Instagram Direct Messages

An MCP (Model-Consumer Protocol) server for Instagram direct messaging functionality, built with fastmcp and instagrapi. This server enables AI assistants to read and send Instagram direct messages.

Current Version: 1.3.5

Features

• Read recent direct messages from your Instagram inbox with comprehensive thread information
• Send direct messages to Instagram users
• Simple greeting resource (example functionality)
• Health check endpoint with status information
• Proper logging to stderr to avoid JSON parsing issues
• Support for various authentication methods, including environment variables

Installation

As an npm package (recommended)

1. Install the package globally:

npm install -g instagram-dm-mcp

2. Run the setup script to install Python dependencies:

instagram-dm-mcp-setup

3. Register the server with Claude Desktop and configure credentials:

instagram-dm-mcp install

You will be prompted to paste in your Instagram cookies information. If you arne't sure how to get this, log into Instagram on Chrome, right-click on the page, and select "Inspect". Go to the "Application" tab, then click on "Cookies" in the left sidebar. You should see a list of cookies. Copy the values for sessionid, csrftoken, and ds_user_id.

The install command will automatically register the Instagram DM MCP server with Claude Desktop and add it to your Claude Desktop configuration file. The command will configure the server to use the npx approach, which makes it easier to maintain. You can also copy-paste the same setup to Claude or any other MCP client.

You can provide Instagram credentials in several ways:

• Using command-line arguments:

  instagram-dm-mcp install --session-id YOUR_SESSION_ID --csrf-token YOUR_CSRF_TOKEN --ds-user-id YOUR_DS_USER_ID
  

• Using a credentials file:

  instagram-dm-mcp install --from-file /path/to/instagram_cookies.json
  

• Using environment variables (INSTAGRAM_SESSION_ID, INSTAGRAM_CSRF_TOKEN, and INSTAGRAM_DS_USER_ID)

The installer will add these credentials as environment variables in the Claude Desktop configuration file, creating a configuration like this:

"mcpServers": {
  // other servers...
  "InstagramDM": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": [
      "-y",
      "instagram-dm-mcp",
      "start"
    ],
    "env": {
      "INSTAGRAM_SESSION_ID": "your-session-id",
      "INSTAGRAM_CSRF_TOKEN": "your-csrf-token",
      "INSTAGRAM_DS_USER_ID": "your-ds-user-id"
    }
  }
}