MCP INTEGRATION GUIDE

Connect PingLynk
to Claude in 5 minutes

PingLynk ships its own MCP server. Once connected, Claude can read your Instagram insights, list your posts, and publish directly to your account — no dashboard required.

Time: ~5 min Requires: PingLynk account + API key Works with: Claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code

BEFORE YOU START

What you'll need

Three things, and you're ready to wire it up:

An active PingLynk account

Sign up or log in at pinglynk.com. Your Instagram Business or Creator account should already be connected inside PingLynk before you set up MCP — Claude reads through PingLynk, it doesn't connect to Instagram directly.

Your PingLynk MCP key

Found under Settings → Developer in your PingLynk dashboard. It looks like plk_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and is embedded directly into your personal MCP URL — treat it like a password.

A Claude plan that supports connectors

Custom connectors are available on Claude.ai (Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise), Claude Desktop, and Claude Code. Free tier does not support custom MCP connectors.

SETUP

Connecting step by step

Grab your MCP URL from PingLynk

In your PingLynk dashboard, go to Settings → Developer and copy your unique server URL. It follows this pattern:

https://pinglynk-production.up.railway.app/mcp/plk_<your_key>

Don't share this URL. Your API key is embedded in it — anyone with the link can read and post to your connected Instagram account through PingLynk.

Open Connector settings in Claude

In Claude.ai: click your profile icon → Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. In Claude Desktop, this lives under Settings → Connectors as well.

Using Claude Code instead? It doesn't have a Connectors settings screen — add the server from a terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http pinglynk https://pinglynk-production.up.railway.app/mcp/plk_<your_key>

Then skip straight to Step 5 below — Claude Code doesn't need a per-chat toggle, the tools are available as soon as the server's added.

Add PingLynk as a custom connector

Paste your URL from Step 1 into the connector field and give it a name. (Skip this step if you added PingLynk via the Claude Code CLI command above.)

NAME

PingLynk

URL

https://pinglynk-production.up.railway.app/mcp/plk_<your_key>

Confirm and connect

Click Add. Claude will ping the PingLynk MCP server to verify the connection. A green "Connected" status means it worked — PingLynk's tools (post to Instagram, list posts, get insights, check connection status) are now available to Claude in any chat.

Enable it in a chat

Start a new conversation, click the tools/connectors icon in the message bar, and toggle PingLynk on. Some clients enable connectors globally instead — check your Connectors settings if you don't see the toggle.

WHAT CLAUDE CAN DO

Tools exposed by PingLynk's MCP server

Once connected, these are the core actions Claude can take on your behalf:

READ

connection_status

Checks whether your Instagram Business/Creator account is properly linked to PingLynk.

READ

list_instagram_posts

Pulls your recent posts — captions, media type, likes, comments, timestamps, permalinks.

READ

get_post_insights

Reach, saves, shares, views, and total interactions for a specific post by media ID.

WRITE

post_to_instagram

Publishes an image, video, or carousel (2-10 slides) straight to your feed — real, live, irreversible.

Heads up: carousel posts don't return a views metric at all (Instagram doesn't expose it for albums), and any metric can occasionally come back null right after a post goes live — that's expected, not a bug.

TRY IT

Prompts to test the connection

Paste any of these into Claude once PingLynk is toggled on:

SANITY CHECK

"Is my PingLynk account connected to Instagram right now?"

AUDIT

"Pull my last 10 Instagram posts from PingLynk and tell me which ones are underperforming on saves."

ANALYSIS

"Get insights on my most recent post and compare reach vs. saves — is this a distribution problem or a hook problem?"

PUBLISH (LIVE ACTION)

"Post this reel to my Instagram feed with the caption below." — Claude will ask you to confirm before it actually publishes.

QUICK CHECKLIST

Before you close this tab

✓
Instagram Business/Creator account linked inside PingLynk
✓
MCP key copied from Settings → Developer
✓
Custom connector added in Claude with correct URL (or added via CLI for Claude Code)
✓
Connector shows "Connected" status
✓
PingLynk toggled on inside an active chat
✓
Ran a test prompt (connection_status) successfully

IF SOMETHING BREAKS

Troubleshooting

ISSUE	LIKELY FIX
Connector won't verify	Re-copy the MCP URL from PingLynk — keys can be regenerated in the dashboard, which invalidates the old URL.
"Not connected" from connection_status	Reconnect Instagram inside PingLynk directly (Settings → Instagram). MCP reflects whatever PingLynk's own connection state is.
Insights return null for a metric	Expected for some combinations — carousel posts don't have a `views` metric at all, and any metric can lag right after a post goes live. Not a sign anything's broken.
Tools not showing up in chat	Check the tools/connectors icon in the message bar — some clients need it toggled per-conversation, not just added globally. (Not applicable to Claude Code — tools are available as soon as the server's added.)
post_to_instagram fails	Confirm the media URL is publicly reachable (no auth wall) — PingLynk fetches it server-side and CORS/auth-blocked URLs will fail silently. A base64 data URI works too if you don't have a public URL.