instagram_skill

Overview

This skill integrates with the Instagram Graph API using curl to read and publish Instagram media from a Business or Creator account. It provides concrete curl examples for fetching recent media, retrieving media details, searching by hashtag, and publishing image posts. The examples assume environment variables for access token and business account ID are set.

How this skill works

The skill executes direct HTTP requests against the Graph API endpoints (e.g., /{ig_user}/media, /{media-id}, ig_hashtag_search, and /{ig_user}/media_publish) using curl. It demonstrates the two-step publish flow (create media container, then publish) and shows how to request specific fields for media metadata. Commands are wrapped with bash -c where needed to preserve environment variables in piped commands.

When to use it

• Fetch the account's recent photos, videos, and Reels for display or processing
• Retrieve full metadata for a specific media item (caption, url, permalink, timestamp)
• Search recent public content for a hashtag when building discovery or analytics features
• Programmatically publish image posts with captions from CI/CD or automation scripts
• Troubleshoot permissions, account type issues, or rate-limit errors when integrating Instagram

Best practices

• Keep INSTAGRAM_ACCESS_TOKEN and INSTAGRAM_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID in environment variables and never log the token
• Validate all curl commands in a safe test environment before automating in production
• Ensure the Instagram account is Business/Creator and linked to a Facebook Page
• Request and verify required permissions (instagram_basic, instagram_content_publish, pages_show_list) and app review where needed
• Monitor API versioning and update the v21.0 path to the current Graph API version periodically

Example use cases

• A dashboard that lists recent media and links to each Instagram post
• An automation that publishes scheduled promotional images via API
• A social listening tool that collects recent posts for a hashtag for sentiment analysis
• A reporting job that fetches media metadata and stores it for analytics or archiving
• A troubleshooting checklist when receiving permission or account-type errors from the Graph API