Instagram access

Instagram Access — Permanent Capability Skill

What This Skill Enables

• Download posts, reels, and stories from any public Instagram profile
• Download from private profiles the logged-in user follows
• Fetch post metadata (caption, likes, comments, date, type)
• Explore profiles (follower count, bio, post count, recent posts)
• Search by hashtag or location
• Download specific posts by shortcode or URL
• Batch scan captions for content categorization

Authentication

First-Time Setup

You need a dedicated Instagram account for scraping (DO NOT use your main account — Instagram may rate-limit or ban scraper accounts). Create a secondary account, then:

1. Install instaloader:

   pip install instaloader --break-system-packages  # Linux/WSL
   pip install instaloader                          # Windows/macOS
   

2. Generate a session cookie file (run in a separate terminal, NOT through Claude Code's Bash tool):

   instaloader --login <your-scraper-username>
   

3. Instaloader stores the session at:

   • Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Instaloader\session-<username>.pg (e.g. C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Instaloader\session-<username>.pg)
   • macOS/Linux: ~/.config/instaloader/session-<username>.pg

4. Record the username and session path in your project's configuration (NOT in this skill — keep credentials out of version control).

If Session Expires

The session eventually expires. When instaloader throws LoginRequiredException or ConnectionException with "redirected to login":

1. Tell the user: "Instagram session expired. Please re-authenticate."
2. User runs in a separate terminal (NOT through Claude Code's Bash):

   instaloader --login <username>
   

3. User enters password interactively (Bash tool cannot handle password prompts)
4. Session file is refreshed automatically
5. Resume operations

NEVER attempt interactive login through the Bash tool. It cannot handle password prompts.

How to Use — Code Patterns

Load Session (always start with this)

import instaloader
L = instaloader.Instaloader(
    download_videos=True,
    download_video_thumbnails=False,
    compress_json=False,
    save_metadata=False,
    download_geotags=False,
    download_comments=False,
    post_metadata_txt_pattern=""
)
# Replace <username> with the scraper account username
L.load_session_from_file("<username>")

Get Profile Info

profile = instaloader.Profile.from_username(L.context, "<target-username>")
print(f"Followers: {profile.followers}, Posts: {profile.mediacount}")
print(f"Bio: {profile.biography}")

Get Post by Shortcode

post = instaloader.Post.from_shortcode(L.context, "<shortcode>")
print(f"Date: {post.date_utc}, Likes: {post.likes}, Type: {post.typename}")
print(f"Caption: {post.caption}")

Download a Single Post

L.download_post(post, target="output_directory")

Iterate Profile Posts

for post in profile.get_posts():
    print(post.shortcode, post.caption[:50])
    time.sleep(2)

Search by Hashtag

hashtag = instaloader.Hashtag.from_name(L.context, "<hashtag>")
for post in hashtag.get_posts():
    print(post.shortcode)
    time.sleep(2)

Extract Shortcode from URL

import re
url = "https://www.instagram.com/p/<shortcode>/"
shortcode = re.search(r'/(p|reel)/([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)', url).group(2)

Windows-Specific Handling

UTF-8 Encoding (required for non-Latin captions)

Always add at the top of any script:

import sys, io, os
sys.stdout = io.TextIOWrapper(sys.stdout.buffer, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace')
sys.stderr = io.TextIOWrapper(sys.stderr.buffer, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace')
os.environ["PYTHONIOENCODING"] = "utf-8"

Filename Safety

Instaloader creates files with timestamps containing colons — invalid on Windows. Always sanitize filenames:

import re
safe_name = re.sub(r'[<>:"/\\|?*]', '_', original_name)

File Writing with Non-Latin Content

with open(filepath, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f:
    f.write(caption_with_non_latin)

Safety Rules

1. NEVER store passwords in any file
2. NEVER open Chrome or any browser
3. NEVER create directory junctions
4. Add 2-3 second delays between API calls (reels: 3-5 seconds)
5. If rate limited (429 or "Please wait"): wait 60 seconds, retry once, then skip
6. If session expired: tell the user to re-authenticate in a separate terminal
7. NEVER download from accounts the user does not follow (respect privacy)
8. NEVER use Instagram data for purposes other than what the user requests
9. All filenames must be plain ASCII — replace special characters with hyphens
10. ZERO non-Latin characters in terminal commands or filenames

Common Tasks

"Download photos from @someprofile"

profile = instaloader.Profile.from_username(L.context, "someprofile")
for post in profile.get_posts():
    L.download_post(post, target="downloads")
    time.sleep(3)

"Get captions from recent 20 posts of @profile"

profile = instaloader.Profile.from_username(L.context, "profile")
for i, post in enumerate(profile.get_posts()):
    if i >= 20: break
    print(f"{post.shortcode}: {post.caption[:100]}")
    time.sleep(1.5)

"Download this specific post: [URL]"

shortcode = re.search(r'/(p|reel)/([A-Za-z0-9_-]+)', url).group(2)
post = instaloader.Post.from_shortcode(L.context, shortcode)
L.download_post(post, target="downloads")

"Research competitor @profile"

profile = instaloader.Profile.from_username(L.context, "competitor")
info = {
    "username": profile.username,
    "full_name": profile.full_name,
    "bio": profile.biography,
    "followers": profile.followers,
    "following": profile.followees,
    "posts": profile.mediacount,
    "is_verified": profile.is_verified,
    "is_business": profile.is_business_account,
    "business_category": profile.business_category_name,
}
# Get engagement stats from recent 20 posts
likes, comments = [], []
for i, post in enumerate(profile.get_posts()):
    if i >= 20: break
    likes.append(post.likes)
    comments.append(post.comments)
    time.sleep(1.5)
info["avg_likes"] = sum(likes) / len(likes) if likes else 0
info["avg_comments"] = sum(comments) / len(comments) if comments else 0

Recall Keywords

instagram, instaloader, download post, download reel, instagram profile, instagram research, social media download, shortcode, instagram asset