Give your Hermes agent all of TikTok. Four lines of config under mcp_servers connect TokConnect, and Hermes can then read live TikTok searches, videos, creators, comments and TikTok Shop sales whenever your agent runs.
- Get your key. Sign in with Google at app.tokconnect.com/api-key and copy your API key.
- Add TokConnect. Open
~/.hermes/config.yamland add thetokconnectentry shown in the setup details below undermcp_servers: TokConnect's URL, and your key in the header. - Reload, then ask. Run
/reload-mcpin your Hermes session. Then ask, for example, "What do people search on TikTok about AI agents that no video answers yet?"
Hermes has no add command for a server of your own, so the four lines are written by hand. The entry, the key handling and the first call are in the setup details below.
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.
- Four lines under
mcp_serversin~/.hermes/config.yaml: the server name,url, and aheadersmap with your key. - Hermes then has 34 TikTok tools: search demand, videos, comments, creators, sounds, hashtags and TikTok Shop sales estimates.
- Keep the key out of the file: Hermes fills
${VAR}placeholders in headers from the environment. - A session holds its tool list from the moment it started. Run
/reload-mcpafter every edit, or start a new session. - For example, "agentic ai course" had 95,171 TikTok searches and 0 videos in the 7 days to 5 October 2026.
What you can ask once connected
What do people search on TikTok about [your niche] that no video answers yet?
Paste it into Hermes once TokConnect is connected.
What's selling on TikTok Shop in [your niche] this week, and who sells it?
Paste it into Hermes once TokConnect is connected.
Which creators drive the most sales for [a brand], and what do their videos open with?
Paste it into Hermes once TokConnect is connected.
Steps follow the Hermes MCP documentation and the hermes-agent repository, checked 5 October 2026. TokConnect tested its OAuth sign-in end to end on 28 September 2026 with a script acting as the client (test notes); the example results below come from the TokConnect server over MCP rather than from a Hermes session.
Setup details: the config
Open ~/.hermes/config.yaml and add the entry. If mcp_servers already exists, put tokconnect beside the servers that are there:
mcp_servers:
tokconnect:
url: "https://mcp.tokconnect.com/mcp"
headers:
Authorization: "Bearer ${TOKCONNECT_KEY}"Hermes decides the transport from the shape of the entry: url means a remote HTTP endpoint, command means a local process. There is no transport field to set. TokConnect's endpoint speaks Streamable HTTP. The Hermes MCP docs also list a timeout for each request and a connect_timeout for the first handshake, if a slow network needs them.
YAML is unforgiving about indentation. Two spaces per level, and the header value quoted, because it contains a space.
hermes mcp install works from Hermes's own catalog of servers. TokConnect is not in it. Hand-editing the YAML is the documented route for any server of your own.
Where the key goes
Put the key in an environment variable and reference it from the header, as above. Hermes's docs say ${VAR} placeholders in headers are resolved from the environment when the server connects. Set TOKCONNECT_KEY in the environment Hermes actually runs in: your shell profile for a terminal session, the unit file or container settings for a service.
You can also write Bearer, a space and the key literally. Then treat config.yaml as a secret. That matters more for Hermes than for a desktop client, because Hermes often runs as a long-lived agent on a box other people can reach. Lock the file down and keep it out of any backup that leaves the machine.
Your first TikTok MCP call in Hermes
In a running Hermes session, reload the configuration:
/reload-mcpA session holds its tool list from the moment it started, so an edit without a reload changes nothing you can see. After the reload, Hermes should list TokConnect's 34 tools. Then try the smallest call:
Use the tokconnect MCP server. Call demand_keywords with keyword "protein" and limit 3, and show me the raw result.
Paste it into Hermes once TokConnect is connected.
Here is what came back:
{
"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.
From there the useful tools are demand_find_topics for TikTok's own search counts, its feed method for content gaps, and product_top_selling for TikTok Shop sales estimates. The TikTok MCP guide maps the rest, and our comparison of TikTok MCP servers shows what else is out there.
What a Hermes agent can find on TikTok
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.
Use TokConnect. Call product_top_selling for "[your product]" with window 30d and limit 10. Show each product's price, estimated revenue, estimated units and number of creators selling it, then call product with method creators on the top one and list who drove its sales.
Paste it into Hermes once TokConnect is connected.
Here is one search you could hand Hermes on day one: what people type into TikTok about AI agents. We ran search_topics for "ai agent" on 5 October 2026 and kept only typed searches, the phrases people actually enter.
"agentic ai course" had 95,171 searches and no matched videos, the kind of gap an agent can flag every week without you opening the app. One thing it will not find is Hermes itself: none of the 20 records TikTok returned for "hermes agent" was about Nous Research's agent.
Three errors, and what they mean
| What you see | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Tools still missing after the edit | The session is holding the old list. | Run /reload-mcp, or start a new session. This accounts for most first-time reports. |
| Hermes will not start after the edit | Broken YAML. A tab character or a mis-indented headers block is enough. | Run the file through any YAML validator. Every level is two spaces, and the header value is quoted. |
| 401 from the server | The key is stale, a stray newline came with it, or TOKCONNECT_KEY is not set in the process running Hermes. | Copy a fresh key from the API key page. If Hermes runs as a service, set the variable there and restart it. |
A tool that runs and returns an empty list is TikTok's answer. The troubleshooting guide separates that from a connection fault.
Remove it, or rotate the key
Delete the whole tokconnect block under mcp_servers, keep the YAML valid, and run /reload-mcp or start a new session. Check that TokConnect's tools are gone before you assume the key is no longer in play.
To rotate, make a new key on the API key page, update TOKCONNECT_KEY (or the literal value after Bearer ), and reload. For a Hermes instance running as a service, follow whatever restart you already use for that service.
Same endpoint elsewhere: Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex.
How we got these numbers
Config details come from the Hermes Agent MCP documentation and repository, read on 5 October 2026. The autocomplete result is a search_suggestions call made on 19 September 2026. On 5 October 2026 we ran search_topics for "ai agent" (10 records) and "hermes agent" (20 records) through TokConnect's MCP server. Search figures are TikTok's 7-day global search popularity; video counts are the videos TikTok matches to each search.
We left out TikTok's topic groups, records that pool many related searches: a 7-day figure of 5,000,000 or more, a figure of 1,000,000 or more whose first daily reading is under 5% of its last, or TikTok's Featured Content category. The tool list in the evidence file is a snapshot of version 3.1.0 read on 21 October 2026; the current server lists 34 tools.
Data: AI agent searches, "hermes agent" topics, tool catalog (21 October snapshot), autocomplete call.
Key statistics
Hermes Agent reads remote MCP servers from
mcp_serversin~/.hermes/config.yamlas aurlplus aheadersmap, and documents no CLI command that adds an arbitrary remote server.Hermes Agent's documentation says
${VAR}placeholders in MCPheadersare filled from environment variables when the server connects, so a TokConnect key does not have to sit in the YAML file.TokConnect's MCP gives Hermes 34 TikTok tools, from Creator Search Insights search demand to TikTok Shop sales estimates.
All 5 statistics
"free ai agents" was searched 258,274 times on TikTok in the 7 days to 5 October 2026, with 445 videos matched to the search.
"agentic ai course" was searched 95,171 times on TikTok in the 7 days to 5 October 2026, and TikTok matched 0 videos to it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add an MCP server to Hermes?
Edit ~/.hermes/config.yaml and add an entry under mcp_servers: a name, a url and, for a server with a key, a headers map. Then run /reload-mcp in your session. hermes mcp install is for servers in Hermes's own catalog.
Do I need a transport field in the Hermes config?
No. Hermes decides from the shape of the entry: url means a remote HTTP endpoint, command means a local process. TokConnect's endpoint speaks Streamable HTTP and needs only the URL and the header.
I edited config.yaml and nothing changed. What now?
Run /reload-mcp. A running session keeps the tool list it started with, so an edit alone changes nothing you can see. If Hermes will not start at all after the edit, the YAML is broken: two spaces per level, and quote the header value because it contains a space.
Can I keep my API key out of the Hermes config file?
Yes. Hermes's MCP docs say ${VAR} placeholders in headers are filled from environment variables at connect time. Write Authorization: "Bearer ${TOKCONNECT_KEY}" and set TOKCONNECT_KEY in the environment Hermes runs in.
How many TikTok tools does Hermes get?
It should list 34. TokConnect's tools cover search demand from Creator Search Insights, videos, comments, creators, sounds, hashtags, places, LIVE and TikTok Shop sales estimates. New accounts start free with no card.
