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Ig hook extractor

Skill sergebulaev/instagram-skills/skills/ig-hook-extractor

Reverse-engineer the hook from a viral Instagram Reel or carousel, given a URL or a pasted caption. Identifies which of the 10 canonical 2026 formulas it uses (number-first, contrarian, relatable, confession, listicle, before/after, myth-buster, framework, pattern-interrupt Reel, how-I Reel), explains why it worked, names the primary goal, and returns a blank template mapped to your topic. Use to learn from a post you admire. Not for writing your own (use ig-caption-writer or ig-carousel-planner).From its SKILL.md

Install
npx -y skills add sergebulaev/instagram-skills --skill ig-hook-extractor

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

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  • 12 stars12 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

4.0 KB, 901 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

Instagram Hook Extractor

Paste a viral Reel or carousel URL (or the caption text). Get back: which hook formula it uses, the exact structure, why it worked, the primary goal it chased, and a blank template you can fill with your own voice.

When to use

  • User finds a viral Reel or carousel they want to study
  • User wants to replicate a specific creator's pattern
  • Before ig-caption-writer or ig-carousel-planner, to seed a draft with a proven shape

Input

An Instagram URL (/p/, /reel/, or a profile) or pasted caption + slide text. This bundle has no built-in Instagram reader, so for a URL the skill asks the user to paste the caption (and the on-image slide text for a carousel, or a quick description of the Reel's first 3 seconds).

Output

  • Formula identified (IG1-IG10 from ../../references/hook-formulas.md) with a confidence score
  • Surface: single image, carousel, or Reel, and why that surface fit the idea
  • Structural breakdown:
    • The hook (caption first 125 chars / carousel slide 1 / Reel first 3 seconds)
    • Body architecture (per-slide roles for a carousel; beat order for a Reel)
    • The close (what earns the save, send, or follow)
    • Reaction-triggering devices (numbers, named entities, the open loop)
  • Primary goal the original chased (saves / shares / comments / follows)
  • Why it worked psychologically and algorithmically
  • Blank template with {slot} markers matched to the original, ready for the user's topic
  • Cautions: anything in the original that would fail a 2026 audit (em dashes, AI vocab, 30 hashtags, mixed media)

Steps

  1. Parse the URL. lib.url_parser.parse_instagram_url(url) returns username, shortcode, url_type.
  2. Get the content. Ask the user to paste the caption, and for a carousel the slide text, or for a Reel the first 3 seconds (on-screen text + opening line). (If they later wire an Apify Instagram actor, read it automatically.)
  3. Detect the surface. Single image, carousel, or Reel.
  4. Classify against the 10 formulas using features:
    • Caption: an odd-precision result (IG1)? a contrarian claim (IG2)? a relatable moment (IG3)? a first-person confession (IG4)?
    • Carousel: a numbered teaching list (IG5)? a before/after (IG6)? a myth/truth structure (IG7)? a named framework (IG8)?
    • Reel: a pattern interrupt in the first seconds (IG9)? a "how I" teardown (IG10)?
  5. Score confidence. If two formulas fit, return the top 2 with fit scores.
  6. Extract structure. Label each part by its role. For a carousel, map slide 1 (the loop), the front-loaded value, and the payoff slide.
  7. Name the primary goal the original optimized for.
  8. Generate a blank template with {slot} markers matched to the original shape and the user's topic.
  9. Audit the source. Flag any AI tells so the user does not copy them.

Example

See references/examples.md for worked teardowns.

Formulas reference

See ../../references/hook-formulas.md for the 10 canonical Instagram formulas with full skeletons and goal tags.

Files

  • SKILL.md - this file
  • references/classification-rules.md - feature extraction + scoring heuristics
  • references/examples.md - worked teardowns (caption, carousel, Reel)

Related skills

  • ig-caption-writer - use the extracted caption template to draft your own
  • ig-carousel-planner - use the extracted carousel template
  • ig-humanizer --mode audit - audit your draft before shipping

What ships with it: 2 files

6.8 KB alongside SKILL.md

references/

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most docs writing skills give in 901 tokens

Counted across 1,951 of the 3,904 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06

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Said here and by no other author read

  • classify post against ten canonical facebook formulas
  • calculate confidence scores for formula matches
  • label structural components by their role
  • generate a blank template with slot markers
  • Parse the provided Instagram URL
  • Detect the content surface type

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.

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