TikTok MCP for Cursor: connect in one config file

Give Cursor all of TikTok. One entry in ~/.cursor/mcp.json connects TokConnect, and Cursor's Agent can see what people search, watch, say and buy: search demand, videos, comments, transcripts, creators, hashtags, sounds and TikTok Shop sales, 34 tools in all.

1. Get your key. Copy it from app.tokconnect.com/api-key. No key? Use an entry with only the url and sign in (see Sign-in instead of a key).
2. Add the entry. Put the tokconnect block below into ~/.cursor/mcp.json and export TOKCONNECT_TOKEN with your key.
3. Restart and ask. Open Customize, check that tokconnect shows 34 tools, then ask the Agent, for example, "What do people search on TikTok about my product that no video answers?"

Connected, Cursor's Agent answers TikTok questions with real numbers while you code: search demand, videos, comments, creators and Shop sales.

Every plan, Free included, gets all 34 tools. Free gives 50 credits once, one credit pays for one lookup and failed lookups cost nothing. Paid plans start at $34.99 a month billed yearly ($49 billed monthly), with 500 credits a month on Starter.

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Free to use on your site, in a deck or a newsletter with a credit link to TokConnect. Copy the code below.

<a href="https://tokconnect.com/connect/cursor/"><img src="https://tokconnect.com/graphics/cursor/summary.png" alt="Connect TikTok to Cursor: 34 TikTok research tools in the Agent; free to start; 214K 7-day TikTok searches for vibe coding explain; 0 videos matched to that search" width="1200" height="630" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><br>Source: <a href="https://tokconnect.com/connect/cursor/">TikTok MCP for Cursor: Config, Key and Fixes | TokConnect</a>

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What you can ask once connected

Ask in plain words. No tool names needed.

The config

Create or edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json. That file is global, so the server shows up in every project you open:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tokconnect": {
      "url": "https://mcp.tokconnect.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${env:TOKCONNECT_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then export the variable before you launch Cursor:

export TOKCONNECT_TOKEN="YOUR_TOKCONNECT_KEY"

Cursor's MCP docs document ${env:NAME} interpolation inside header values, which is the reason to prefer it over pasting the key. You can write the key literally instead, and for a personal machine that is a fair trade, but then the file itself is the secret.

There is also a project form at .cursor/mcp.json in the repo root. Same shape. Keep the literal key out of that one, since it travels with the repo. Remote servers do not support envFile, so the variable has to come from your shell profile or system environment, as Cursor's docs say.

Where the key goes

In the Authorization header, as Bearer, a space, then the key. If Cursor is launched from the dock rather than a terminal, it may not see a variable you exported in your shell. Either set it in your login environment, or write the key into the global file and keep that file to yourself.

Define tokconnect in one file only. Cursor's docs do not say which file wins when the global and project files both define the same server name, and a second copy is easy to forget while you are debugging a header you already fixed in the other file.

Sign-in instead of a key

Cursor's docs also describe OAuth for remote servers, using dynamic client registration unless you supply a static client ID. TokConnect supports that sign-in, so an entry with only "url": "https://mcp.tokconnect.com/mcp" and no headers should send you to a TokConnect consent page instead. That route follows Cursor's docs; the key route above is the one this page walks through.

Your first TikTok MCP call in Cursor

Restart Cursor. Open Customize in the sidebar. It should show tokconnect with 34 tools. The toggle there switches the server off without deleting it, which is useful when you want the Agent to stop reaching for TikTok data mid-task.

Then ask the Agent for the cheapest call on the server:

That returns:

{
  "count": 3,
  "suggestions": [
    { "text": "protein" },
    { "text": "protein for gym" },
    { "text": "protein recipes" }
  ]
}

Data: TikTok autocomplete via TokConnect, pulled 19 September 2026. Open the snapshot. Autocomplete is live, so your third line may differ.

Three strings back means the file, the header and the server all work. Next, ask for TikTok's own search demand, the searches no video answers, or TikTok Shop sales estimates; the TikTok MCP guide maps everything, and our TikTok MCP server comparison shows how TokConnect compares with other servers.

In the 7 days to 5 October 2026, "vibe coding" returned 20 topics: 10 typed searches and 10 TikTok topic groups. A separate search for "cursor ai" was almost all about mouse cursors; its one relevant typed search, "how to use cursor ai", had 6,296 searches.

For developers: the 34 tools

The 34 tools cover TikTok's search demand (demand_find_topics, demand_topic, demand_keywords), videos, comments and captions (video_search, video), creators, sounds, hashtags, places and LIVE, the live TikTok Shop catalogue (shop_browse, product, shop) and Shop Analytics: TikTok Shop sales estimates from product_top_selling, shop_top_selling, creator_top_selling, video_top_selling, live_top_selling and category_trends. The server also ships six MCP prompts: winning products, find affiliates, competitor shop, product deep-dive, niche research and content ideas. Clients that support MCP prompts list them next to the tools.

Three errors, and what they mean

An empty result is TikTok's answer, not a broken connection. The troubleshooting guide takes the stages in order.

Remove it, or rotate the key

Delete the tokconnect object from every mcp.json that defines it, global and project, keep the JSON valid, and restart Cursor. Check the panel before you assume the key is out of use, because the project file can keep a copy alive.

To rotate, make a new key on the same connect page as step 1. If you used ${env:...}, change the exported value and restart. If you pasted the key, replace the string and restart.

Same server elsewhere: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI.

How we got these numbers

Setup facts come from Cursor's MCP documentation, read on 5 October 2026: config file locations, the remote entry shape, ${env:NAME} interpolation, OAuth for remote servers, the Customize toggle and MCP Logs. The MCP protocol details come from the transport and authorization specs. TokConnect's OAuth sign-in was tested end to end with a script on 28 September 2026 (test notes); the Cursor steps follow Cursor's docs, and the example results on this page come from the TokConnect server over MCP rather than from a Cursor session.

The TikTok figures come from two Creator Search Insights topic searches ("cursor ai" and "vibe coding", 20 topics each) made through TokConnect on 5 October 2026. Searches are TikTok's global count for the last 7 days; videos are those TikTok matched to the topic. We left out TikTok's topic groups (5,000,000 or more, or 1,000,000 or more with a first daily reading under 5% of the last), unrelated searches such as "sweezy cursor" and the smallest vibe coding searches; the snapshot has every record. The autocomplete result is from 19 September 2026. Data: Cursor and vibe coding searches, autocomplete call, tool catalog, 21 October 2026 snapshot.