Hey, it's Cindy 🌱 Most of us do content research by scrolling, saving a few reels, and hoping we remember why we liked them. There's a better way. You can connect Claude to real Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts data, then just type /topics, paste in any account, and get a full visual breakdown of that niche's best-performing content pillars, with the top videos sitting under each one. Then you can have Claude deep-analyse any winner: the hook, the structure, the format, the transcript. This guide walks you through the exact setup, what it costs (it's a paid plugin, I'll be straight with you), and how to actually use the output so it turns into posts.
what you're building
Content research that reads patterns you can't see while scrolling 🔍
When you scroll, you see individual videos. What you miss is the pattern underneath: which topics a niche rewards, which hooks keep showing up in the winners, which format each pillar uses. The /topics skill surfaces exactly that. Point it at a competitor or a whole niche, and Claude gives you:
🗂 A pillar breakdown The best-performing content topics for that account or niche, grouped so you can see what actually works, not just one lucky video.
🏆 Top videos per pillar The strongest videos sitting under each topic, so you see the proof, not just the label.
🔬 Deep analysis on demand Pick any winning video and Claude breaks down the hook, the storytelling structure, the format, and the full transcript.
🧠 Hidden trends Because it's reading real data across many videos, it catches patterns you'd never spot by scrolling one feed.
the honest bit first
What it is and what it costs 💳
The magic here comes from a plugin called Sandcastles (sandcastles.ai). It connects Claude to live Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts data through a set of eight tools, and /topics is one of them. I want to be upfront: this is a paid tool, not a free hack.
💳
Real pricing, so you can decide. Sandcastles starts at roughly $39/month on the Pro plan billed annually (about $49 month-to-month), with higher Visionary and Titan tiers above that. It runs on credits, where one action (analysing a video, writing a script) uses one credit. Check
sandcastles.ai for the current plans before you commit, prices move.
Is it worth it? If content research is a real part of your week and you're tired of scrolling for hours, having this inside Claude saves serious time. If you post once in a while, the free approach (manually studying a few outliers) is probably enough for now.
the setup
Connect Sandcastles to Claude 🔌
- 📥 Grab the plugin from Sandcastles. In Sandcastles, open Settings in the left sidebar, click Connectors, scroll to the MCP section and hit Download Plugin. You need the Pro plan or above for this part (the Starter plan doesn't include the MCP).
- 🖥️ Install it in the Claude desktop app. This only works in the desktop app (claude.com/download), not the browser. In Claude, click Customize, then Plugins, then Add, then Upload Plugin, and drag the Sandcastles zip in. Then press Connectors in the middle of that page and click Install; the sandcastles connector URL comes pre-filled, just click Add.
- 🔑 Log in once. Click Connectors in the bottom-left nav, find Sandcastles, hit Connect, and sign in with your Sandcastles account in the tab that opens. When the Status column shows a check, you're wired. If no login tab appears, it's almost always a pop-up blocker.
- 🗂️ Build your watchlist in the Sandcastles app first. Add the creators you want to study and deep-analyze some of their videos in the app itself, it processes 10 to 100x faster there. Then use Claude for what Claude is good at: finding patterns across everything you've analyzed. That split is the whole trick.
- Pick your target. Decide whose content you want to reverse-engineer: a competitor, a bigger creator in your niche, or an account whose style you admire. Grab their handle.
💡 New to plugins in Claude? A plugin (MCP connector) just gives Claude a new power, in this case, the ability to pull real social data. You install it once, and from then on the skills are there whenever you need them.
the workflow
Run /topics and mine the output 🛠
- Type /topics and paste a handle. In Claude, run /topics and drop in the account or niche you chose. Claude returns the pillar breakdown with top videos under each topic.
- Read the pillars, not the videos. Before you get pulled into any single video, look at which topics repeat and perform. Those are the lanes the niche rewards. That's your content calendar telling you what to make.
- Deep-analyse one winner. Pick the strongest video in a pillar you can credibly play in, and ask Claude to break down its hook, structure, and format. Now you understand why it worked, not just that it did.
- Remix, don't copy. Take the underlying structure (the hook shape, the pacing, the format) and rebuild it around your own idea, your own examples, your own voice. You want the pattern, not the words.
🚫 Study to remix, never to clone. The point of this is to learn the mechanics that make content work, then apply them to your own angle. Copying a competitor's script line for line reads as a knock-off and it won't perform the way the original did. Steal the structure, keep your voice.
the power move
Deep-analyze a whole creator in one prompt 🧠
This is the workflow that feels illegal: point Claude at any creator and have it explain why their winners win. Start a new chat and paste this, with your target swapped in:
🧠 the creator analysis prompt
Look at the @username account on Instagram, at every video they've posted in the last three months. Deep analyze all of them using Sandcastles. Parse out the best-performing videos, the top seven or eight against the field, and run a genuinely in-depth report on why those top ones are outperforming the rest. I want the hook patterns, the formats, the narrative structures and the topics that separate the winners. Prepare the report with as many helpful visuals as possible.
Open the report artifact in Chrome to get the visuals rendering properly. And the same eight Sandcastles tools cover the rest of the research stack: /analyze for one video, /topics for your niche's winning ideas, /hooks-watchlist for hook patterns, /channels-search for finding creators worth studying.
the honest bit
Keep it useful 📌
🎯 Research is a means, not the work. It's easy to spend an hour "researching" and post nothing. Give yourself a rule: every /topics session ends with at least two ideas written down and one queued to film. The data only matters if it becomes a post.
💡 You don't need this to start. If you're not ready to pay for a plugin, you can do a lighter version by hand: pick three creators, study their three best recent videos, and write down the hook shape and format each used. Slower, but free, and it builds the same muscle.
Want the whole system, not just the research step? Inside The AI System Club I teach you to build a full AI content engine end to end: finding ideas, researching what works, writing scripts, and editing, all wired together so you can post consistently without living in the scroll. Doors open soon and founding pricing dies at close. 🌱
Join the waitlist (link in my bio too) so you're first in when we open.
Follow
@cindiezhu for more AI you can actually use 🌱