tiktok-ads-mcp-server

An open-source Model Context Protocol server for the TikTok Business API. It lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client read and analyse your TikTok advertising data, and change it if you choose to.

You run it. Your token stays on your machine. Nothing is proxied through a third party.

npx -y @getmcpads/tiktok-ads-mcp-server

Prefer not to run it yourself? getmcpads.com is the hosted version of this server, with TikTok Ads alongside Meta Ads, Google Ads, Pinterest Ads, GA4 and Search Console behind a single endpoint, hosted OAuth, and cross-platform reporting. Same tools, same safety model, no setup.

What you get

The query planner

TikTok rejects many metric and dimension combinations, and its error messages rarely say why. This server encodes the compatibility matrix, so it splits an impossible request into several valid API calls and merges the results instead of failing.

tiktok_validate_query lets the model check a combination before spending a call on it.

One trap this server handles for you

TikTok answers HTTP 200 even when the call failed. The applicative code field is what decides. A client that trusts the HTTP status reports imaginary successes back to the model, which then reasons on data that was never returned. Every call here checks code first.

Related MCP server: TikTok Ads MCP

How this compares to TikTok's own MCP server

TikTok ships an official MCP server, announced at TikTok World '26 and hosted at business-api.tiktok.com/open_mcp/. It is a serious product, and it is bigger than this one. Here is an honest comparison.

Be clear about the trade-off. If you want the widest possible surface of the TikTok API, the official server covers far more endpoints than this one does, and you should use it.

What this server offers instead is a curated set. TikTok themselves ship a layered mode that exposes about 40 tools rather than 400, because loading hundreds of tool definitions fills the model's context and makes it pick the wrong tool more often. 27 well-described read tools with a compatibility-aware planner is a deliberate design choice, not a gap.

Choose the official server for breadth, or if you don't need to see the code. Choose this one if you need your data to stay on your infrastructure, want to audit or extend what the model can do, or want writes that cannot fire on the first call. Choose getmcpads.com if you want this server's capabilities without running it, or you need more than one ad platform in the same conversation.

Getting a token

TikTok needs two values, not one: an access token and the App ID it belongs to.

1. Create a developer app on the TikTok for Business developer portal.

2. Note the App ID and App Secret from the app's page.

3. Authorize the advertiser accounts you want to reach. TikTok grants access per advertiser, so an account you skip here stays invisible to the server no matter what the token allows.

4. Complete the OAuth authorization flow to exchange the returned auth_code for an access token. TikTok's long-lived tokens do not expire on a fixed schedule, but they are revoked when the authorization is withdrawn.

5. Put the token in TIKTOK_ACCESS_TOKEN and the App ID in TIKTOK_APP_ID.

📖 TikTok API for Business documentation

Run tiktok_health_check as your first call. It verifies the credentials, lists the advertiser accounts you can actually reach, and reports what is missing, without printing your token.

Which permissions?

Setup

Claude Desktop

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tiktok-ads": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@getmcpads/tiktok-ads-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "TIKTOK_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your-token-here",
        "TIKTOK_APP_ID": "your-app-id-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. Ask it: "list my TikTok advertiser accounts".

Claude Code

claude mcp add tiktok-ads --env TIKTOK_ACCESS_TOKEN=your-token --env TIKTOK_APP_ID=your-app-id -- npx -y @getmcpads/tiktok-ads-mcp-server

Cursor

.cursor/mcp.json in your project, same shape as the Claude Desktop config above.

From source

git clone https://github.com/getmcpads-com/tiktok-ads-mcp-server.git
cd tiktok-ads-mcp-server
npm install && npm run build
cp .env.example .env   # then fill in your credentials
npm start

Configuration

Check your setup at any time:

npm run doctor

Writes, and why they preview first

Write tools are disabled by default. Enable them with TIKTOK_ENABLE_WRITES=1.

When enabled, every write tool returns a preview and changes nothing:

// tiktok_update_adgroup_budget { advertiserId: "7...", adGroupId: "1...", budget: 50 }
{
  "applied": false,
  "action": "tiktok_update_adgroup_budget",
  "change": { "advertiser": "7...", "adGroup": "1...", "newBudget": 50,
              "budgetMode": "BUDGET_MODE_DAY" },
  "message": "Preview only, nothing was changed. Repeat the same call with confirm: true to apply this change to the live account."
}

Only a second call carrying confirm: true touches the live account.

This is deliberate. An assistant composes these calls, and it can pick the wrong advertiser, the wrong campaign, or the wrong order of magnitude on a budget. A mandatory preview makes the mistake visible before it costs money, and gives a human the stopping point the protocol does not guarantee on its own.

One further guardrail: tiktok_create_campaign always creates the campaign DISABLE. There is no option to create it running.

Tools

Discovery and health

Structure

Performance

Creatives

Audiences and targeting

Search Ads

Commerce and signals

Escape hatches

These exist so a new API field doesn't require a new release. Mutating endpoints, OAuth endpoints and credential parameters are blocked on these paths, so a crafted argument cannot turn a read tool into a write.

Security

The server holds a credential that can read, and optionally modify, live ad accounts. Concretely:

• The token is never logged. Debug output prints Access-Token: [redacted].

• Requests go only to business-api.tiktok.com, and only under /open_api/v1.3/. Any other host or path is refused rather than called. Covered by tests.

• Redirects are refused once a token is attached, so a redirect cannot forward your credential elsewhere.

• Mutating and OAuth endpoints are blocked on the generic read paths. Covered by tests.

• No telemetry. The server makes no network call other than to the TikTok Business API. You can verify this by grepping the source for fetch.

Full policy and reporting instructions: SECURITY.md.

Looking for a managed, multi-platform version?

This server does one platform, on your machine, with your token. That is on purpose.

If you'd rather not run it yourself, or you need TikTok Ads alongside Meta Ads, Google Ads, Pinterest Ads, GA4 and Search Console behind one endpoint, with hosted OAuth and cross-platform reporting, that's what we build at getmcpads.com.

Same philosophy, less plumbing. This project stays open source and independently useful either way.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md. Please read SECURITY.md before reporting anything security-related.

Licence

Apache License 2.0. See also NOTICE.

TikTok and TikTok for Business are trademarks of ByteDance Ltd. and its affiliates. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by TikTok or ByteDance. It is an independent client of a public API.