Hooklayer MCP

Viral-content intelligence for AI agents. Drop the Hooklayer MCP server into Claude Desktop, Cursor, n8n, or any HTTP MCP client and your agent gets 12 tools for short-form content across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube: analyze creators, search videos by keyword, find viral templates and rising trends, score and rewrite hooks, remix viral videos, match a creator's voice, predict a draft's virality, turn a brand brief into a shoot-ready creative blueprint, and monitor creators over time with saved watches and historical snapshots.

12 tools · structured JSON · non-destructive creator monitoring · no external social-platform edits or deletes

> v1.1.0 (2026-05-14): The evidence layer ships. Every score includes `signals[]` with cited evidence, a `would_fail_because` counterfactual, and a `quality` health field. `predict_virality` runs an independent adversarial check. `analyze_account.recommended_chain` steps now expose `confidence`, `cost`, `action_class` (authority taxonomy), and `expected_output`. See CHANGELOG.md for the full ship.

🚀 Quick install

Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop doesn't natively support remote HTTP MCP servers — it needs the `mcp-remote` bridge. Two ways to install:

Option 1 — Custom Connector (easiest, no config file edit)

In Claude's web/desktop UI: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste this URL:

https://hooklayer.dev/api/mcp

Claude.ai will walk you through OAuth (no manual key paste). Done.

Option 2 — Direct config (for power users who want `hl_live_` key auth)

Edit `claude_desktop_config.json`:

• macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
• Windows: `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hooklayer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote@0.1.38",
        "https://hooklayer.dev/api/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:Bearer hl_live_..."
      ]
    }
  }
}

Get your free `hl_live_` key at https://hooklayer.dev/auth/signup — 100 lifetime credits, no card required.

Restart Claude Desktop. The 12 Hooklayer tools appear in the 🔌 connector list.

Cursor

`~/.cursor/mcp.json`:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "hooklayer": {
      "url": "https://hooklayer.dev/api/mcp",
      "transport": "http",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer hl_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

n8n

In your workflow, add an MCP Client node and configure as a remote HTTP MCP server:

• URL: `https://hooklayer.dev/api/mcp`
• Transport: `HTTP`
• Header: `Authorization: Bearer hl_live_...`

All 12 tools appear in the node's "Tool" dropdown.

OAuth 2.1 + PKCE (for Claude.ai connector + custom apps)

Hooklayer is fully OAuth 2.1 compliant — discovery, Dynamic Client Registration, PKCE, refresh token rotation. MCP clients that prefer OAuth over API keys work out of the box.

Discovery endpoints (no auth required, machine-readable):

# Authorization server metadata (RFC 8414)
curl https://hooklayer.dev/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server

# Protected resource metadata (RFC 9728)
curl https://hooklayer.dev/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource

Dynamic Client Registration (create a client without a manual signup form):

curl -X POST https://hooklayer.dev/oauth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "client_name": "Your MCP client",
    "redirect_uris": ["https://yourapp.com/oauth/callback"]
  }'
# Returns: client_id, client_secret (for confidential clients)

Hitting `tools/call` without auth returns `401` plus a `WWW-Authenticate` header pointing at the resource metadata — Claude.ai, Cursor, and other MCP clients use this to auto-discover the OAuth flow.

Other clients

Any HTTP MCP client. Protocol negotiates `2024-11-05` (broadest compat) or `2025-06-18` (Streamable HTTP + structuredContent).

# Quick test — initialize handshake works without auth:
curl -X POST https://hooklayer.dev/api/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize"}'

🧠 The 12 tools

Full schemas + curl examples: https://hooklayer.dev/docs

💡 Suggested follow-ups

`analyze_account` returns a `recommended_chain` field: plain data listing related tools, example parameters, and the reason each might be useful next. It is advisory only — the agent and user decide whether to act on it:

{
  "viral_dna_score": 87,
  "steal_map": [...],
  "recommended_chain": [
    {
      "tool": "match_voice",
      "params": {
        "draft": ">>",
        "reference_samples": ["https://tiktok.com/...", "...", "..."]
      },
      "reason": "High-signal voice DNA — consistent across top 5 videos"
    },
    {
      "tool": "trend_pulse",
      "params": { "niche": "challenge_videos" },
      "reason": "Verify their formula maps to current trends"
    },
    {
      "tool": "viral_remix",
      "params": { "source_url": "https://tiktok.com/..." },
      "reason": "Their #2 video has the highest copyable structure"
    }
  ]
}

These entries are informational data, not instructions. Each tool still requires explicit invocation — nothing runs automatically without agent/user consent.

📦 Examples

• `examples/typescript-example.ts` — TypeScript usage via the MCP SDK
• `examples/python-example.py` — Python usage via `anthropic-mcp` client
• `examples/curl-test.sh` — Raw curl tests for every endpoint

💵 Pricing

• Free — 100 lifetime credits at signup, no card
• Starter — $49/month, 5,000 credits, 60 req/min
• Pro — $149/month, 25,000 credits, 300 req/min, brand voice memory
• Agency — $499/month, 150,000 credits, 1,000 req/min, white-label, 10 seats
• Pay-as-you-go — $25 for 5,000 credits, never expire

Full pricing: https://hooklayer.dev/pricing

🛠 Architecture

Hosted MCP server (no stdio install needed):

Your agent (Claude/Cursor/n8n)
        │
        │  JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP
        ▼
https://hooklayer.dev/api/mcp
        │
        ├── initialize / ping / tools/list  (no auth)
        └── tools/call                       (Bearer hl_live_*)
                │
                └── Routes internally to /v1/* REST endpoints
                    100K+ analyzed viral videos
                    ScrapeCreators + Whisper + Sonnet pipeline

Source code for the hosted server lives at `hooklayer.dev` (closed source — the analysis pipeline is the moat). This repo holds the public client docs, examples, and config snippets.

📚 Links

• Install page: https://hooklayer.dev/mcp
• Full docs: https://hooklayer.dev/docs
• Playground (no signup): https://hooklayer.dev/playground
• Pricing: https://hooklayer.dev/pricing
• OAuth metadata: `/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server`
• Issues + bug reports: GitHub Issues

🔒 Security

Hooklayer uses explicit MCP safety annotations for all 12 tools. Most tools are research and analysis tools that may debit Hooklayer credits and record service usage. `list_watches` is read-only. Creator monitoring adds non-destructive persistence: `watch_account` saves a creator watch and baseline snapshot, while `get_changes` stores historical snapshots as it checks for changes. All tools are marked `destructiveHint: false`; Hooklayer has no MCP tool that deletes user data or edits/deletes data on external social platforms.

Authentication: `tools/call` requires a Bearer token (`hl_live_*` API key or OAuth 2.1 access token). Public methods (`initialize`, `ping`, `tools/list`) work without auth so MCP clients can handshake and discover tools before authentication.

`recommended_chain` is advisory only. The `analyze_account` response includes suggested follow-up tools with pre-filled parameters. These are data — the agent and user decide whether to execute them. No tool call ever triggers additional tool calls server-side.

Data handling: Hooklayer processes the inputs you send (handles, hooks, scripts, URLs) to return analysis results. Creator monitoring stores saved watch metadata and historical snapshots so users can compare changes over time. Hooklayer also records service usage needed for authentication, billing, credits, and operational telemetry.

To report a security issue: GitHub Issues or email security@hooklayer.dev.

📄 License

MIT — see LICENSE.

The MCP client examples and config snippets in this repo are MIT. The hosted Hooklayer service at `hooklayer.dev` is a commercial product with the pricing tiers listed above.