Stormy Cookbook — TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and Reddit API recipes for AI agents

Open-source, copy-pasteable recipes for the Stormy Social Data API and the Stormy MCP server (Model Context Protocol, Streamable HTTP).

One HTTP contract — search, profile, emails, jobs — across six social networks. No proxy pool, no six vendor SDKs, no scraper to babysit. Point your agent at https://stormy.ai/mcp, or curl the REST base at https://stormy.ai/api/v1.

Jump to: Recipes · MCP quickstart · REST quickstart · Endpoints · Pricing · Errors · FAQ

Why this exists

Every "get social data" project starts the same way: six different APIs, six auth schemes, six rate limits, six response shapes, and a scraper that breaks on a Tuesday. Then you bolt an LLM on top and discover none of it is shaped for an agent — no cost signal, no idempotency, no durable jobs, no machine-readable capability list.

Stormy is that layer, already built. This cookbook is how you use it.

Quickstart A: connect the MCP server

The Stormy MCP server speaks Streamable HTTP at https://stormy.ai/mcp and authenticates with an HTTP bearer token. Get a key at stormy.ai/account and export it:

export STORMY_API_KEY="stm_live_..."   # never commit this

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http stormy https://stormy.ai/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $STORMY_API_KEY"

Codex CLI (~/.codex/config.toml)

[mcp_servers.stormy]
url = "https://stormy.ai/mcp"
bearer_token_env_var = "STORMY_API_KEY"

Cursor / Windsurf / any mcp.json client

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stormy": {
      "url": "https://stormy.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${STORMY_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT custom connector

Name: Stormy Social Data
MCP URL: https://stormy.ai/mcp
Authentication: OAuth

The ten MCP tools you get

Then just ask:

Find 25 TikTok creators posting about home espresso, pull their follower counts, and tell me what it cost.

Quickstart B: call the REST API directly

Base URL: https://stormy.ai/api/v1 (also reachable at https://api.stormy.ai/api/v1). Auth: Authorization: Bearer <key> or X-API-Key: <key>. Never put a key in a URL, a JSON body, a prompt, or an MCP tool argument.

curl

curl -X POST 'https://stormy.ai/api/v1/search' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $STORMY_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Idempotency-Key: espresso-tiktok-2026-07' \
  -d '{
    "platform": "tiktok",
    "query": "home espresso and coffee gear creators",
    "limit": 25,
    "fresh": true
  }'

Python

import os

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://stormy.ai/api/v1/search",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['STORMY_API_KEY']}",
        "Idempotency-Key": "espresso-tiktok-2026-07",
    },
    json={
        "platform": "tiktok",
        "query": "home espresso and coffee gear creators",
        "limit": 25,
        "fresh": True,
    },
    timeout=90,
)
response.raise_for_status()
payload = response.json()

for creator in payload["results"]:
    print(creator["handle"], creator["follower_count"])

print("cost:", payload["usage"]["cost_usd"], "USD")

TypeScript

const response = await fetch("https://stormy.ai/api/v1/search", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.STORMY_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Idempotency-Key": "espresso-tiktok-2026-07",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    platform: "tiktok",
    query: "home espresso and coffee gear creators",
    limit: 25,
    fresh: true,
  }),
});

if (!response.ok) throw new Error(await response.text());
const { results, usage } = await response.json();
console.log(results.length, "creators for", usage.cost_usd, "USD");

What comes back

{
  "ok": true,
  "platform": "tiktok",
  "query": "home espresso and coffee gear creators",
  "fresh": true,
  "results": [
    {
      "id": "6812...",
      "handle": "@homebarista",
      "nickname": "Home Barista",
      "url": "https://tiktok.com/@homebarista",
      "signature": "Espresso at home, no snobbery.",
      "verified": false,
      "follower_count": 184000,
      "following_count": 312,
      "likes_count": 4210000,
      "video_count": 612
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "operation": "fresh_discovery",
    "metered_results": 25,
    "billed_results": 25,
    "cost_usd": "2.00",
    "credits": 200,
    "plan": "paid",
    "remaining_usage_usd": "23.00"
  }
}

Every successful response carries a usage receipt. You are billed for outcomes, not requests.

What you can do on each network

Field lists are authoritative in GET /api/v1/capabilities → fields_by_platform. Treat every platform-specific field as nullable — you get it when it is public and the source supplied it.

TikTok — profile: id, sec_uid, handle, nickname, url, signature, avatar_url, verified, follower_count, following_count, likes_count, video_count · posts: video_id, url, description, create_time, duration, views, likes, comments, shares, saves, image_url, is_pinned, music, hashtags, caption_url

YouTube — profile: channel_id, handle, name, url, subscribers, description, videos_count, total_views, profile_image_url, banner_image_url, country, keywords, links · posts: video_id, url, title, description, published_at, duration, views, likes, comments, thumbnail_url, transcript, caption_url

Instagram — profile: username, full_name, biography, profile_pic_url, follower_count, following_count, posts_count, avg_engagement_rate, biolinks, country, is_verified, is_business_account, business_category_name · posts: media_id, post_url, caption, taken_at, like_count, comment_count, image_url, location, location_data, comments

X (Twitter) — profile: id, handle, name, url, description, profile_image_url, verified, location, website, followers, following, posts_count, joined_at · posts: id, url, text, created_at, language, likes, replies, reposts, quotes, views, bookmarks, conversation_id, author

LinkedIn — profile: id, name, linkedin_url, headline, country, country_iso_2, followers, total_posts, posts_last_6_months, posting_frequency, avg_likes, `a