Is there an official Instagram MCP server?
No. What Meta offers is the Instagram Graph API, and it is narrower than people expect: your account must be a Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page, messaging covers conversations the other person started, and a reply window applies. A personal account is out of scope entirely. The MCP servers you find are either wrappers on that API, inheriting those limits, or browser automation on instagram.com, which is fragile and reads as suspicious traffic. Nilyo takes the third route: it connects the account you already use and exposes it as MCP tools, so an assistant can read a DM, see who is writing and answer as you — whatever the account type.
One URL, OAuth, about two minutes
The server is at https://nilyo.com/mcp over streamable HTTP. Add it as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client and choose OAuth: the client registers itself, opens a browser once, and you sign in and authorize the accounts the agent may reach. No key to generate, nothing to paste into a config file.
Direct messages, read before answered
The useful loop is not a single send. instagram_list_conversations surfaces what came in, instagram_read_conversation gives the thread, instagram_get_profile says who is writing — a customer, a creator you work with, someone who found you through a reel — and only then is a reply worth drafting. An assistant that answers before reading is how a brand ends up sending a price list to someone asking about shipping.
“What Instagram DMs came in overnight and which ones are actually sales questions?”
“Read this conversation and draft an answer in our usual tone.”
Profiles, followers and the people behind the messages
Beyond the inbox, an agent can read a public profile, list your followers and who you follow, and update your own profile where supported. That context is what turns a DM into a decision: whether this account is a real customer, whether you already talked, whether they are worth a longer answer.
One account among several
Instagram is rarely the only channel. The same assistant can hold your Instagram DMs, your WhatsApp, your LinkedIn inbox and a mailbox at once, which is how a single question — “did anyone ask about the September order, anywhere?” — gets one answer instead of four searches.
“Did anyone ask about the September order on Instagram, WhatsApp or email?”
A hundred actions a day, spaced
Writes are budgeted at a hundred actions per day per account and every call is serialized with a short random delay, so an assistant cannot fire requests in parallel or empty an inbox in one burst. When the budget is reached the agent gets an explicit limit error — Instagram reacts to rhythm as much as to volume, and a burst is what draws attention.
Common questions
Does Instagram have an official MCP server?
No. Meta publishes the Instagram Graph API, which requires a Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page and only covers conversations the other person started. There is no official MCP server. Nilyo is a hosted one: it connects the Instagram account you already use, so an agent can read your DMs, look up the profile behind a message and reply as you.
Do I need a Business or Creator account?
Not for Nilyo: the account you already use is connected directly. The Business or Creator requirement belongs to Meta’s Graph API route.
Can an agent send the first message?
Reading and replying inside existing conversations is the normal use. Unsolicited first contact at volume is what gets accounts restricted, and the daily budget exists to make that impossible by accident.
Can it post to my feed or read comments?
Posts, comments and reactions are part of the surface where the connected account supports them. The inbox is the most used part, but engagement is reachable too.
Is this browser automation?
No. There is no headless browser on instagram.com. The connection layer speaks the protocol directly and paces every call per account.
How Instagram works with Nilyo
Connection. Secure hosted sign-in on your own Instagram account; a verification code may be requested by Instagram on the provider side, never in the chat.
What your agent can do. Direct messages (read, reply, send), profile lookup, followers and following lists, your own profile.
Pacing and safety. About 100 actions per day per account, calls serialized.
- Instagram limits new conversations with people who do not follow you; the agent says so instead of retrying.
All Instagram guides
Related guides
Give Nilyo to your agent.
Paste one setup link. Your agent can guide OAuth, account connection and the first useful action.