Setup guide
Connect TikTok
Uses a sandbox model: your app starts in a sandbox, and accounts must be added to it individually. That is fine when the accounts are yours.
Check these first
Each of these blocks everything after it, and none of them is checked until the very last step — so it is worth thirty seconds now.
- A TikTok account. Business accounts return richer analytics, but Personal works for basic metrics.
Steps
Create the app
developers.tiktok.com → Manage apps → Connect an app. Fill in the basics.
Add the products
Add "Login Kit" and "Display API". Skip Content Posting API unless you intend to publish — it is reviewed separately and far more strictly.
Set the redirect URI
Login Kit → Redirect URI. Paste the one SIGNAL shows.
Add your account as a target user
Sandbox → Target Users → add your own TikTok account. This is the step that makes it work without review. Each account you want to track must be added here.
Copy the credentials
Basic information → Client key and Client secret. Note TikTok says "client key", not "client ID" — it is the same thing, paste it into the App ID field.
Developer console: developers.tiktok.com
Permissions to request
Read-only. None of these let anything post on your behalf — if a console offers you publishing permissions, you can leave them off.
- user.info.basic
- user.info.profile
- user.info.stats
- video.list
If something goes wrong
These are the real failures, with the errors the platform actually shows. Most of them point somewhere other than the actual cause.
- "The target user is not in the sandbox user list."
- The account was not added under Sandbox → Target Users, or was added and the invitation not accepted.
- Connects, but no videos appear.
- The Display API only returns public videos. Private or friends-only posts are invisible to it.
Console layouts change. These steps were checked in July 2026 — if a screen does not match, the developer console’s own documentation is the authority.