Instagram Place Posts

Instagram — Place Posts

location name/ID → paginated list of posts tagged at that location

Language

All process output to user (progress updates, process notifications) follows the user's language.

Objective

Search for a location by name, then fetch posts tagged at that location using the internal locations sections API with cursor-based pagination.

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

If browser-act has been confirmed available in the current session → skip this step.

Invoke browser-act via Skill tool to load usage. If installation or configuration issues arise, follow its guidance to resolve then retry.

2. Login Verification

If login status for Instagram has been confirmed in the current session → skip this step.

Otherwise: open https://www.instagram.com/ and observe the page login status:

• 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

User refuses or cannot log in → terminate execution.

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.

Below are all atomic capabilities discovered and verified during the exploration phase, listed by command template with parameters. Simply invoke them as needed — no need to read scripts/*.py source code or re-verify. Only inspect scripts when execution fails for troubleshooting. Combine freely as needed during execution.

API: search for location ID

eval "$(python scripts/search-location.py '{keyword}')"

Parameters:

• keyword: Location name to search for (e.g., New York, Eiffel Tower, Times Square)

Output example:

{
  "venues": [
    {
      "id": "212988663",
      "name": "New York, New York",
      "address": "New York, NY",
      "lat": 40.7128,
      "lng": -74.0059
    }
  ]
}

API: get posts for a location

eval "$(python scripts/get-place-posts.py '{location_id}' --tab ranked --max-id '{cursor}' --session-id '{session_id}')"

Parameters:

• location_id: Numeric location ID (from search-location output)
• --tab: Feed type, ranked (top posts, default) or recent (chronological)
• --max-id: Pagination cursor; leave empty for first page, use next_max_id from previous response for subsequent pages
• --session-id: Session identifier for deduplication across pages; use a consistent value per scraping session (e.g., session-001)

Output example:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "pk": "3904677093853259503",
      "code": "DYwMyEFumbv",
      "media_type": 2,
      "taken_at": 1779686199,
      "like_count": 1203,
      "comment_count": 48,
      "caption": "NYC skyline at sunset 🌆",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/...",
      "video_url": "https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/...",
      "username": "nyc_photos",
      "user_id": "330873185",
      "location_name": "New York, New York"
    }
  ],
  "more_available": true,
  "next_max_id": "32120594f3584430b0d3a4e72372c376"
}

Composite: fetch all posts for a location by name

1. navigate https://www.instagram.com/ → wait stable
2. eval "$(python scripts/search-location.py '{location_name}')" → select the best-matching venue, extract its id as location_id
3. eval "$(python scripts/get-place-posts.py '{location_id}' --session-id 'session-001')" → collect items, note more_available and next_max_id
4. While more_available is true: a. eval "$(python scripts/get-place-posts.py '{location_id}' --max-id '{next_max_id}' --session-id 'session-001')" → accumulate items
5. Merge all collected items

Pagination

API Pagination: max_id, type: cursor, start value: empty string. Next page value source: next_max_id field in response. Termination: more_available is false or next_max_id is null. Keep session_id consistent across all pages for the same scraping session.