Use okdata with Doubao: Doubao Work, Coze and Volcano Engine Ark

What we're after: you tell Doubao "look at today's Douyin and Weibo hot searches and find topics our bubble-tea shop could ride", and it reads the live lists, picks a few topics, and tells you how to use each one, with links. Whether that works depends on which part of Doubao you use, so the short answer comes first.

Where it works

Where	Can it use okdata?
Doubao Work (豆包工作, the "work" side of the Doubao client)	Yes. It takes a custom connector with an MCP URL and headers.
Plain Doubao chat (app, web)	Not today. We found no way for users to add plugins or MCP servers there.
A Coze bot "published to Doubao"	Doubao is no longer among Coze's publishing channels.
Doubao models through the Volcano Engine Ark API	Yes, for developers: remote MCP in the Responses API, or function calling.

We checked this against Doubao's and Volcano Engine's documentation in November 2026. These products change quickly; trust what you see in the app.

Before you start

An API key from okdata, starting with okd_. New keys come with $0.10 of credit. The quickstart explains how to get one.
In Doubao Work the key goes into the connector settings. For Ark, keep it in the OKDATA_API_KEY environment variable, never in code.

Doubao Work: a custom connector

The interface is in Chinese; translations are in brackets.

Open the Doubao Work client, click 插件·技能·伙伴 (plugins, skills, partners) on the left, and on the 插件 (plugins) page click + 添加 (add) at the top right.
Click 新建自定义连接器 (new custom connector) and fill in:
- 服务器名称 (server name): okdata
- 传输类型 (transport): HTTP
- 服务器 URL (server URL): https://api.okdata.online/mcp
- Under 自定义 Headers (custom headers) click + 添加 and add the header Authorization with the value Bearer okd_...: the word Bearer, a space, then your full key.
Click 保存 (save).
Start a task with 新工作任务 (new work task) on the left. Type / in the input box to pick okdata, or simply describe what you need and let Doubao match the plugin.

Ask "what is my okdata balance?" first. A number back means it's connected, and that check is free. Which plans include custom connectors is up to Doubao; check the page in your client.

Plain Doubao chat and Coze

Plain Doubao chat has no place to add a third-party plugin. People used to build a bot in Coze and publish it to Doubao, but Coze's channels are now its store, Feishu, WeChat, mini programs and the API, without Doubao. If your team uses AI inside Feishu or WeChat, build a bot as on the Coze page and publish it there.

Getting a plugin into every Doubao user's app goes through the Doubao open platform's plugin listing, which is a job for plugin developers rather than users.

Developers: MCP for Doubao models in Ark

Ark's Responses API can attach a remote MCP server with headers. It only supports Streamable HTTP, which is what okdata uses. During the beta the request needs the header ark-beta-mcp: true.

curl https://ark.cn-beijing.volces.com/api/v3/responses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARK_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "ark-beta-mcp: true" \
  -d @- <<EOF
{
  "model": "doubao-seed-2-1-pro-260915",
  "tools": [{
    "type": "mcp",
    "server_label": "okdata",
    "server_url": "https://api.okdata.online/mcp",
    "require_approval": "never",
    "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer $OKDATA_API_KEY" }
  }],
  "input": [{ "role": "user", "content": [{ "type": "input_text", "text": "What are the top five on Weibo hot search right now?" }] }]
}
EOF

Use a model you have enabled in Ark. With require_approval set to never the model can make paid calls on its own, so put a budget in the prompt. If you'd rather not use MCP, Ark also supports function calling: describe one endpoint as a function and call https://api.okdata.online yourself.

A first prompt to try

Using okdata, read today's Douyin and Weibo hot search lists. Pick five topics
a bubble-tea shop could tie into, with rank, heat, one idea each and the link.
Tell me the cost first.

What it costs

find, describe and account are free; only call is billed. The prompt above reads two hot lists, $0.002 for Douyin and $0.002 for Weibo, {{cost:douyin.trends.list1+weibo.trends.list1}} in all. A page of Xiaohongshu note search is $0.02 if it goes on to search. Failed calls are free. Doubao's and Ark's model usage is billed separately by them.

When something goes wrong

401 unauthorized. The header is missing or malformed: the name must be Authorization and the value must start with Bearer . With Ark, make sure OKDATA_API_KEY is set in the terminal you run the command from.
402 insufficient_balance. Not enough balance for the call. Nothing was charged. Top up and try again; prices are on the pricing page.
429 rate_limited. Too many calls in a short time. The response includes retry_after_seconds; wait that long before calling again. No charge.
The connector shows no tools. Check the URL is https://api.okdata.online/mcp and the transport is HTTP. Opening that URL in a browser shows "Method not allowed", which is normal: it only answers MCP requests.