Instagram

Manage an Instagram account. View profile, list posts, publish images/carousels, publish videos/Reels, and read/write comments. Use when the user requests an...

Instagram API Skill

A skill for managing an Instagram account via the Instagram Graph API. Supports profile viewing, post management, image publishing, video/Reels publishing, and comment operations.

Prerequisites

• A .env file with credentials must be configured.
  • Required: INSTAGRAM_ACCESS_TOKEN
  • Recommended (for comment/reply via Facebook Graph): FACEBOOK_USER_ACCESS_TOKEN
  • Required for FB token refresh: FACEBOOK_APP_ID, FACEBOOK_APP_SECRET
• cloudflared must be installed for local image/video posting.
• If the user specifies a .env file path, append --env <path> to every command.
  • Example: node scripts/get-profile.js --env /home/user/.instagram-env
• All scripts must be run with this project root as the working directory.

Available Commands

All commands automatically refresh the token before execution. No manual refresh needed.

Refresh Token

bash

# Instagram token refresh
node scripts/refresh-token.js

# Facebook user token refresh (for comments/replies flow)
node scripts/refresh-facebook-token.js

Manually refreshes token(s) and returns expiration info.

View Profile

bash

node scripts/get-profile.js

Returns profile info (name, username, account type, media count).

List Posts

bash

node scripts/get-posts.js [--limit 10]

Returns the user's post list. Use --limit to set the count (default: 10).

View Post Detail

bash

node scripts/get-post.js <media-id>

Returns post detail including like count and comment count.

Publish Image

bash

# Single image (URL)
node scripts/post-image.js --caption "Caption" https://example.com/photo.jpg

# Single image (local file)
node scripts/post-image.js --caption "Caption" ./photos/image.png

# Carousel — multiple images (URL)
node scripts/post-image.js --caption "Caption" https://example.com/a.jpg https://example.com/b.jpg

# Carousel — multiple images (local files)
node scripts/post-image.js --caption "Caption" ./img1.png ./img2.png ./img3.jpg

• 1 image → single post, 2+ images → automatically posted as carousel (max 10).
• Both URLs (http://, https://) and local file paths are supported, but mixing is not allowed.
• Supported local file formats: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp, heic/heif (HEIC is automatically converted to JPEG).

Publish Video (Reels)

bash

# Single video (URL)
node scripts/post-video.js --caption "Caption" https://example.com/video.mp4

# Single video (local file)
node scripts/post-video.js --caption "Caption" ./videos/clip.mp4

# With cover image and options
node scripts/post-video.js --caption "Caption" --cover https://example.com/cover.jpg --thumb-offset 5000 --share-to-feed true https://example.com/video.mp4

# Video carousel — multiple videos (URL)
node scripts/post-video.js --caption "Caption" https://example.com/a.mp4 https://example.com/b.mp4

# Video carousel — multiple videos (local files)
node scripts/post-video.js --caption "Caption" ./clip1.mp4 ./clip2.mov

• 1 video → Reels post, 2+ videos → automatically posted as carousel (max 10).
• Both URLs and local file paths are supported, but mixing is not allowed.
• Supported formats: mp4, mov (max 100MB per file).
• --cover, --thumb-offset, --share-to-feed options are only available for single video posts (not carousels).
• Video processing takes longer than images; the script waits up to 10 minutes.

View Comments

bash

node scripts/get-comments.js <media-id>

Returns comments and replies for a specific post.

Post Comment

bash

node scripts/post-comment.js <media-id> --text "Comment text"

Reply to Comment

bash

node scripts/reply-comment.js <comment-id> --text "Reply text"

Workflow Guidelines

• When publishing images or videos, always confirm the caption with the user before executing.
• After publishing, report the result ID and permalink to the user (both are included in the output).
• Video processing takes longer than images. Inform the user that it may take a few minutes.
• When writing comments/replies, confirm the content with the user before executing.
• All command outputs are in JSON format.

Error Handling

If the output contains an error field, an error has occurred. Explain the cause to the user and suggest a resolution.

json

{ "error": "error message" }

Security

Token storage

• refreshIgToken() and refreshFbToken() overwrite tokens in the .env file in plaintext. Do not commit .env to version control.
• Create a dedicated Meta app with minimum required permissions (see below).

Local file upload

• Local image/video posting starts a temporary cloudflared Quick Tunnel to expose files so Instagram servers can download them.
• The tunnel is active only during the upload and is shut down immediately after.
• Only provide file paths you are comfortable briefly exposing to the internet.

Minimum required permissions

When creating your Meta app, grant only these permissions:

• instagram_business_basic — profile and media read
• instagram_content_publish — image/video publishing
• instagram_manage_comments — comment read/write
• pages_read_engagement — required for comment API via Facebook Graph
• pages_show_list — required for page-linked Instagram accounts