Instagram Caption Scraper

Purpose

Extract the caption text from a public Instagram post or reel URL provided by the user.

When to Use This Skill

Trigger this skill when the user:

• Shares an Instagram URL containing /p/ or /reel/
• Says "get the caption", "what does this post say", "read this reel", "summarise this Instagram post"
• Wants to translate, rewrite, or analyse an Instagram caption

How to Run

Execute the following shell command, replacing {{url}} with the Instagram URL:

python3 {{skill_dir}}/instagram_scraper.py {{url}}

The script will return one of:

• CAPTION: <text> — successfully extracted caption with metadata
• ERROR: <reason> — failure with explanation

Example Triggers

• "Get the caption from https://www.instagram.com/p/DRiFkfoiIuC/"
• "What does this Instagram reel say? https://www.instagram.com/reel/ABC123/"
• "Summarise this post: https://www.instagram.com/p/XYZ/"
• "Translate this Instagram caption: https://www.instagram.com/p/ABC/"

Output Format

On success the script returns:

CAPTION: <full caption text>

---
Owner   : @username
Type    : GraphImage / GraphVideo / GraphSidecar
Likes   : 1234
Shortcode: ABC123

Rules

• Only trigger when a valid Instagram URL (/p/ or /reel/) is present
• Never fabricate or guess caption content if the script returns an error
• If the post is private, inform the user and suggest they check the account's privacy settings
• Always display the full caption before offering any summary or analysis
• If the user asks to summarise or translate, do so AFTER displaying the raw caption

Setup Notes

Requires Python 3.8+ and the instaloader library:

pip3 install instaloader==4.14.1