Instagram Account Operations

Operating doctrine for Instagram automation — careful creator + business pattern via Meta Business Suite, role separation, action-block awareness (24h/7d/permanent), comment + DM ops, reply qualification, hashtag-shadowban discipline, and recovery patterns.

A Claude Code / OpenClaw skill for running Instagram brand accounts safely. Battle-tested in a regulated-field operation, ported to be domain-agnostic.

Why most Instagram automation triggers action blocks: it scripts instagram.com directly, ignoring Meta Business Suite. This doctrine doesn't — MBS is the canonical surface.

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What's in the box

• 3-role mental model for any IG account (ig-post / ig-engage / ig-stealth)
• MBS-first doctrine: every reactive op (DMs, comments) goes through business.facebook.com, not instagram.com directly — fewer iframes, Playwright click + type + Enter works, link previews auto-generated
• Action-block-phased posting: Phase A (account < 30d, recent block, or < 500 followers) → Phase B (full doctrine) — with manual override path for grandfathered businesses
• Zero-outgoing-link policy in comments (max 1 URL in DMs, only the <PRIMARY_CTA>)
• The known MBS comment-Reply navigation bug + workaround (use @username prefix + page-level textarea + send-arrow click)
• Strict reply qualification: skip Reel-shares-without-question, recognize existing clients (no prospect CTA), 7-day per-user cap
• Hard quotas calibrated under IG's observed action-block thresholds (follow/unfollow, DMs to non-followers, likes per hour)
• Anti-spam triggers: same-opening-phrase ban, shorteners ban, "DM me + WhatsApp me + click here" stacked-CTA ban
• Hashtag-state tracking: registry for shadowbanned tags, no over-tagging (3-5 max)
• Full recovery playbook: action blocks, soft logouts, "Reauthenticate" banner, shadowban suspicion, automod removals
• Memory file inventory for stateful agents
• Mandatory recap pattern (alert channel + memory)

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Install

Via ClawHub

The skill is designed to be published on ClawHub — install in one click from your agent once published.

Manual copy

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/instagram-account-operations
cp SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/instagram-account-operations/

Or for OpenClaw:

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/skills/instagram-account-operations
cp SKILL.md ~/.openclaw/skills/instagram-account-operations/

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Quick start

1. Open SKILL.md and fill the placeholders in Section 0 (brand, domain, handle, <META_BUSINESS_ID>, <META_ASSET_ID>, browser profile, port, niche keywords, primary CTA, workspace dir).
2. Confirm your IG account is Business or Creator AND linked to a Meta Business Suite asset.
3. Extract <META_BUSINESS_ID> and <META_ASSET_ID> from the MBS URL once you're logged in.
4. Wire your crons (e.g. DM check */15, comment check 10,25,40,55, browser-health hourly).
5. Start in Phase A until account_age ≥ 30 days AND followers ≥ 500 AND no recent action block. Don't shortcut.
6. Daily check on Account Status (MBS → Settings → Account Status): green / no warning.

Shell snippets in the skill use the OpenClaw browser CLI as an example automation stack. Swap them for Playwright (Node or Python), Puppeteer, Chrome MCP, or any CDP-capable tool — the doctrine is stack-agnostic.

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Who is this for

Any niche where the brand needs to be a background signal behind genuinely useful posts and DMs:

• Legal services (origin of the doctrine — works under strict bar association rules)
• Medical / health practitioners with public-content strategies
• Financial advisors subject to compliance constraints
• SaaS / B2B founders doing community-led growth
• Creators / agencies managing brand accounts on behalf of clients

Anywhere action-block = reach death.

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Repository structure

instagram-account-operations/
├── SKILL.md         # the skill (full doctrine)
├── README.md        # this file
├── LICENSE          # MIT-0
└── CHANGELOG.md     # version history (TBD)

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Companion skills

• facebook-account-operations — same MBS backbone, FB-Page-specific doctrine.
• tiktok-account-operations — for TikTok ops (separate browser-suite surface).
• whatsapp-account-operations — for BSP-API-driven WhatsApp Business ops (the downstream conversion channel).
• reddit-account-operations + twitter-account-operations — same doctrine family on other platforms.

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License

Released under MIT-0 (MIT No Attribution). Use, fork, adapt, redistribute. No attribution required.