Instagram Superpower

Full toolkit for Instagram: account analytics via HikerAPI SaaS + downloading reels/posts via Cobalt API. Use when: (1) download a reel/video/photo from Instagram, (2) find top-performing reels of an account, (3) analyze a competitor (views, likes, comments, engagement), (4) manage a watchlist of accounts for monitoring, (5) download + transcribe video, (6) hashtag/location search. Triggers: "download reel", "download from instagram", "analyze account", "viral reels", "top reels", "watchlist", "track account", "competitor instagram", "engagement", links to instagram.com/reel/, instagram.com/p/, instagram.com/stories/. NOT for: YouTube, Twitter, mass spam, auto-likes, auto-follows.

qwwiwi Updated Sep 17, 2026

Data & Analytics

Install

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$ npx skillmds@latest add qwwiwi/instagram-superpower

Installs into ~/.claude/skills (or .claude/skills inside a project). Restart Claude Code to pick it up.

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Instagram SuperPower

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Cost
HikerAPI	Analytics: profiles, reels, comments, followers, hashtags, search	$0.001/request (Standard)
Cobalt	Download video/photo from Instagram CDN	Free (self-hosted)
Groq Whisper	Transcription of downloaded videos	Free

Documentation and links

Resource	URL
HikerAPI docs	https://hiker-doc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
HikerAPI Swagger	https://api.instagrapi.com/docs
HikerAPI Redoc	https://api.instagrapi.com/redoc
HikerAPI dashboard	https://hikerapi.com
HikerAPI Python SDK	`pip install hikerapi`
Cobalt GitHub	https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt
instagrapi GitHub	https://github.com/subzeroid/instagrapi

Path mapping

Agent machine

What	Path
Download script (Cobalt)	`~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/download.sh`
Analytics script (HikerAPI)	`~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/analyze.sh`
Watchlist script	`~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/watchlist.sh`
Cookie deploy script	`~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/deploy-cookies.sh`
Cookie check script	`~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/check-cookies.sh`
HikerAPI key	`~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key`
Instagram credentials (for Cobalt)	`~/.secrets/cobalt/accounts.json`
Instagram cookies (for Cobalt)	`~/.secrets/cobalt/cookies.json`
Cobalt API key	`~/.secrets/cobalt/api-key`
Watchlist	`~/.secrets/cobalt/watchlist.json`
Downloaded files	`/tmp/downloads/`

Cobalt server (self-hosted)

What	Path
Cobalt Docker Compose	`/opt/cobalt/docker-compose.yml`
Cobalt cookies (working copy)	`/opt/cobalt/cookies.json`
Cobalt API keys	`/opt/cobalt/keys/api-keys.json`
Docker container	`cobalt-api`
Cobalt API endpoint	`http://127.0.0.1:9000/` (localhost only)

How it all connects

HikerAPI (cloud)                    Cobalt server (self-hosted)
─────────────────                    ────────────────────────────
api.instagrapi.com ◀── curl ──  Your machine
  analytics, data                    Cobalt API (localhost:9000)
  $0.001/request                       media download (free)

Your machine:
  analyze.sh  → HikerAPI (directly)
  download.sh → SSH → Cobalt server → Instagram CDN
  watchlist.sh → analyze.sh + download.sh

HikerAPI — Authentication

# IMPORTANT: use api.instagrapi.com (no Cloudflare) instead of api.hikerapi.com
# api.hikerapi.com blocks urllib/requests from scripts
cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key

# Usage in curl:
curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/ENDPOINT" \
  -H "accept: application/json" \
  -H "x-access-key: $(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"

# Or as GET parameter:
curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/ENDPOINT?access_key=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"

Balance: GET /sys/balance — shows remaining requests and balance.

HikerAPI — Main endpoints

Users

Endpoint	Description	Requests
`GET /v2/user/by/username?username=X`	Profile by username	1
`GET /v2/user/by/id?id=X`	Profile by ID (faster)	1
`GET /v2/user/clips?user_id=X`	User reels (12/page)	1
`GET /gql/user/clips?user_id=X`	Reels via GraphQL	1
`GET /v1/user/medias/chunk?user_id=X`	All posts (paginated)	1
`GET /v2/user/stories?user_id=X`	Stories	1
`GET /v2/user/followers?user_id=X`	Followers (paginated)	1
`GET /v2/user/following?user_id=X`	Following	1
`GET /v1/user/highlights?user_id=X`	Highlights	1

Media (posts/reels)

Endpoint	Description	Requests
`GET /v2/media/info/by/code?code=X`	Info by post code	1
`GET /v2/media/info/by/url?url=X`	Info by URL	1
`GET /v2/media/comments?media_id=X`	Comments (15/page)	1
`GET /v2/media/likers?media_id=X`	Who liked	1
`GET /v1/media/download/video?media_pk=X`	Download video	1
`GET /v1/media/download/photo?media_pk=X`	Download photo	1

Search

Endpoint	Description	Requests
`GET /v2/fbsearch/topsearch?query=X`	Global search	1
`GET /v2/fbsearch/reels?query=X`	Reel search	1
`GET /v2/fbsearch/accounts?query=X`	Account search	1
`GET /v2/fbsearch/places?query=X`	Location search	1

Hashtags

Endpoint	Description	Requests
`GET /v2/hashtag/by/name?name=X`	Hashtag info	1
`GET /v2/hashtag/medias/top?hashtag_id=X`	Top posts by hashtag	1
`GET /v2/hashtag/medias/recent?hashtag_id=X`	Recent posts by hashtag	1

Response data

Each media object contains:

play_count / view_count — views
like_count — likes
comment_count — comments
taken_at — publish timestamp
code — shortcode for URL (instagram.com/reel/{code}/)
caption.text — caption text
user.username — author

Quick start

Account profile

HIKER_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)
curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/by/username?username=<username>" \
  -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

Account reels (top performing)

HIKER_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)
USER_ID=$(curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/by/username?username=<username>" \
  -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['user']['pk'])")

curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/clips?user_id=$USER_ID" \
  -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY" | python3 -c "
import json, sys
d = json.load(sys.stdin)
items = d.get('response',{}).get('items',[])
for item in sorted(items, key=lambda x: x['media'].get('play_count',0), reverse=True)[:5]:
    m = item['media']
    print(f'{m.get(\"play_count\",0):>10,} views | {m.get(\"like_count\",0):>6,} likes | https://instagram.com/reel/{m[\"code\"]}/')
"

Download reel (via Cobalt)

bash ~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/download.sh "https://www.instagram.com/reel/<CODE>/"

Download + transcribe

bash ~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/download.sh "https://www.instagram.com/reel/<CODE>/" transcribe

Check HikerAPI balance

curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/sys/balance" \
  -H "x-access-key: $(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"

Typical scenarios

1. "Show top reels of a competitor"

bash scripts/analyze.sh <username> 5 14

2. "Download this reel and summarize it"

bash scripts/download.sh "<url>" transcribe

Cobalt downloads → Groq transcribes → agent analyzes.

3. "Add to monitoring"

bash scripts/watchlist.sh add <username>
bash scripts/watchlist.sh scan 3 14

4. "Full competitor breakdown"

analyze.sh <username> 5 14 → top-5 reels + metrics
download.sh <url> transcribe for top-3
Agent analyzes: hook → pain → solution → CTA

5. "What's viral in a hashtag"

HIKER_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)
curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/hashtag/by/name?name=aitools" -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY"
curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/hashtag/medias/top?hashtag_id=ID" -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY"

Pagination

Many endpoints return next_page_id. For the next page:

curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/clips?user_id=123&page_id=NEXT_PAGE_ID" \
  -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY"

Reels: ~12 per page. For 50 reels you need ~4 requests.

Rate Limits

HikerAPI

Limit: 8 requests/second (Standard plan)
No risk of Instagram ban — HikerAPI uses its own account pool and proxies

Cobalt (downloads)

Rate limits Instagram: 20 downloads/hour per 1 account
Pause between requests: minimum 3 seconds
Batch downloads (>5): pause 10-15 seconds
Strictly sequential, never parallel

Optimal strategy

Analytics (HikerAPI): no limits, up to 8 req/sec
Downloads (Cobalt): 20/hour, sequential
HikerAPI can also download (/v1/media/download/*), but uses paid requests — use Cobalt instead

Maintenance

HikerAPI

curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/sys/balance" -H "x-access-key: $(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"
# Key in dashboard: https://hikerapi.com → Tokens

Cobalt

ssh root@<your-server-ip> "docker ps --filter name=cobalt-api --format '{{.Status}}'"
ssh root@<your-server-ip> "docker logs cobalt-api --tail 20"
ssh root@<your-server-ip> "cd /opt/cobalt && docker compose restart cobalt-api"

Updating Instagram cookies (for Cobalt)

Credentials: ~/.secrets/cobalt/accounts.json
Login via browser automation (agent-browser via CDP)
Login using Input.dispatchKeyEvent (character by character)
Button: div[role="button"]
2FA: TOTP → input[name="verificationCode"]
Cookies: Network.getCookies → .instagram.com → cookies.json
Deploy: bash scripts/deploy-cookies.sh

Security

HikerAPI key: ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key (chmod 600)
Cobalt: ONLY 127.0.0.1:9000 on the Cobalt server
Cookies/credentials: ONLY ~/.secrets/cobalt/ (chmod 600)
Forbidden: logging keys/cookies, printing in chat, committing to git

---name: instagram-superpowerdescription: Full toolkit for Instagram: account analytics via HikerAPI SaaS + downloading reels/posts via Cobalt API. Use when: (1) download a reel/video/photo from Instagram, (2) find top-performing reels of an account, (3) analyze a competitor (views, likes, comments, engagement), (4) manage a watchlist of accounts for monitoring, (5) download + transcribe video, (6) hashtag/location search. Triggers: "download reel", "download from instagram", "analyze account", "viral reels", "top reels", "watchlist", "track account", "competitor instagram", "engagement", links to instagram.com/reel/, instagram.com/p/, instagram.com/stories/. NOT for: YouTube, Twitter, mass spam, auto-likes, auto-follows.---# Instagram SuperPower## Tools| Tool | Purpose | Cost ||------|---------|------|| **HikerAPI** | Analytics: profiles, reels, comments, followers, hashtags, search | $0.001/request (Standard) || **Cobalt** | Download video/photo from Instagram CDN | Free (self-hosted) || **Groq Whisper** | Transcription of downloaded videos | Free |## Documentation and links| Resource | URL ||----------|-----|| HikerAPI docs | https://hiker-doc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ || HikerAPI Swagger | https://api.instagrapi.com/docs || HikerAPI Redoc | https://api.instagrapi.com/redoc || HikerAPI dashboard | https://hikerapi.com || HikerAPI Python SDK | `pip install hikerapi` || Cobalt GitHub | https://github.com/imputnet/cobalt || instagrapi GitHub | https://github.com/subzeroid/instagrapi |## Path mapping### Agent machine| What | Path ||------|------|| Download script (Cobalt) | `~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/download.sh` || Analytics script (HikerAPI) | `~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/analyze.sh` || Watchlist script | `~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/watchlist.sh` || Cookie deploy script | `~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/deploy-cookies.sh` || Cookie check script | `~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/check-cookies.sh` || HikerAPI key | `~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key` || Instagram credentials (for Cobalt) | `~/.secrets/cobalt/accounts.json` || Instagram cookies (for Cobalt) | `~/.secrets/cobalt/cookies.json` || Cobalt API key | `~/.secrets/cobalt/api-key` || Watchlist | `~/.secrets/cobalt/watchlist.json` || Downloaded files | `/tmp/downloads/` |### Cobalt server (self-hosted)| What | Path ||------|------|| Cobalt Docker Compose | `/opt/cobalt/docker-compose.yml` || Cobalt cookies (working copy) | `/opt/cobalt/cookies.json` || Cobalt API keys | `/opt/cobalt/keys/api-keys.json` || Docker container | `cobalt-api` || Cobalt API endpoint | `http://127.0.0.1:9000/` (localhost only) |### How it all connects```HikerAPI (cloud) Cobalt server (self-hosted)───────────────── ────────────────────────────api.instagrapi.com ◀── curl ── Your machine analytics, data Cobalt API (localhost:9000) $0.001/request media download (free)Your machine: analyze.sh → HikerAPI (directly) download.sh → SSH → Cobalt server → Instagram CDN watchlist.sh → analyze.sh + download.sh```## HikerAPI — Authentication```bash# IMPORTANT: use api.instagrapi.com (no Cloudflare) instead of api.hikerapi.com# api.hikerapi.com blocks urllib/requests from scriptscat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key# Usage in curl:curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/ENDPOINT" \ -H "accept: application/json" \ -H "x-access-key: $(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"# Or as GET parameter:curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/ENDPOINT?access_key=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"```**Balance:** `GET /sys/balance` — shows remaining requests and balance.## HikerAPI — Main endpoints### Users| Endpoint | Description | Requests ||----------|-------------|---------|| `GET /v2/user/by/username?username=X` | Profile by username | 1 || `GET /v2/user/by/id?id=X` | Profile by ID (faster) | 1 || `GET /v2/user/clips?user_id=X` | User reels (12/page) | 1 || `GET /gql/user/clips?user_id=X` | Reels via GraphQL | 1 || `GET /v1/user/medias/chunk?user_id=X` | All posts (paginated) | 1 || `GET /v2/user/stories?user_id=X` | Stories | 1 || `GET /v2/user/followers?user_id=X` | Followers (paginated) | 1 || `GET /v2/user/following?user_id=X` | Following | 1 || `GET /v1/user/highlights?user_id=X` | Highlights | 1 |### Media (posts/reels)| Endpoint | Description | Requests ||----------|-------------|---------|| `GET /v2/media/info/by/code?code=X` | Info by post code | 1 || `GET /v2/media/info/by/url?url=X` | Info by URL | 1 || `GET /v2/media/comments?media_id=X` | Comments (15/page) | 1 || `GET /v2/media/likers?media_id=X` | Who liked | 1 || `GET /v1/media/download/video?media_pk=X` | Download video | 1 || `GET /v1/media/download/photo?media_pk=X` | Download photo | 1 |### Search| Endpoint | Description | Requests ||----------|-------------|---------|| `GET /v2/fbsearch/topsearch?query=X` | Global search | 1 || `GET /v2/fbsearch/reels?query=X` | Reel search | 1 || `GET /v2/fbsearch/accounts?query=X` | Account search | 1 || `GET /v2/fbsearch/places?query=X` | Location search | 1 |### Hashtags| Endpoint | Description | Requests ||----------|-------------|---------|| `GET /v2/hashtag/by/name?name=X` | Hashtag info | 1 || `GET /v2/hashtag/medias/top?hashtag_id=X` | Top posts by hashtag | 1 || `GET /v2/hashtag/medias/recent?hashtag_id=X` | Recent posts by hashtag | 1 |### Response dataEach media object contains:- `play_count` / `view_count` — views- `like_count` — likes- `comment_count` — comments- `taken_at` — publish timestamp- `code` — shortcode for URL (`instagram.com/reel/{code}/`)- `caption.text` — caption text- `user.username` — author## Quick start### Account profile```bashHIKER_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/by/username?username=<username>" \ -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool```### Account reels (top performing)```bashHIKER_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)USER_ID=$(curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/by/username?username=<username>" \ -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['user']['pk'])")curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/clips?user_id=$USER_ID" \ -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY" | python3 -c "import json, sysd = json.load(sys.stdin)items = d.get('response',{}).get('items',[])for item in sorted(items, key=lambda x: x['media'].get('play_count',0), reverse=True)[:5]: m = item['media'] print(f'{m.get(\"play_count\",0):>10,} views | {m.get(\"like_count\",0):>6,} likes | https://instagram.com/reel/{m[\"code\"]}/')"```### Download reel (via Cobalt)```bashbash ~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/download.sh "https://www.instagram.com/reel/<CODE>/"```### Download + transcribe```bashbash ~/.claude/skills/instagram-superpower/scripts/download.sh "https://www.instagram.com/reel/<CODE>/" transcribe```### Check HikerAPI balance```bashcurl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/sys/balance" \ -H "x-access-key: $(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"```## Typical scenarios### 1. "Show top reels of a competitor"```bashbash scripts/analyze.sh <username> 5 14```### 2. "Download this reel and summarize it"```bashbash scripts/download.sh "<url>" transcribe```Cobalt downloads → Groq transcribes → agent analyzes.### 3. "Add to monitoring"```bashbash scripts/watchlist.sh add <username>bash scripts/watchlist.sh scan 3 14```### 4. "Full competitor breakdown"1. `analyze.sh <username> 5 14` → top-5 reels + metrics2. `download.sh <url> transcribe` for top-33. Agent analyzes: hook → pain → solution → CTA### 5. "What's viral in a hashtag"```bashHIKER_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/hashtag/by/name?name=aitools" -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY"curl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/hashtag/medias/top?hashtag_id=ID" -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY"```## PaginationMany endpoints return `next_page_id`. For the next page:```bashcurl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/v2/user/clips?user_id=123&page_id=NEXT_PAGE_ID" \ -H "x-access-key: $HIKER_KEY"```Reels: ~12 per page. For 50 reels you need ~4 requests.## Rate Limits### HikerAPI- Limit: **8 requests/second** (Standard plan)- No risk of Instagram ban — HikerAPI uses its own account pool and proxies### Cobalt (downloads)- Rate limits Instagram: **20 downloads/hour** per 1 account- Pause between requests: **minimum 3 seconds**- Batch downloads (>5): pause **10-15 seconds**- Strictly sequential, never parallel### Optimal strategy- **Analytics** (HikerAPI): no limits, up to 8 req/sec- **Downloads** (Cobalt): 20/hour, sequential- HikerAPI can also download (`/v1/media/download/*`), but uses paid requests — use Cobalt instead## Maintenance### HikerAPI```bashcurl -s "https://api.instagrapi.com/sys/balance" -H "x-access-key: $(cat ~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key)"# Key in dashboard: https://hikerapi.com → Tokens```### Cobalt```bashssh root@<your-server-ip> "docker ps --filter name=cobalt-api --format '{{.Status}}'"ssh root@<your-server-ip> "docker logs cobalt-api --tail 20"ssh root@<your-server-ip> "cd /opt/cobalt && docker compose restart cobalt-api"```## Updating Instagram cookies (for Cobalt)1. Credentials: `~/.secrets/cobalt/accounts.json`2. Login via browser automation (agent-browser via CDP)3. Login using `Input.dispatchKeyEvent` (character by character)4. Button: `div[role="button"]`5. 2FA: TOTP → `input[name="verificationCode"]`6. Cookies: `Network.getCookies` → `.instagram.com` → `cookies.json`7. Deploy: `bash scripts/deploy-cookies.sh`## Security- HikerAPI key: `~/.secrets/hikerapi/api-key` (chmod 600)- Cobalt: ONLY `127.0.0.1:9000` on the Cobalt server- Cookies/credentials: ONLY `~/.secrets/cobalt/` (chmod 600)- Forbidden: logging keys/cookies, printing in chat, committing to git

qwwiwi/agentos-skills-public/tree/main/skills/instagram-superpower commit 68e94498c7

Frequently asked questions

npx skillmds@latest add qwwiwi/instagram-superpower