TikTok MCP Server & CLI

What is the TikTok MCP server & CLI?

The TikTok MCP server & CLI is a free, open source program that lets AI agents work with your TikTok account for you, in 2 ways. The MCP server is what an AI app like Claude, Codex or Cursor connects to, through MCP (Model Context Protocol), the open standard AI apps use to call outside tools.

You ask in plain language. Your AI picks the right tool, and the server makes the call to TikTok's official API.

The CLI is the same program as commands. tiktok-cli top-videos runs the same code your AI runs when you ask which videos travelled, whether an agent like Claude Code runs it or you do.

What can you ask it?

Once it's set up, you ask the way you'd ask an assistant. These are real prompts it handles:

Try asking
Which of my TikToks beat my median view count, and what do they have in common?
What is my real engagement rate per post, not the number the app shows me?
Rank my last 200 posts by shares rather than views.
Draft a TikTok from this MP4 and put it in my inbox, so I can review it on my phone.
Publish this photo carousel with the first image as the cover and comments off.
Did the video I posted 20 minutes ago clear moderation yet?

The third one shows why this is useful. TikTok's app sorts your videos by date, and here your AI can rank 200 of them by shares, the posts that actually travelled.

How to install the TikTok MCP server

Pick your app in the box at the top of this page. You get a refresh token once in a terminal, then add the server to your app with a single command or a pasted block.

Set up your TikTok app

TikTok has no personal access tokens, so everyone makes a small app of their own. It's more work than most platforms, and it's the same for everybody.

Get your refresh token

Run the auth step with your app's key and secret. It prints a sign-in link, and once you approve, it prints a refresh token that lasts about 365 days.

export TIKTOK_CLIENT_KEY=your_client_key
export TIKTOK_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
npx -y @thenavidm/tiktok-mcp-cli auth

Add --publish to that command if you added the publishing scopes. Those 3 values go in your app's config, as the box at the top shows.

Publishing needs a verified domain

TikTok pulls your video or photos from a link, and only from a domain you've proved you own. Verify it under URL properties on the app page, or skip this if you only read your stats or use drafts.

Check that it works

Run the doctor. It tests every connected account, names the scopes it was given, and says which tools are unavailable and why.

npx -y @thenavidm/tiktok-mcp-cli doctor

A "token rejected" means the refresh token ran out or was revoked, so run the auth step again.

Use the TikTok CLI

The CLI is the same 14 tools as commands. AI agents that run commands, like Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode, use it on their own, and you can type the same commands in a terminal or a script.

Every tool name becomes a command with dashes, so top_videos runs as tiktok-cli top-videos.

npm install -g @thenavidm/tiktok-mcp-cli
tiktok-cli
tiktok-cli get-profile
tiktok-cli top-videos

The bare tiktok-cli lists every command, and tiktok-cli <command> --help shows what a command takes. Publishing and revoking need --confirm, the terminal's version of the check your AI has to pass.

These flags work on every command:

A script can branch on the exit code:

MCP server or CLI: which one?

Both are the same program with the same 14 tools. The difference is when your AI pays for them, in the tokens it reads.

An app that loads every tool up front sends the full list with every message, whether you mention TikTok or not. Claude Code doesn't by default: its tool search sends only the tool names and the server's instructions, and loads a tool's full definition when your AI reaches for it.

The CLI costs nothing until TikTok comes up. Then your agent reads its skill file once and runs the commands it needs. With the skill added, Claude Code also lists its one-line description with every message, about 170 tokens.

When the whole conversation is about TikTok, the gap closes. Then the MCP server is the better experience, because you ask in plain language and your AI never has to look up a command.

Where the MCP server's tokens go

51% of it is MCP writing every tool out as JSON Schema, which any server with this many tools pays. The rest is the wording that lets your AI use each tool without guessing.

How to spend less

In Claude Code, leave tool search on, which it is unless you've set ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH=false.

Turn the server off when you aren't using TikTok. In Claude Code that's the /mcp panel, and every AI app has its own switch. TIKTOK_READ_ONLY=1 cuts it to the 9 reading tools.

Or install the CLI and connect the server later, on the days it earns its place. Every tool stays in reach, and the standing cost drops to nothing.

Every number here was measured on September 27, 2026 in Claude Code 2.1.257 with Claude Opus 5. It's the same one-line prompt with and without the server connected, once with tool search off so every tool loads, and once with Claude Code's default. The skill was measured the same way, and other apps and models count tokens a little differently.

What TikTok's API can and can't do

TikTok's official API only sees your own account. There's no endpoint for anyone else's profile, videos, comments, hashtags or search, so no tool here can study a competitor or a trend.

There's no comments API either, even for your own posts. And until TikTok audits your app, every post goes up as private, whatever privacy you ask for.

Publishing returns a job, not a post. get_post_status follows it, and a public post has no post ID until moderation clears it, which usually takes a minute and sometimes hours.

Every TikTok tool

All 14 tools, grouped the way the repo groups them. 9 only read, and 5 change something on your account.

Your videos

Publishing

Account

Is the TikTok MCP server safe?

Publishing is the point of the tool, so writes work from the start. The 3 things you can't take back from a chat window ask first: they refuse to run until your AI passes confirm: true. They're the ones marked Asks first in the tool tables above.

Drafts don't ask, because they land in your own TikTok inbox and go nowhere until you finish them.

Make it read-only

Set TIKTOK_READ_ONLY=1 and every write disappears from the tool list, leaving 9 reading tools. TIKTOK_ALLOW_DESTRUCTIVE=0 is the middle setting: drafts still work, and publishing and revoking don't.

Keep a log of every write

Set TIKTOK_AUDIT_LOG to a file path. The server writes one line per attempted write, allowed or blocked.

Your data

Nothing goes anywhere but TikTok's API. Your key, secret and refresh token stay in your app's config or your shell, and there's no tracking of any kind.

To disconnect, call the revoke_access tool, or remove the app in TikTok under Settings, then Security and permissions, then Manage app permissions.

Connect more than one TikTok account

Run the auth step once per account, then list them together in TIKTOK_ACCOUNTS as name:token,name:token. Every tool that acts as you takes an optional account, so you can say which one posts.

TikTok MCP server settings

Every setting is an environment variable, in your app's config or your shell.

Troubleshooting

Run the doctor first. It names the step that failed and the fix.

If the server doesn't show up in your app at all, run the command your app runs, in a terminal, and read the error.