Give Claude Code, Cursor and Codex live TikTok, Instagram and YouTube data

November 7, 2026

Coding agents are good at research until they need a number from TikTok. Then they guess, or they try to scrape a page that answers with a login wall. An MCP server fixes that: the agent gets real tools like tiktok_profile and youtube_transcript, calls them, and works with the JSON.

This guide connects ScrapeIO's remote MCP server to the three agents most people use. It takes about two minutes, and there is nothing to run locally.

1. Get a key

Sign in at scrapeio.com/login. New accounts get 100 free credits and no card is needed. Most calls cost 1 credit. Put the key in your shell profile:

export SCRAPEIO_API_KEY=sk_...

2. Connect your agent

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http scrapeio https://scrapeio.com/mcp \
  --header "x-api-key: $SCRAPEIO_API_KEY"

Run /mcp inside Claude Code to check it shows as connected.

Cursor

Add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json, then open Settings > MCP and turn the server on:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scrapeio": {
      "url": "https://scrapeio.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "x-api-key": "${env:SCRAPEIO_API_KEY}" }
    }
  }
}

Codex

# ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.scrapeio]
url = "https://scrapeio.com/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "SCRAPEIO_API_KEY"

Other clients (Gemini CLI, VS Code, Windsurf, Hermes) are on the agents page.

3. Add the skill (optional, recommended)

Tools tell the agent what it can call. A skill tells it how to use them well: pick the narrowest endpoint, stop paging when it has enough, and report numbers with links. One command installs it for every agent on your machine:

npx skills add xhoantran/scrapeio-agent

4. Prompts that work

• Competitor snapshot. "Compare @nike and @adidas on TikTok: followers, median views on their last 20 videos, and their top 3 posts with links."
• Content research. "Get the transcripts of the 5 most viewed videos on @mkbhd this month and list the products he mentions."
• Audience questions. "Pull the top 200 comments on this reel and group the questions people ask."
• Build a feature. "Write a script that refreshes follower counts for the handles in creators.csv every morning and writes a diff."

The last one is where a coding agent shines. Because every platform returns the same field names (handle, followers, plays, likes, created_at), the script it writes for TikTok works for Instagram and YouTube with one changed path.

What it costs

Each tool's description shows its price, so the agent can see it too. Cached repeats, failed calls, private and not-found answers cost nothing. Credits never expire. The two-brand comparison in the first prompt costs a handful of credits: one profile call and one or two pages of videos per brand. See pricing.

Troubleshooting

• 401 from tools/call. The key did not reach the server. Check the variable is set in the shell that started the agent.
• The agent ignores the tools. Name the platform in the prompt ("on TikTok"), or install the skill.
• Too many tools in context. The server lists the core tools and adds list_endpoints and call_endpoint for the long tail (Reddit, LinkedIn, Threads, ad libraries and more), so the list stays short.