---
id: gooseworks-ai/goose-skills/instagram-scraper
version: "81c3e797"
license: MIT
install: manual
updated: 2026-07-23
---

# instagram-scraper — Instagram Scraper pulls public Instagram data—profiles, posts, and reels—through the Scrape Creators API. Retrieve account information like follower counts and bios, fetch individual post details with engagement metrics, or look up profiles by user ID. Handles rate limiting gracefully and works only with public accounts.

Publisher: gooseworks-ai · Stars: 1062 · Updated: 2026-07-23

Install (manual): `git clone https://github.com/gooseworks-ai/goose-skills`

## SKILL.md

# Instagram Scraper

## Setup

Read your credentials from ~/.gooseworks/credentials.json:
```bash
export GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY=$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$HOME/.gooseworks/credentials.json'))['api_key'])")
export GOOSEWORKS_API_BASE=$(python3 -c "import json;print(json.load(open('$HOME/.gooseworks/credentials.json')).get('api_base','https://api.gooseworks.ai'))")
```

If ~/.gooseworks/credentials.json does not exist, tell the user to run: `npx gooseworks login`

All endpoints use Bearer auth: `-H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY"`


Scrape public Instagram data including profiles, posts, and reels.

## When to Use

- User asks about Instagram content
- User wants to see posts from an account
- Social media research

## How It Works

Uses the Scrape Creators API via Orthogonal to scrape Instagram data.

## Usage

### Get User Profile & Posts

```bash
curl -s -X POST $GOOSEWORKS_API_BASE/v1/proxy/orthogonal/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api":"scrapecreators","path":"/v1/instagram/profile","query":{"handle":"openai"}}'
```

<details>
<summary>curl equivalent</summary>

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.orth.sh/v1/run" \

  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api":"scrapecreators","path":"/v1/instagram/profile","query":{"handle":"openai"}}'
```
</details>

### Get Individual Post/Reel

```bash
curl -s -X POST $GOOSEWORKS_API_BASE/v1/proxy/orthogonal/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api":"scrapecreators","path":"/v1/instagram/post","query":{"url":"https://instagram.com/p/abc123"}}'
```

### Get Basic Profile by User ID

```bash
curl -s -X POST $GOOSEWORKS_API_BASE/v1/proxy/orthogonal/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api":"scrapecreators","path":"/v1/instagram/basic-profile","query":{"userId":"12345"}}'
```

## Parameters

### Profile
- **handle** (required) - Instagram handle (without @)
- **trim** (optional) - Set to "true" for a trimmed response

### Post/Reel
- **url** (required) - Instagram post or reel URL
- **trim** (optional) - Set to "true" for a trimmed response

### Basic Profile
- **userId** (optional) - Instagram user ID

## Response

### Profile includes:
- Username, display name, bio
- Follower/following counts
- Recent posts with captions, URLs, engagement metrics
- Profile image

### Post includes:
- Post caption
- Image/video URLs
- Like count
- Comment count
- Timestamp

## Examples

**User:** "What's OpenAI posting on Instagram?"
```bash
curl -s -X POST $GOOSEWORKS_API_BASE/v1/proxy/orthogonal/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api":"scrapecreators","path":"/v1/instagram/profile","query":{"handle":"openai"}}'
```

**User:** "Get details on this Instagram post"
```bash
curl -s -X POST $GOOSEWORKS_API_BASE/v1/proxy/orthogonal/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOOSEWORKS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api":"scrapecreators","path":"/v1/instagram/post","query":{"url":"https://instagram.com/p/abc123"}}'
```

## Error Handling

- **success: false** — the API may temporarily fail; retry after a few seconds
- Private accounts cannot be accessed — no workaround
- Rate limiting may cause failures on rapid requests — add delays between calls


## Tips

- Private accounts cannot be accessed
- Remove @ from handles
- API may return errors for rate limiting - retry after a few seconds


[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/gooseworks-ai/goose-skills/instagram-scraper) · [View on GitHub](https://github.com/gooseworks-ai/goose-skills)