Automate Instagram on the web

What I mean by automating Instagram

Automating Instagram splits into two halves, both on the website. One is acting on your own account, posting content, replying to comments and DMs, liking, the routine upkeep you do by hand. The other is scraping public data, running a follower scraper on a public profile, pulling results from a search, or reading the pages and content types Instagram shows on the web. A bot can do either, within what the website exposes and what Instagram allows.

The whole game is staying under Instagram's limits

Instagram is one of the strictest platforms to automate. It rate-limits actions hard and watches closely for anything that looks like a bot. Like, comment, follow, or DM too much too fast and you get action-blocked, then banned. Scraping Instagram too aggressively gets you the same.

So the whole game is staying under the line. A real person likes a handful of posts, sends a few DMs, leaves the odd comment, across a day, not a thousand in an hour. The automation that survives on Instagram mimics that, your own account, human pace, spread out, with waits and caps. axiom gives you the controls to set that pace. The moment you push past it, Instagram pushes back, so the limits are not a suggestion, they are the design.

Who this is for

This is for the creator, the small brand, or the researcher working with their own Instagram presence or with public data. Posting and replying on your account without living in the app, or pulling a public follower list or search result into a sheet for analysis. One account, human pace. If you are looking to spam, mass-DM, or run a follow-for-follow farm, this is not the tool. No-coders and coders both, since you can build it without code and drop into code when you want.

How I'd approach it

Set the pace first. Decide how many actions a day is reasonable for a real person, then cap the bot well under Instagram's limits and spread the work out with waits. Run on your own account with your own logged-in session. For scraping, take only what is public, go slow, and pull it into a sheet to work with. Start with one task, watch for any block, and back off if you see one.

Human pace, your account, public data, back off on a block. I would lay out the first draft with Build with description.

Automate Instagram from a description

Describe what you act on or scrape in plain words in the Chrome extension and it builds the steps for you. Give it a few short lines, check what it made, and run it. Explore no-code. Note: Build from description is coming very soon. In the meantime you can still use the no-code builder.

Automate Instagram in code

Build with code. If you would rather script it yourself, this is the path. Explore code

import { chromium } from "playwright";

const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(
  `wss://cdp-lb.axiom.ai/?token=${process.env.AXIOM_API_KEY}`
);

try {
  const context = browser.contexts()[0];
  const page = context.pages()[0] ?? await context.newPage();

  // Your own logged-in session, on a public profile
  await page.goto("https://www.instagram.com/some_public_profile/");
  await page.getByRole("link", { name: /followers/ }).click();
  await page.waitForSelector('div[role="dialog"]');

  const handles = new Set();
  const cap = 200; // keep it modest, do not hammer

  // Scroll the list slowly, collecting handles, stopping at the cap
  while (handles.size < cap) {
    const found = await page.$$eval('div[role="dialog"] a', els =>
      els.map(a => a.getAttribute("href")).filter(Boolean)
    );
    found.forEach(h => handles.add(h));

    await page.mouse.wheel(0, 800);
    await page.waitForTimeout(1500); // a human-paced pause
    if (found.length === 0) break;
  }

  console.log([...handles].slice(0, cap)); // save to your sheet
} finally {
  await browser.close();
}

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Build with a Claude skill

Build no-code or code bots with a skill.

Add the Claude skill and describe what you act on or scrape. It builds the bot for you, no-code or code, with the pace and caps that keep your account safe.

Install the skillLearn more

What can you automate and scrape?

On the website, within Instagram's limits. A couple of lines to stay on the right side of.

What I'd watch out for

Instagram punishes automation that overdoes it, so this is the page to read carefully. Here is what I would watch for.

Stay well under the limits

Instagram caps actions per hour and per day, and the exact numbers move. Set your bot well below what you think the limit is, add waits, and spread work across the day. A block is the warning, a ban is what comes next.

Use your own session, slowly

Sign in as yourself and store the cookies. Fresh logins, a new device, and bursts of activity are exactly what Instagram flags. Ease into it rather than running flat out on day one.

Scrape only what is public

Pull public profiles and search results, not private data, and not faster than a person would scroll. Respect what people chose to make public and what Instagram's terms allow.

The web does less than the app

Instagram is mobile-first. Some content and actions only exist in the app, so a website bot reaches what the web exposes. Check the web can do the task before you build it.