TikTok requirements

Account requirements

• Any TikTok account works — personal, creator or business. You log in with TikTok and approve Relay on TikTok's consent screen.
• Relay asks for five permissions: user.info.basic, user.info.profile and user.info.stats (name, @username, avatar, follower and video counts), video.publish (post directly to the profile) and video.upload (send to the TikTok inbox). TikTok lets you untick any of them; an unticked posting permission turns that post mode off for the account. accounts_list reports them as can_direct_post and can_upload.
• TikTok caps every creator at roughly 15 posts a day, shared across every app they post from, and at 5 uploads waiting in the inbox per day.

Connecting an account

Start from Accounts → Connect TikTok. TikTok issues an access token that lasts 24 hours and a refresh token that lasts a year. Relay stores both encrypted (AES-256-GCM), renews the access token on its own whenever it needs one, and rotates the refresh token every week.

Post types

One post can target Instagram and TikTok accounts together; each platform gets its own version. A post with an Instagram target is held to Instagram's rules as well, so a mixed-media carousel or a story can't include TikTok accounts.

TikTok settings on every post

Every post with a TikTok account carries a tiktok object. TikTok requires the creator to choose these themselves, so Relay never fills in a default — not for privacy, and not for interactions.

{
  "targets": ["7c2a…"],
  "caption": "Every colourway, one drop. #fall",
  "media": ["https://cdn.example.com/fall.mp4"],
  "tiktok": {
    "privacy_level": "PUBLIC_TO_EVERYONE",
    "allow_comment": true,
    "brand_organic": true
  }
}

Check what an account allows first with GET /v1/accounts/:id/tiktok/creator-info (MCP: tiktok_creator_info): its privacy options, which interactions the creator has turned off, the longest video it may post, and whether it can post at all right now.

Media specifications

Video

Photos

TikTok downloads the media from Relay's media domain when the post goes out, so nothing is uploaded from your side at publish time.

Timing & statuses

Relay asks TikTok what the account allows, starts the post, then polls TikTok every scheduler tick until it settles. TikTok processes the media and runs its own review before a post is public — usually about a minute, occasionally longer.

• processing — TikTok is downloading or processing the media.
• published with a permalink — live and public.
• published without a permalink — posted, but TikTok hasn't assigned a public link yet (still in review, or the post is SELF_ONLY). Relay fills the link in when TikTok reports it.
• published with error.code: tiktok_inbox — delivered to the TikTok inbox; the creator finishes it in the app.

Failure reference

Not supported

• Stories, and videos mixed with photos. TikTok posts are one video or a set of photos.
• First comments. TikTok's API can't comment; first_comment needs an Instagram target and is posted there only.
• Per-slide captions. An Instagram carousel feature; a TikTok photo post has one caption (and an optional title).
• Choosing a sound. TikTok's API can't attach a specific track — let TikTok add one to a photo post, or use inbox mode and pick it in the app.
• Editing or deleting a published post. Use the TikTok app.

See the REST API reference, the MCP tool reference, and the Instagram requirements for the other half of a cross-posted post.