FAQ
Questions people ask about pendpost
Short, direct answers. For how the approval gate, local-first design, and anti-ban brakes keep your accounts safe, see security and trust. If something is missing, the docs go deeper, or open an issue on GitHub.
- Is pendpost free?
- Yes. pendpost is free and open source under the MIT license, and the free self-hosted core is the whole product: no locked features, no seats, and no usage limits when you run it yourself, so the only cost is your own machine or server. There is also an optional paid 24/7 cloud service (pendpost-cloud, run by Nomadik GmbH) for people who would rather not self-host: it keeps the live lanes publishing around the clock, holds platform tokens in an encrypted vault, and enforces the same human approval gate server-side. It sells uptime and convenience, never capability, you can try it with a free trial of 10 posts and no card, and you can always eject back to the free core.
- How is a post counted in pendpost cloud?
- A post is one content item. When pendpost publishes it to several of the platforms you have connected, it still counts as a single post against your monthly allowance, not one per platform. You only pay overage for content items beyond your plan's pooled monthly allowance, so fanning one post out to more platforms never costs more.
- What happens when I use up my monthly posts in pendpost cloud?
- Nothing breaks. Past your plan's pooled monthly allowance, each extra post is charged at your plan's per-post overage rate, shown at checkout and in the app before you are billed. You can set a spend cap so overage never goes past an amount you choose, and the app shows a running estimate for the period.
- What is the spend cap in pendpost cloud?
- The spend cap is an optional limit you set on overage charges. Once your overage for the period reaches the cap, the cloud pauses extra posts until the next period or until you raise it, and pendpost alerts you as you get close. Your plan fee and included posts are unaffected; the cap governs only the per-post overage.
- Does pendpost cloud have an annual discount?
- Yes. Paying annually costs the price of ten months instead of twelve, so you get two months free. You can switch between monthly and annual at any time from the billing portal.
- What does an extra brand cost on pendpost cloud?
- Each plan includes a set number of always-on brands. If you run more always-on brands than your plan includes, each extra brand is a small monthly add-on, shown in the app before you turn it on. Brands share one account and one bill, and seats are free, so you never pay per person.
- How do I cancel or eject from pendpost cloud?
- You can cancel any time from the billing portal or inside the app; your plan stops renewing and the service runs until the end of the period you have paid for. You can also eject back to the free self-hosted core whenever you want: pendpost hands back your plan files and a per-platform re-auth checklist, your tokens are re-minted locally and never exported in the clear, and a short safety window protects your data before any managed copy is deleted.
- What is pendpost?
- pendpost is a free, open-source (MIT), local-first social media planner where an AI agent drafts and schedules posts across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X behind a human approval gate you control.
- Can an AI agent like Claude post to my social media with pendpost?
- Yes. pendpost is MCP-native, so an MCP client such as Claude can draft and schedule posts through it. The difference from other tools is the approval gate you control: the agent prepares posts and you approve them, or you opt into an auto-approve policy and let it publish on its own. Either way, nothing publishes until it's approved, and only you can turn auto-approve on.
- Does pendpost post automatically without me?
- By default no: every post is fail-closed and waits for your approval. But you can opt into an auto-approve policy that lets pendpost publish matching posts on its own, so you scale from approving every post to fully hands-off. The safety holds either way: nothing publishes until it's approved, only the owner can turn auto-approve on, and posts still pass brand-lint, the anti-ban circuit breakers, and your schedule before they go live. You own the policy and can switch it off any time.
- Which social media platforms does pendpost support?
- pendpost supports Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X. Where a platform offers native scheduling (Facebook scheduled posts, YouTube publishAt), pendpost uses it; otherwise it publishes when due.
- Does pendpost post when my computer is off?
- It depends on the platform. Facebook and YouTube use native scheduling, so a scheduled post fires on time even when your computer is off. Instagram, LinkedIn, and X have no native scheduling, so pendpost has to be running at the scheduled time to publish them. To cover those for free, run pendpost on a host that never sleeps (a small always-on server, a Raspberry Pi, or a one-click deploy) and keep it private behind a tunnel such as Tailscale or Cloudflare Access. The docs page on always-on self-host explains the secure pattern.
- Why does YouTube show "Google hasn't verified this app" when I connect it?
- That notice is expected, and it is safe. Because pendpost is self-hosted, you connect YouTube through your own Google project and your own OAuth app, so Google is asking you to confirm access to an app you created yourself. Click Advanced, then continue to pendpost. It is a one-time step at sign-in: once you authorize, the token is long-lived and you will not see the screen again unless you reconnect. There is nothing to verify with Google because the app is yours and stays on your machine. To make the token durable rather than expiring after a few days, publish your Google consent screen to production.
- Is pendpost self-hosted and local-first?
- Yes. pendpost runs on your own machine and binds to 127.0.0.1 by default. Your platform API credentials stay in your own .env file, and nothing phones home. You own your data and your accounts.
- How is pendpost different from Buffer or Hootsuite?
- Buffer and Hootsuite are hosted products that hold your accounts and queue posts a person wrote. pendpost is free, open source, and runs on your own machine, and it is built for an AI agent to draft and schedule while a human approves. It adds anti-ban circuit breakers and a caption brand-lint that hosted schedulers do not.
- How is pendpost different from Postiz?
- Both are open-source and self-hostable. Postiz is AGPL-3.0 and is primarily a dashboard you operate across many platforms. pendpost is MIT-licensed (so you can embed or modify it for clients without copyleft obligations), MCP-native rather than dashboard-first, local-first by default, and built around a human approval gate for agent-drafted posts. If you want a broad, hosted-style dashboard, Postiz is a strong choice; if you want a local, agent-operated workflow with human sign-off, pendpost fits.
- Is pendpost an MCP server for social media?
- Yes. pendpost exposes a full MCP tool surface so any MCP client can operate it, with read-only tools that can never publish and write tools gated by human approval. The same capabilities are available from the built-in web dashboard, enforced by a parity test.
- Do I need to know how to code to use pendpost?
- You need to be comfortable running a process on your own machine: `npx pendpost` or `docker compose up`, and supplying your own platform API credentials. You do not need to write code. If you want a no-code, nothing-to-install product, a hosted tool will suit you better.
- How do I install pendpost?
- Run `npx pendpost` or `docker compose up`, then open http://127.0.0.1:8090. With no credentials set, it starts in mock mode so you can try the whole workflow first. Full setup instructions are at https://docs.pendpost.com.
- Can I try pendpost without API keys?
- Yes. With no credentials in your .env (or with PENDPOST_MODE=mock), pendpost runs every platform through a credential-free mock driver. You can run the full draft, approve, schedule, publish, and insights loop with zero real API calls, and an example campaign ships in the box.
- Does pendpost help avoid getting my accounts banned?
- It is designed to reduce that risk. A platform action block (for example Meta error 368) trips a circuit breaker that halts that lane and does not auto-resume until you clear it, health probes send no traffic while blocked, and a cadence cap defers bursts instead of firing them. You remain responsible for each platform's terms.
- What license is pendpost under?
- pendpost is MIT-licensed. You can read, modify, self-host, and use it commercially, including running it for clients, without copyleft obligations.