Download a competitor's Instagram

Runs the Intropix PRO Instagram Posts & Reels Scraper on Apify (

intropix/instagram-posts-reels-scraper-pro

), saves the posts, and writes a short audit of the account.

Rules

Public business, creator and brand accounts only. If the user asks for a private person's account, say the scraper's terms do not allow it and stop.
Tagged accounts, mentions and partners in the results can be private people: do not scrape them in turn or build profiles of them.
Keep the results only as long as the user's purpose needs them (the terms suggest at most 30 days), and do not republish them as a dataset.

1. Build the input

json

{"usernames": ["nike"], "maxPosts": 50, "includeOffGridReels": true}

Field	Use
`usernames`	The competitor's handle, without `@` , or several to compare.
`maxPosts`	How many of the newest posts to read. 50 covers a few weeks for most brands.
`maxPostsPerAccount`	Instead of `maxPosts` when comparing several accounts: up to this many of EACH account's newest posts.
`sinceDate` , `untilDate`	Optional `YYYY-MM-DD` (UTC) bounds, e.g. last quarter.
`includeOffGridReels`	`true` also counts reels shown only on the reels tab.
`enrichPartners`	`true` adds follower counts and categories for every co-author and sponsor brand ($0.005 per profile, paid Apify plans only).

Several competitors: one run with

maxPostsPerAccount

(e.g. 50) gives each account the same depth; split the results by

username

and compare.

maxPosts

alone is one shared total spent in input order, so the first account can use it all. A run holds at most 1,000 posts on a paid plan (10 on the free plan), filled account by account.

A free Apify plan delivers at most 10 posts per run and 40 results per day, enough for a first look; a real audit needs a paid plan.

If the user needs only dates, captions, likes, comments and views, the standard scraper

intropix/instagram-posts-reels-scraper

takes the same input at about half the price.

2. Run the scraper

Use the first path that is available.

A. Apify tools are connected (tools named

call-actor

and

get-dataset-items

, from the Apify connector or

https://mcp.apify.com

): call

call-actor

with actor

intropix/instagram-posts-reels-scraper-pro

and the input. If the run is not finished when the call returns, poll

get-actor-run

until it is. Then read the results with

get-dataset-items

using the run's dataset id, and set

limit

to the run's item count (the default is 20). With a shell, write the returned items, as one JSON array, to

items.json

for step 3.

B. A shell with the Apify CLI (

apify --version

prints 1.5 or later): write the input to

input.json

, then run

bash

apify actors call intropix/instagram-posts-reels-scraper-pro --input-file input.json --json 2>/dev/null

Take

storage.defaultDatasetId

and

storage.defaultKeyValueStoreId

from the printed JSON (do not add

--silent

: together with

--json

it prints nothing). Then save the results:

bash

apify datasets get-items <defaultDatasetId> --format json > items.json
apify datasets get-items <defaultDatasetId> --format csv > posts.csv

If the CLI says you are not logged in, ask the user to run

apify login

themselves (it opens a browser). Never ask the user to paste an API token into the conversation.

C. Neither is available: tell the user to either connect Apify (

https://mcp.apify.com

) or install the CLI (

npm install -g apify-cli

, then

apify login

). An Apify account is free to create. Stop there.

3. Save the media (if asked)

Media links expire within days. If the user wants the images and videos too, with a shell and Python 3:

bash

python3 ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/save_media.py items.json instagram

(

${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}

is this skill's folder; use its real path if the variable is not set.) Files land in

instagram/<username>/

, each post recorded once in

items.jsonl

4. Write the audit

From the items, report in plain language:

Volume and rhythm: posts per week, the most common weekday and hour (UTC, from
```
taken_at
```
), share of reels vs photos vs carousels (
```
post_type
```
).
What performs: median and top
```
engagement_rate
```
, top 5 posts by engagement and by
```
view_count
```
with their
```
permalink
```
. Leave out posts with
```
counts_hidden: true
```
from rankings and say how many were left out.
Content: most used
```
hashtags
```
, recurring caption themes, licensed tracks vs original audio (
```
audio_title
```
,
```
is_original_audio
```
), tagged places (
```
location_name
```
,
```
location_city
```
).
Collaborations:
```
coauthors
```
,
```
sponsor_usernames
```
and posts with
```
is_paid_partnership
```
; with
```
enrichPartners
```
, the partners' follower counts from
```
partners
```
.
The account: followers,
```
owner_category
```
,
```
owner_website
```
, post count.

Null means "not available", never zero. For several competitors, put the key numbers side by side in one table.

If the run returned fewer posts than expected, read the run's

OUTPUT

record (

apify key-value-stores get-value <defaultKeyValueStoreId> OUTPUT

, or

get-key-value-store-record

with key

OUTPUT

) and explain its

reason

Cost

Paid by the user's own Apify account: $0.005 per run, $0.002 per account scanned, $0.0039 per delivered post ($3.90 per 1,000), plus $0.005 per enriched partner profile when

enrichPartners

is on. Failed lookups are not charged. Example: 50 posts of one competitor cost about $0.20.

Scraper page: https://apify.com/intropix/instagram-posts-reels-scraper-pro

download-competitor-instagram

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Download a competitor's Instagram

Rules

1. Build the input

2. Run the scraper

3. Save the media (if asked)

4. Write the audit

Cost