELF_ONLY, or send it to TikTok drafts (destination 'draft') and publish it yourself in the app.” Hermoso has not passed TikTok’s review yet, so that is today’s behaviour — and the scheduler removes public from TikTok’s options at enqueue rather than accepting a schedule that is guaranteed to fail. |
| Carousel | Up to 35 images as a TikTok photo post, images only. That number is TikTok’s: “An array containing up to 35 photo content URLs.” The order is the slideshow, so slide order is the product. One image is simply a one-slide post, not a refusal. |
| Which account | None — TikTok publishes to the connected account. |
Try it in Claude Code
Ask for it in ordinary language — these are sentences, not a DSL:
“Render three variations of the hook, upload all three to TikTok drafts with their captions and cover frames set, and print the draft ids.”
That walks search_tiktok → plan_ad → render_ad → post_to_tiktok. Claude Code asks before it runs a tool, and the transcript is right there in the terminal — so a publish step is a line you can read before you press y.
Claude Code on TikTok: the part that bites
The drafts path is what makes TikTok usable from a terminal at all: an agent can produce and upload a batch, and the publish decision stays a human tap in the TikTok app. Do not build a pipeline around public posting — while Hermoso is unaudited, TikTok accepts only self-only from it, and Hermoso refuses up front with “nothing was uploaded and nothing was charged” rather than burning a render.
The plugin carries no tool manifest, which matters most on a long unattended run: the agent shells out to the hermoso command per step, and --json on any command gives it machine output to assert on.
Research TikTok before you post
There is no TikTok ad library to search the way Meta’s can be searched, so TikTok research is organic: search_tiktok finds what is working by keyword, and analyze_video will pull a clip apart into its hook, beats and on-screen text so the pattern can be reused rather than guessed at.
The paid half
TikTok Ads is one of the nine paid platforms Hermoso builds and reads campaigns on, and it is a separate connection from the organic one — the Marketing API approval that carries campaigns is not the content-sharing audit that governs posting, so the two halves of TikTok can be in different states at the same time. Hermoso says which is which rather than letting one imply the other. Only a confirm-gated status switch arms real money.
What Claude Code cannot do on its own
An agent with a budget is only useful if the blast radius is bounded, so the fence is in the server rather than in a prompt. Every ad campaign, ad set, ad group and ad is created paused, and the status switches that arm real money refuse to run without an explicit confirmation flag. Every render is quoted first — hermoso_capabilities publishes each model’s exact credit cost before anything spends — and credits are reserved before the first provider call and settled at the exact cost afterwards, so a failed dispatch refunds rather than leaving you billed for nothing. Deletes are confirm-gated too, and every campaign tree is read back from the ad platform before your agent tells you what it built.
One step is deliberately not headless: linking an account is an OAuth consent screen, so you connect the channel once in a browser. Everything after that is a tool call.
The rest of the matrix
From Claude Code, post to: Facebook · Instagram · Threads · YouTube · X · LinkedIn · Pinterest — or see everything Claude Code can publish to.
Post to TikTok from: Claude · ChatGPT · Cursor · Codex · Cline · OpenClaw · Grok Bot · Hermes · Claude Code marketing
Frequently asked questions
Can Claude Code post to TikTok?
Yes, with Hermoso's Claude Code plugin. One command: claude plugin marketplace add hermoso-ai/hermoso && claude plugin install hermoso@hermoso, or inside a session /plugin marketplace add hermoso-ai/hermoso then /plugin install hermoso@hermoso. It installs four Hermoso skills that drive the hermoso CLI, so no tool list is loaded into your sessions. Sign in once with npx -y hermoso auth login, which opens a browser and stores the credential itself, so there is no key to create and none to paste. Claude Code then has 830+ tools, including the ones that publish to TikTok — and the ones that research the ads already running in your market and render the creative in the first place.
How do I connect TikTok to Claude Code?
Two steps, once each. One command: claude plugin marketplace add hermoso-ai/hermoso && claude plugin install hermoso@hermoso, or inside a session /plugin marketplace add hermoso-ai/hermoso then /plugin install hermoso@hermoso. It installs four Hermoso skills that drive the hermoso CLI, so no tool list is loaded into your sessions. Sign in once with npx -y hermoso auth login, which opens a browser and stores the credential itself, so there is no key to create and none to paste. Then connect TikTok inside Hermoso under Settings → Connectors, which is an OAuth consent screen in a browser. After that Claude Code publishes to TikTok as an ordinary tool call.
Can Claude Code post a carousel to TikTok?
Yes — a TikTok photo post takes up to 35 images, in the order you pass them, and the order is the slideshow. Video cannot be mixed in. Claude Code calls the same publish tool either way, and a channel that cannot carry a carousel is refused with the real reason attached.
Can Claude Code schedule a TikTok post for later?
Yes. schedule_post queues it on one calendar shared with every other channel, with a per-channel caption if the copy should differ, and list_scheduled and cancel_scheduled read and pull it back. TikTok is one of the ten channels that queue.
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