Read your Instagram niche and profile from real data

Instagram Audience Insights

by sergebulaev · MIT license · ★ 138 on GitHub · updated Sep 17

Read your Instagram niche and profile from real data via Apify, no login. Scan a hashtag for the posts traveling now (likes, comments, owner) to see the format and hook that works.

---
name: ig-audience-insights
description: "Read your Instagram niche and profile from real data via Apify, no login. Scan a hashtag for the posts traveling now (likes, comments, owner) to see the format and hook that works. Pull profile stats for any handle, yours or a competitor's: followers, posts, bio, category. Instagram hides who liked or commented on other accounts, so this is discovery plus profiles, not engagers. Triggers on \"what works in my niche\", \"scan the hashtag\", \"competitor stats\". Not for writing captions (use ig-caption-writer)."
---

# Instagram Audience Insights

Turn real Instagram data into a read on what is working: which posts in your niche are traveling right now and why, and how any account (yours or a competitor's) actually performs. This is the read layer, so the skill sees real numbers instead of guessing.

One honest limit: Instagram caps and cookie-gates who **liked** or **commented** on someone else's post, so a liker or commenter roster is not reliably available for other accounts. The signal here is **niche post performance + profile stats**, which is what you can actually read on Instagram.

## When to use

- "What is working in my niche / scan the #hashtag"
- "Pull the stats for this account / how big is this competitor"
- "What format is traveling under this hashtag right now"
- "Compare my follower count to this account"

Overview

Turn real Instagram data into a read on what is working: which posts in your niche are traveling right now and why, and how any account (yours or a competitor's) actually performs. This is the read layer, so the skill sees real numbers instead of guessing.

What you get

Niche pulsethe top posts under a hashtag ranked by engagement, with the pattern behind the winners (hook shape, caption length, image vs carousel vs Reel, presence of a question or a specific number)
Profile readthe stats for a handle: followers, post count, bio, category, verified and business flags
Benchmarkyour account against a competitor on follower count and post cadence, normalized so a small account's breakout is not buried under a big account's average
Action listwhat format to make more of, which accounts to watch, what to route to ig-caption-writer or ig-carousel-planner

Manual install (npx, ZIP)

Claude Codenpx skills add sergebulaev/instagram-skills --skill ig-audience-insights -g -a claude-code

Claude Code (manual)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && curl -sL https://codeload.github.com/sergebulaev/instagram-skills/tar.gz/2919f0a6d8b1 \
  | tar -xz -C ~/.claude/skills --strip-components=4 instagram-skills-2919f0a6d8b1/.codex-marketplace/instagram-skills/skills/ig-audience-insights

Windows (PowerShell)

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force "$HOME\.claude\skills" | Out-Null; Invoke-WebRequest "https://m.agentalley.io/zip/fca232a83ff030df844f/ig-audience-insights.zip" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\ig-audience-insights.zip"; Expand-Archive "$env:TEMP\ig-audience-insights.zip" -DestinationPath "$HOME\.claude\skills" -Force

Claude.ai / desktopDownload the ZIP and upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Codex, Cursor, other agentsPoint them at SKILL.md. The other files are plain text.

Connects with Agent Alley MCP · agentalley.io/mcp

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Instagram Audience Insights

One honest limit: Instagram caps and cookie-gates who liked or commented on someone else's post, so a liker or commenter roster is not reliably available for other accounts. The signal here is niche post performance + profile stats, which is what you can actually read on Instagram.

When to use

"What is working in my niche / scan the #hashtag"
"Pull the stats for this account / how big is this competitor"
"What format is traveling under this hashtag right now"
"Compare my follower count to this account"

Not for writing a caption (use ig-caption-writer) or planning a carousel (use ig-carousel-planner).

Setup (optional)

The read layer uses Apify (no login, no cookies). Get a free token at https://console.apify.com/account/integrations and set APIFY_TOKEN. No token? Paste the posts or profile stats you already have and the skill runs the same analysis on them.

Input

A niche hashtag (with or without the #), a username (yours or a competitor's), or both
Optional: the goal (niche pulse / competitor read / self benchmark)

Output

Niche pulse - the top posts under a hashtag ranked by engagement, with the pattern behind the winners (hook shape, caption length, image vs carousel vs Reel, presence of a question or a specific number)
Profile read - the stats for a handle: followers, post count, bio, category, verified and business flags
Benchmark - your account against a competitor on follower count and post cadence, normalized so a small account's breakout is not buried under a big account's average
Action list - what format to make more of, which accounts to watch, what to route to ig-caption-writer or ig-carousel-planner

Steps

Pull the data. For a niche: lib.ApifyClient().fetch_niche_posts(hashtag, max_items=20). For a profile: fetch_profile(username). Falls back to pasted data if no token.
Rank by engagement. Sort the niche posts by likes + comments. Normalize against the owner's reach where known so a mega-account's average does not crowd out a small account's breakout.
Extract the pattern. For the top posts, name what they share: the hook shape (question, confession, list, data-point), the caption length, image vs carousel vs Reel, the presence of a specific number. That is the repeatable part.
Read the profile. From fetch_profile, report followers, post count, bio, category, and whether it is a verified business account. Use it to benchmark, not to guess private engagement.
Benchmark honestly. Compare handles on the stats Instagram exposes (followers, post count, cadence). Do not imply access to a liker or commenter list for accounts you do not own.
Build the action list. Make-more-of (the winning format), watch (specific accounts), route drafts to ig-caption-writer / ig-carousel-planner.
Deliver the report in the Output shape, with the raw ranked posts and profile stats attached.

What the read layer exposes

Method	Returns
`fetch_niche_posts(hashtag, max_items)`	top posts under a hashtag: caption, likes, comments, owner, type, url
`fetch_profile(username)`	profile stats: username, followers, following, posts, bio, category, verified, business

Hard rules

Global voice rules: see root SKILL.md Voice rules. Additional skill-specific rules:

Be honest that Instagram hides who liked or commented on other accounts. This is niche discovery + profile stats, not a liker or engager roster. Do not imply otherwise.
Normalize by follower count before calling a post a winner, or you extract "big account" effects, not "good post" effects.
Never invent a post, a number, or a pattern. If a hashtag returns thin, say so and try an adjacent tag or pull known accounts.
A pattern is only a pattern if it recurs across several top posts, not one.

ig-caption-writer - write more of what the niche data shows is working
ig-carousel-planner - turn a winning format into a slide plan
ig-hook-extractor - reverse-engineer the hook from a top-performing post
ig-hashtag-strategist - size the hashtag set around the tags that are traveling
ig-content-planner - feed the winning patterns into a weekly plan

1	---
2	name: ig-audience-insights
3	description: "Read your Instagram niche and profile from real data via Apify, no login. Scan a hashtag for the posts traveling now (likes, comments, owner) to see the format and hook that works. Pull profile stats for any handle, yours or a competitor's: followers, posts, bio, category. Instagram hides who liked or commented on other accounts, so this is discovery plus profiles, not engagers. Triggers on \"what works in my niche\", \"scan the hashtag\", \"competitor stats\". Not for writing captions (use ig-caption-writer)."
4	---
5
6	# Instagram Audience Insights
7
8	Turn real Instagram data into a read on what is working: which posts in your niche are traveling right now and why, and how any account (yours or a competitor's) actually performs. This is the read layer, so the skill sees real numbers instead of guessing.
9
10	One honest limit: Instagram caps and cookie-gates who liked or commented on someone else's post, so a liker or commenter roster is not reliably available for other accounts. The signal here is niche post performance + profile stats, which is what you can actually read on Instagram.
11
12	## When to use
13
14	- "What is working in my niche / scan the #hashtag"
15	- "Pull the stats for this account / how big is this competitor"
16	- "What format is traveling under this hashtag right now"
17	- "Compare my follower count to this account"
18
19	Not for writing a caption (use `ig-caption-writer`) or planning a carousel (use `ig-carousel-planner`).
20
21	## Setup (optional)
22
23	The read layer uses Apify (no login, no cookies). Get a free token at `https://console.apify.com/account/integrations` and set `APIFY_TOKEN`. No token? Paste the posts or profile stats you already have and the skill runs the same analysis on them.
24
25	## Input
26
27	- A niche hashtag (with or without the `#`), a username (yours or a competitor's), or both
28	- Optional: the goal (niche pulse / competitor read / self benchmark)
29
30	## Output
31
32	1. Niche pulse - the top posts under a hashtag ranked by engagement, with the pattern behind the winners (hook shape, caption length, image vs carousel vs Reel, presence of a question or a specific number)
33	2. Profile read - the stats for a handle: followers, post count, bio, category, verified and business flags
34	3. Benchmark - your account against a competitor on follower count and post cadence, normalized so a small account's breakout is not buried under a big account's average
35	4. Action list - what format to make more of, which accounts to watch, what to route to `ig-caption-writer` or `ig-carousel-planner`
36
37	## Steps
38
39	1. Pull the data. For a niche: `lib.ApifyClient().fetch_niche_posts(hashtag, max_items=20)`. For a profile: `fetch_profile(username)`. Falls back to pasted data if no token.
40	2. Rank by engagement. Sort the niche posts by likes + comments. Normalize against the owner's reach where known so a mega-account's average does not crowd out a small account's breakout.
41	3. Extract the pattern. For the top posts, name what they share: the hook shape (question, confession, list, data-point), the caption length, image vs carousel vs Reel, the presence of a specific number. That is the repeatable part.
42	4. Read the profile. From `fetch_profile`, report followers, post count, bio, category, and whether it is a verified business account. Use it to benchmark, not to guess private engagement.
43	5. Benchmark honestly. Compare handles on the stats Instagram exposes (followers, post count, cadence). Do not imply access to a liker or commenter list for accounts you do not own.
44	6. Build the action list. Make-more-of (the winning format), watch (specific accounts), route drafts to `ig-caption-writer` / `ig-carousel-planner`.
45	7. Deliver the report in the Output shape, with the raw ranked posts and profile stats attached.
46
47	## What the read layer exposes
48
49	\| Method \| Returns \|
50	\|---\|---\|
51	\| `fetch_niche_posts(hashtag, max_items)` \| top posts under a hashtag: caption, likes, comments, owner, type, url \|
52	\| `fetch_profile(username)` \| profile stats: username, followers, following, posts, bio, category, verified, business \|
53
54	## Hard rules
55
56	Global voice rules: see root `SKILL.md` Voice rules. Additional skill-specific rules:
57
58	- Be honest that Instagram hides who liked or commented on other accounts. This is niche discovery + profile stats, not a liker or engager roster. Do not imply otherwise.
59	- Normalize by follower count before calling a post a winner, or you extract "big account" effects, not "good post" effects.
60	- Never invent a post, a number, or a pattern. If a hashtag returns thin, say so and try an adjacent tag or pull known accounts.
61	- A pattern is only a pattern if it recurs across several top posts, not one.
62
63	## Related skills
64
65	- `ig-caption-writer` - write more of what the niche data shows is working
66	- `ig-carousel-planner` - turn a winning format into a slide plan
67	- `ig-hook-extractor` - reverse-engineer the hook from a top-performing post
68	- `ig-hashtag-strategist` - size the hashtag set around the tags that are traveling
69	- `ig-content-planner` - feed the winning patterns into a weekly plan
70