Social media · checked 2026-10-19Can I vibecode Cruva?
NOT REALLY· don't bother
Cruva sits on top of TikTok Shop. It joins your shop as a manager, reads your creators, sample requests and sales, and adds a database of 4M+ affiliates, lookalike search and competitor intelligence, then automates invites, messages and follow-ups. The CRM and the message sequencing are ordinary software. The value is the data and the standing: a creator directory you can't recreate, and automation that works because TikTok has made Cruva a partner. A self-built tool can track the creators you find by hand in Seller Center. It can't find them for you or message them on its own.
$199/moprice
$2,388it costs you a year
one sittingbuild time
—people replaced it
What you need on hand.
DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.
TimeOne to two hours for the tracker
- Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
- Node.js 22better-sqlite3 compiles a native module, so build tools must be installed.
- Your creator listCopy the handles and stages out of Cruva or Seller Center into a spreadsheet and save it as CSV.
- SMTP credentialsOptional: only the daily reminder email needs them.
Before you buildTikTok's Affiliate Center in Seller Center is free and handles invitations and samples by hand; try a month on it before paying $199.
- 1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
- 2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
- 3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.
The prompt
Build me a local creator pipeline for my TikTok Shop affiliate program, to replace the CRM part of Cruva. Requirements:
- Node.js 22 + TypeScript: Fastify with Eta pages and vanilla JS for drag and drop. `npm start`
serves http://localhost:4350.
- Storage: better-sqlite3 in ./data/creators.db: creators (handle, name, email, niche, followers,
country, source, notes), stage history, products, samples, posts, follow-ups and templates.
- Board: kanban columns Found, Invited, Accepted, Sample requested, Sample shipped, Posted,
Reordering and Declined. Dragging a card records the date and keeps the stage history.
- Import: CSV files with a column-mapping screen that remembers the mapping (use any export you
have from Seller Center or a spreadsheet of your own), plus a paste box for a list of handles.
Dedupe by handle, case-insensitive, and show counts before saving.
- Samples: product, quantity, tracking number, shipped and delivered dates. A card turns red when
a sample was delivered 10 days ago and there is still no post.
- Posts and sales: add video URLs by hand and import orders or commissions from CSV; show orders,
GMV and commission per creator and per product, and the cost of samples against GMV.
- Templates: invite and follow-up messages with {handle}, {product} and {commission}; a button
copies the rendered text. The app never sends a message and never logs in to TikTok.
- Reminders: a daily list of follow-ups due, and an optional digest email with nodemailer SMTP
from .env.
- Single user. No accounts, no telemetry, local-first: nothing leaves the machine except the
optional email.
- Out of scope: finding creators, automated DMs, a creator database, ad tools, any call to TikTok.
- README: how to import, the column mapping, backing up ./data, and a note that automating
messages through TikTok could break its rules, which is why this tool doesn't.Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.
Then keep going
Next prompts, same folder.
The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Cruva.
Add a sample ROI view to the creator pipeline in this folder. Requirements: - Add a unit cost and a shipping cost per sample, stored with the sample record. - A page listing each creator with samples sent, total sample cost, GMV, commission paid and net result, sortable by any column. - Highlight creators with 2 or more samples and no posted video. - Show "no sales data" instead of zero when no order import covers the creator. - Update the README.
Add follow-up rules to the creator pipeline in this folder. Requirements: - A settings page where each stage has a wait in days and a template; moving a card creates a follow-up task due after that wait. - Moving a card to Posted, Reordering or Declined cancels open follow-ups. - The daily list groups tasks by template and shows the creator's last note and sample status. - Cap follow-ups at 3 per creator and show the count. - Update the README.
Add a product shortlist to the creator pipeline in this folder. Requirements: - Choose a product and get creators ranked by GMV on similar products, reorder history and days since the last post, with niche matching from the creator notes. - Exclude creators who declined or already hold an undelivered sample of that product. - Export the shortlist as CSV with handle, reason and suggested template. - Update the README.
What you lose
- A directory of 4M+ affiliates, plus lookalike search on Scale
- Automated invites, messages, follow-ups and sample approvals inside TikTok Shop
- Competitor affiliate and top-video intelligence
- Creator communities and workflows for programs with many creators
- Spark Ads, GMV Max analytics and halo-effect reporting for Amazon and Shopify sales
Why people still pay
TikTok Shop brands depend on creator volume, and finding affiliates, getting samples to them and chasing replies is repetitive work that doesn't scale by hand. Cruva puts discovery, outreach, sample approval and reporting in one place, and says it is an official TikTok Shop partner, which matters when the whole business sits on TikTok's rules.
Cruva or your own copy?
Over
Your usage
3h ×$/h
Cruva, 1 yr$2,388
Your own copy, 1 yr$35running + build session
You keep$2,353pays for itself in the first month
Estimate · Runs on your machine. The only running cost is an optional SMTP service, which is free at this volume. The build is token usage on your agent plan.
Take your data, then cancel.
1 · Take your data out of Cruva
- 1Your affiliate roster lives in Affiliate CRM > My Affiliates; the help center says a shop's creators, lists, CRM history and automations are kept separately for each shop.
- 2We found no official guidance on exporting the roster before or after cancelling and none on how long data is kept: ask support and copy what you need first.
- 3Cruva's terms don't let brands use what the discovery and directory features show outside Cruva, so what you can take is your own affiliate data, not the directory.
2 · Cancel Cruva
- 1Open the account menu at the top right and choose Billing & Plans.
- 2Start the cancellation on the shop's plan card: it takes effect at the end of the billing period, you keep full access until then, and the card shows Cancelling with the end date.
- 3Changed your mind? Click Keep subscription before that date.
- 4On agency accounts, lowering the license quantity applies at once with unused time credited toward the next bill; lowering every plan to zero starts a full cancellation.
- The refund window is 14 days from your most recent payment, with no pro-rating afterwards.
- Cruva connects by adding its own Affiliate Manager email as a user in your Seller Center; remove that user when you leave.
- To delete your account and personal data, email support@cruva.com with the subject User data deletion request: Cruva says it acts within 72 hours of verifying you.
- The terms grant Cruva a broad, perpetual licence to the content and data you put in: read them before you upload creator or customer data.
The escape hatch
Don't feel like building it? These are already free.
The numbers
Cruva pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $199 | $159 | Outreach, CRM, email and message center, a database of 4M+ affiliates, analytics dashboard with demographic data, video and LIVE analytics, sample request management, 5 concurrent automations. |
| Scale | $599 | $479 | AI and lookalike creator search, creator briefs, AI sample approval, retention and cohort analysis, auto Spark Ads, AI auto replies, unlimited creator community, halo-effect reporting for Amazon and Shopify, GMV Max analytics, unlimited automations, priority support. |
| Enterprise | custom | — | Custom throughput and deliverability, standard and enterprise API with a Claude integration, a dedicated account manager. |
- Billing
- Monthly, six-month (10% off) or yearly (20% off). Cancelling takes effect at the end of the billing period. The terms give a 14-day refund window from your most recent payment and no pro-rated refunds after it. Changing plan or quantity during the trial ends the trial and starts billing at once, and the trial applies to a first subscription only.
- Hidden costs
- The help center says each TikTok Shop needs its own subscription. Seat counts are described only as reasonable for each tier, with extra seats at a flat rate for very large teams. Daily outreach counts each unique creator contacted in 24 hours; follow-ups in an existing thread don't count.
- Source
- cruva.com
Also on the list
Related apps
A 14-day free trial on every plan, backed by a two-week money-back guarantee.
Not really. TikTok Shop brands depend on creator volume, and finding affiliates, getting samples to them and chasing replies is repetitive work that doesn't scale by hand. Cruva puts discovery, outreach, sample approval and reporting in one place, and says it is an official TikTok Shop partner, which matters when the whole business sits on TikTok's rules. The prompt on this page builds the closest honest substitute.
About $199 a month on the Basic plan, $2,388 a year (checked 2026-10-19).
A directory of 4M+ affiliates, plus lookalike search on Scale; Automated invites, messages, follow-ups and sample approvals inside TikTok Shop; Competitor affiliate and top-video intelligence; Creator communities and workflows for programs with many creators; Spark Ads, GMV Max analytics and halo-effect reporting for Amazon and Shopify sales. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.
Yes: TikTok Shop Affiliate Center (free).