TikTok trends in Cursor

Cursor Agent gets TikTok trends by calling Trends MCP, not by opening Creative Center in a browser tab. Paste the Cursor JSON, restart, then ask for get_top_trends with type TikTok Trending Hashtags or TikTok Trending Searches. get_growth with source tiktok is the movement over a window. No TikTok developer app is required for those calls.

Virlo markets Cursor plus TikTok as a creator research surface. That is a fair install when the next turn must look up a handle or a sound. This page is the public-board path, and the path that can add Google Search on the same key. Claude-shaped TikTok steps live on TikTok trends in Claude. The API contract is TikTok trending hashtags API.

Cursor JSON, then quit the app

Mac and Linux: ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\mcp.json. Under mcpServers:

"trends-mcp": {
  "url": "https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp",
  "transport": "http",
  "headers": {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
}

Key from the account page. Fully quit Cursor. Host guide: Trends MCP for Cursor. Do not paste Claude Desktop npx mcp-remote here. Do not paste the www OAuth URL. VS Code wants type http under servers. Windsurf wants serverUrl.

A project .cursor/mcp.json can ship a placeholder. A live token in git is a leak.

Hashtags versus searches in Agent

Two live boards. They do not substitute for each other. A climbing hashtag can be quiet on search.

get_top_trends(type="TikTok Trending Hashtags", limit=25)
get_top_trends(type="TikTok Trending Searches", limit=25)
get_growth(keyword="capcut", source="tiktok", percent_growth=["7D", "30D"])

Default limit 25, max 200, offset pages. sort rank_change with a window such as 7d returns climbers when a baseline snapshot exists. History uses source tiktok, not the board type string. Sending type TikTok Trending Hashtags into get_growth is invalid_source. REST series mode is get_time_series.

Ask with “using TrendsMCP.” Agent that only sees git will web-search Creative Center and skip the index. Do not pin this morning’s hashtag top-10 in .cursorrules. The board turns over. The durable fact is the type string plus as_of_ts on the result.

Cross-platform after the TikTok-only proving call: get_growth with source tiktok, google search, youtube on one keyword. One request per source plus keyword. That comparison is why this MCP exists next to a TikTok-only vendor.

When Virlo should stay in mcp.json

Keep Virlo when the brief names @handle, a sound ID, Instagram Reels, or a recurring niche monitor. Trends MCP has no lookup_creator. Asking Agent to invent follower counts is how the turn goes wrong.

Keep Trends MCP when the brief is “is this topic only TikTok, or also Google.” Virlo’s 49 tools do not return a 0-100 Google Search series. A team can run both. Tell Agent which product to call. A prompt that only says “TikTok MCP” will pick whichever tool name the model saw last.

Portermetrics and Windsor “connect TikTok to Claude” pages are first-party Insights connectors. They are not this public board. They are also not Cursor JSON.

Free 100 requests per month. Starter $19 / 1,000. Pro $49 / 5,000. Business $199 / 25,000. Pricing. Two boards plus one tiktok growth call is three requests. Paging both boards at limit 50 is extra. Cursor is a weak cron. Nightly hashtag tracking belongs on REST or n8n.

Empty series: not_found or data_unavailable. Low-volume hashtags print huge percents on tiny baselines. Quote both index values. Virlo credit math versus this request math is in Virlo alternatives.

Agent sequences that waste the month

A sequence that works: one hashtag board, one search board if the ticket asked for queries, one get_growth on tiktok for the shortlisted name. Two or three requests. A sequence that fails: limit 200 on both boards, then growth on ten names, then a web search “to confirm.” That is how the free 100-request plan dies before the PR description is written.

sort rank_change is the climber view. It needs a baseline snapshot. If the feed has no snapshot in tolerance, the response can return count 0 with a note. That is not an outage. Ask for sort rank when the job is the current page, not the movers.

TikTok history is hashtag or topic volume on a 0-100 index where the pipeline supports it. Volume can be null. A null volume is not a failed call. Comparing a tiktok 47 to a google search 47 is the product. Comparing either to Creative Center view counts is a category error.

Cursor rules can name the two type strings and the cap. They should not name this morning’s hashtags. Creative Center remains the free official UI for a human click. Agent should not screenshot it when the MCP board is attached.

If the next turn is a handle, stop using Trends MCP for that turn. Switch to Virlo or say the object is missing. Invented follower counts in a Cursor diff are worse than an empty tool list.

A second proving path when the ticket is searches, not hashtags: type TikTok Trending Searches at limit 25, then get_growth on tiktok for the query-shaped string. Hashtags and searches are two boards. Do not treat a search rank as a hashtag rank. Do not paste Creative Center screenshots into the PR when the MCP result already has as_of_ts.

Nightly hashtag tracking still belongs on REST. POST https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api with mode get_top_trends. Cursor does not need to stay open. Using Agent as a personal Creative Center is how the month expires while nobody is coding.