Hermoso is a marketing MCP server: 301 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 reaches all of it through one connection. This page is about one slice of that — what Claude can actually do on Instagram, and what Instagram will not let it do.
Connect Hermoso to Claude
- Copy the connector URL.
https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp - Claude → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. Name it Hermoso and paste the URL.
- Connect and approve. Sign in with your Hermoso account on the consent page. There is no key to paste — the connector signs in with OAuth and mints its own.
- Ask Claude 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.
Claude and ChatGPT are the two clients where nothing is pasted: the hosted connector runs a full OAuth handshake with PKCE and dynamic client registration, and the key it mints is scoped to the brand workspace you approved it against — pinned on the server, not read off the request.
Then connect Instagram 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 Instagram tools Claude gets
post_to_meta— publishes to Instagram withtarget: "instagram". Instagram is a visual channel and the API agrees — a post needs an image or a video.schedule_post— queues it on the shared calendar, with a per-channel caption if the copy should differ from your Facebook or LinkedIn version.list_meta_comments / reply_to_meta_comment / moderate_meta_comment— read, reply and moderate under a post.meta_page_insights / meta_post_insights— reach, impressions, saves and engagement, per account and per post.search_instagram— keyword search across public Instagram Reels — research, not publishing.
Two Instagram facts worth knowing before you automate anything. There is no native Instagram scheduling in Meta’s API, so a schedule is Hermoso’s queue rather than Instagram’s, and passing Facebook’s scheduleAt for Instagram is refused rather than silently posted now. And an Instagram post cannot be edited or deleted through the API at all — whatever goes out, stays, and has to be removed by hand in the app.
Instagram limits worth knowing before you automate anything
| Text | An Instagram caption is capped at 2,200 characters. 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 | Public only. Meta’s Content Publishing API publishes, full stop — “Instagram publishes immediately when it publishes at all — it has no unlisted, private or draft post.” If you want a review step on Instagram, it has to happen before the call, not after. |
| Carousel | 2 to 10 slides, and images and video may be mixed. That upper bound is Meta’s own, quoted in the capability table it enforces: “Carousels are limited to 10 images, videos, or a mix of the two.” The floor of 2 is ours, because one slide is not a carousel on any platform — a single-slide ask publishes as an ordinary post rather than being refused. |
| Which account | pageId — Instagram publishes through the connected Facebook Page, so the same identity field selects it. |
Try it in Claude
Ask for it in ordinary language — these are sentences, not a DSL:
“Search Instagram Reels for what is working in electrolyte drinks, build me a 6-slide carousel from the strongest angle, and post it with a caption under 2,200 characters.”
That walks search_instagram → plan_ad → render_ad → post_to_meta (target: "instagram"). Every tool call happens inside the conversation, so you see the Page, the board or the caption before anything publishes, and you can stop it by saying so.
Claude on Instagram: the part that bites
Instagram is the channel where Claude’s in-conversation approval earns its keep, because Instagram gives you nothing after the fact: there is no draft, no edit and no delete through the API. Read the caption and look at the render in the chat before you say go — that is the only review step this channel has.
Claude Desktop uses the same Connectors flow as claude.ai — there is no separate desktop setup.
Research Instagram before you post
search_meta_ads covers Instagram placements as well as Facebook — it is one library. For organic, search_instagram searches public Reels by keyword, which is the surface where the format actually moves; profile and hashtag pulls go through scrapecreators_fetch.
The paid half
Instagram placements are bought through the same Meta campaign tree as Facebook: create_meta_campaign → create_meta_adset → create_meta_ad, with placements selectable per platform and position. Objects are created paused with no caller override, preview_meta_ad shows the real rendered ad per placement before you spend, and meta_insights breaks results down by age, gender, placement and country — which is the input to the next creative, not just a total.
What Claude 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, post to: Facebook · Threads · TikTok · YouTube · X · LinkedIn · Pinterest — or see everything Claude can publish to.
Post to Instagram from: ChatGPT · Claude Code · Cursor · Codex · Cline · OpenClaw · Hermes · AI marketing in Claude
Frequently asked questions
Can Claude post to Instagram?
Yes, through Hermoso's MCP server. In Claude, add https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp as a custom connector and approve it with your Hermoso account — there is no key to paste. Claude then has 301 tools, including the ones that publish to Instagram — and the ones that research the ads already running in your market and render the creative in the first place.
How do I connect Instagram to Claude?
Two steps, once each. In Claude, add https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp as a custom connector and approve it with your Hermoso account — there is no key to paste. Then connect Instagram inside Hermoso under Settings → Connectors, which is an OAuth consent screen in a browser. After that Claude publishes to Instagram as an ordinary tool call.
Can Claude post a carousel to Instagram?
Yes — 2 to 10 slides, and images and video can be mixed. Ten is Meta’s own published limit, not one Hermoso invented. Claude calls the same publish tool either way, and a channel that cannot carry a carousel is refused with the real reason attached.
What does it cost to post to Instagram from Claude?
Publishing to Instagram costs no credits; Meta charges nothing per API call. Credits go on the render itself. Plans are $19, $49 and $149 a month for 1,000, 3,000 and 10,000 credits, and every feature is on every plan including Free — the only exception is enterprise SSO.
Start free — 25 credits at signup and 250+ more to earn, and every feature on every plan.
Start free → See pricing