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. Perplexity reaches all of it through one connection. This page is about one slice of that — what Perplexity can actually do on Instagram, and what Instagram will not let it do.
Connect Hermoso to Perplexity
- Copy the connector URL.
https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp - Perplexity → Account settings → Connectors → + Custom connector → Remote. Name it Hermoso, paste the URL as the MCP Server URL, set Authentication to OAuth and Transport to Streamable HTTP, tick the acknowledgement and press Add.
- Click the Hermoso card to connect. Sign in with your Hermoso account on the consent page. The Client ID and Client Secret fields stay empty: Perplexity reads Hermoso’s OAuth endpoints from its discovery document and registers itself.
- Ask Perplexity 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.
Custom connectors are on Perplexity’s paid plans. In an Enterprise organization, members can add their own only if an admin has switched on Allow members to add custom connectors, which is off by default, and an admin can instead add Hermoso once for everyone. The steps and field names are quoted from Perplexity’s help center article on custom remote connectors, read on 2026-09-23. Hermoso is not affiliated with or endorsed by Perplexity.
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 Perplexity 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 caption cannot be edited once the post is live: the only thing Meta lets you change on a published post is whether comments are enabled. Deleting one is supported — manage_meta_post removes ordinary posts, Stories, Reels and entire carousel albums, though never a single card out of an album.
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 Perplexity
Ask for it in ordinary language — these are sentences, not a DSL:
“Search Instagram Reels for what is working in plant-based protein, build a 5-slide carousel from the strongest angle, and show me the caption before posting.”
That walks search_instagram → plan_ad → render_ad → post_to_meta (target: "instagram"). How Perplexity confirms a tool call is Perplexity’s setting, not ours. Hermoso’s own gates hold either way: campaigns are born paused, spend switches and deletes need an explicit confirmation, and every render is priced before it runs.
Perplexity on Instagram: the part that bites
Read the caption before it goes out. Instagram has no draft and no edit to a live caption, only a toggle for comments; the post itself can be deleted with manage_meta_post. And search_instagram reads public Reels by keyword, which is evidence Perplexity’s own web search does not reach.
Choose Streamable HTTP, not SSE, when you add the connector. Hermoso has no SSE endpoint, so an SSE connector fails the check Perplexity runs when you save it. In an Enterprise org, a connector an admin adds does not show up for members until it is shared from the Permissions screen.
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 fetch_social_data and search_instagram_hashtag.
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. 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 Perplexity 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 Perplexity, post to: Facebook · Threads · TikTok · YouTube · X · LinkedIn · Pinterest · Bluesky · Telegram — or see everything Perplexity can publish to.
Post to Instagram from: Claude · ChatGPT · Claude Code · Cursor · Codex · Cline · OpenClaw · Grok Bot · Hermes · Gemini CLI · Le Chat
Frequently asked questions
Can Perplexity post to Instagram?
Yes, through Hermoso's MCP server. In Perplexity, add https://app.hermoso.ai/mcp as a custom connector and approve it with your Hermoso account — there is no key to paste. Perplexity then has 850+ 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 Perplexity?
Two steps, once each. In Perplexity, 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 Perplexity publishes to Instagram as an ordinary tool call.
Does Perplexity need my Instagram password?
No. You connect Instagram to Hermoso once through an OAuth consent screen in a browser, and Perplexity then reaches it as a tool call. Linking an account is the one step that is not headless; nothing after it needs a password, and no credential is ever handed to the model.
Can Perplexity schedule a Instagram 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. Instagram is one of the ten channels that queue.
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