Instagram — Profile Posts

username → paginated list of posts (media, caption, counts, timestamps)

Language

Objective

Prerequisites

• Browser is open on any Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/
• Logged into Instagram (user avatar or username visible in top-right corner)

Pre-execution Checks

1. Tool Readiness

2. Login Verification

• Logout/sign-out entry, user avatar, or username exists → logged in, continue execution
• Login/register entry exists with no logout entry → not logged in, inform the user that login is needed first, assist the user in completing the login flow

Capability Components

This Skill's operational boundary = what the user can manually do in their browser. It only reads data already displayed to the user on the page, never bypassing authentication or access controls. Its role is equivalent to copy-pasting on the user's behalf — the data is already on screen, automation merely saves time. JS code is encapsulated in Python files under the scripts/ directory, invoked via eval "$(python scripts/xxx.py {params})". $(...) is bash syntax; it is recommended to use the bash tool for execution.

API: get user ID from username

• username: Instagram username without @ (e.g., natgeo)

{
  "id": "787132",
  "username": "natgeo",
  "is_private": false
}

API: get profile posts page

• user_id: Numeric user ID (from get-user-id output)
• --count: Posts per page, default 12 (max 12)
• --max-id: Pagination cursor; leave empty for first page, use next_max_id from previous response for subsequent pages

{
  "items": [
    {
      "pk": "3900557621921709539",
      "code": "DYwOA07iPmB",
      "taken_at": 1779686199,
      "media_type": 1,
      "like_count": 45230,
      "comment_count": 312,
      "caption": "Caption text here...",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/...",
      "video_url": null,
      "location": {"id": "212988663", "name": "New York, New York"},
      "username": "natgeo",
      "user_id": "787132"
    }
  ],
  "more_available": true,
  "next_max_id": "3890000000000000000_787132"
}

Composite: fetch all profile posts

1. navigate https://www.instagram.com/ → wait stable
2. eval "$(python scripts/get-user-id.py '{username}')" → extract id as user_id
3. eval "$(python scripts/get-profile-posts.py '{user_id}' --count 12)" → collect items, note more_available and next_max_id
4. While more_available is true: a. eval "$(python scripts/get-profile-posts.py '{user_id}' --count 12 --max-id '{next_max_id}')" → accumulate items
5. Merge all collected items

Pagination

Success Criteria

Known Limitations

• Private accounts: posts are not accessible unless the logged-in user follows the account
• Login required: without authentication, feed API returns require_login: true
• Account with 0 posts: API returns empty items array with more_available: false
• Maximum ~12 posts per API call

Execution Efficiency

• Batch orchestration: Write a bash script to loop through the command templates serially within a single session; do not parallelize within one browser (prone to triggering anti-scraping restrictions). Refer to rate information in "Known Limitations" above to add appropriate intervals. To increase throughput, open multiple stealth browser sessions and distribute work across them — each session has an independent fingerprint so rate limits apply per session
• Test before batch execution: After writing a batch script, you must first test with 1-2 items to verify the script runs correctly; only then run the full batch. Never skip testing and execute in batch directly
• Reduce redundant pre-operations: When multiple steps depend on the same prerequisite state, complete them in batch under that state to avoid repeatedly establishing the same state
• Error resumption: Save results item by item during batch processing; on failure, resume from the breakpoint rather than starting over

Experience Notes