Hermoso is a marketing MCP server: 850+ 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. Gemini CLI reaches all of it through one connection. This page is about one slice of that — what Gemini CLI can actually do on TikTok, and what TikTok will not let it do.
Connect Hermoso to Gemini CLI
- Install the extension.
It installs the latest release of Hermoso’s public repository: five skills (research, ad-from-brand, generate, product-photoshoot and marketing) plus agemini extensions install https://github.com/hermoso-ai/hermosoGEMINI.mdcontext file. The skills run thehermosocommand throughnpx, so nothing is added to Gemini CLI’s tool list and nothing costs context until a command runs.gemini extensions listshows them under Agent skills. - Sign in once.
It opens a browser sign-in and stores an owner-only credential innpx -y hermoso auth login~/.hermoso/config.json. Gemini CLI can run it for you the first time it needs Hermoso. No browser on that machine? Create a key under MCP & CLI → Terminal & API keys and runnpx -y hermoso auth login --token hmk_…. - Optional: the MCP server as well.
Gemini CLI finds Hermoso’s authorization server when the first connection answers 401 and registers itself, so no key goes ingemini mcp add --scope user --transport http hermoso https://app.hermoso.ai/mcpsettings.json;/mcp auth hermosoinside a session runs the sign-in. The skills reach every tool without it. - Ask Gemini CLI 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.
We ran the install above on 2026-09-23 against Gemini CLI 0.60.0 in a clean home directory: it pulled the current release of hermoso-ai/hermoso, and gemini extensions list reported the five skills and the context file. The extension carries no MCP server of its own, which is deliberate: a tool list is loaded into every session, and skills cost nothing until they run. Hermoso is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.
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 Gemini CLI 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 Gemini CLI
Ask for it in ordinary language — these are sentences, not a DSL:
“Render two 15-second hook variations for our product and upload both to my TikTok drafts with captions and a cover frame.”
That walks search_tiktok → plan_ad → render_ad → post_to_tiktok. Gemini CLI asks before it runs a shell command, and the skills act through the hermoso command, so a publish shows up as a line you can read before you say yes. For MCP tools it offers once, always for that tool, or always for the server.
Gemini CLI on TikTok: the part that bites
Drafts are the working path: the video, caption, cover and interaction settings arrive in TikTok and you press publish on your phone. While Hermoso is unaudited, TikTok accepts only self-only posts from it, and asking for public is refused up front with nothing uploaded and nothing charged, so a terminal run cannot burn a render on it.
Two Gemini CLI details decide how safe this is. gemini mcp add writes to the project’s .gemini/settings.json unless you pass --scope user, which is useful when one repo should always run against one brand. And never add Hermoso with --trust: it skips every confirmation for the server, including the ones in front of a publish. MCP tools arrive named mcp_hermoso_ plus the tool name, and --exclude-tools keeps any of them out entirely.
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 Gemini CLI 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 Gemini CLI, post to: Facebook · Instagram · Threads · YouTube · X · LinkedIn · Pinterest · Bluesky · Telegram — or see everything Gemini CLI can publish to.
Post to TikTok from: Claude · ChatGPT · Claude Code · Cursor · Codex · Cline · OpenClaw · Grok Bot · Hermes · Perplexity · Le Chat
Frequently asked questions
Can Gemini CLI post to TikTok?
Yes, with Hermoso's Gemini CLI extension. Run gemini extensions install https://github.com/hermoso-ai/hermoso, which adds five Hermoso skills that drive the hermoso command, then sign in once with npx -y hermoso auth login. The sign-in opens a browser and stores the credential itself, so there is no key to create and none to paste. If you also want Hermoso's tools in Gemini CLI's own list, gemini mcp add --scope user --transport http hermoso https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp adds the hosted server, which signs in with OAuth. Gemini CLI then has 850+ 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 Gemini CLI?
Two steps, once each. Run gemini extensions install https://github.com/hermoso-ai/hermoso, which adds five Hermoso skills that drive the hermoso command, then sign in once with npx -y hermoso auth login. The sign-in opens a browser and stores the credential itself, so there is no key to create and none to paste. If you also want Hermoso's tools in Gemini CLI's own list, gemini mcp add --scope user --transport http hermoso https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp adds the hosted server, which signs in with OAuth. Then connect TikTok inside Hermoso under Settings → Connectors, which is an OAuth consent screen in a browser. After that Gemini CLI publishes to TikTok as an ordinary tool call.
What is the TikTok caption limit when posting from Gemini CLI?
A TikTok video caption can run to 2,200 characters and a photo-post caption to 4,000. Hermoso enforces it when the post is created or queued, so Gemini CLI is told immediately rather than failing later when nobody is watching.
Can Gemini CLI research TikTok before it posts?
Yes, but organically — there is no TikTok ad library to search. search_tiktok finds what is working by keyword, and analyze_video breaks a clip into its hook, beats and on-screen text.
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