insto 0.1.1

Interactive Instagram OSINT CLI on the HikerAPI backend

insto

Interactive Instagram OSINT CLI on the HikerAPI backend.

Two surfaces over the same command grammar:

• REPL — insto drops you into a prompt-toolkit session with tab-completion, a bottom toolbar (active target, backend, quota), and live /watch notifications. Visually similar to the Claude Code welcome screen.
• One-shot — insto @user -c <command> [args] runs a single slash-command and exits. Pipe-friendly: --json - writes to stdout, --csv - does the same for flat commands, /batch - reads targets from stdin.

Install

Requires Python ≥ 3.11 and uv.

uv tool install insto             # PyPI install (release)
# or, from a checkout:
uv sync && uv run insto --help

Setup

insto setup

Interactive wizard. Writes ~/.insto/config.toml (mode 0600) with your HikerAPI token, output directory, sqlite store path, and optional proxy. The token is read with getpass so it does not echo to the terminal; pass - for the proxy to clear a previously-saved value.

Token precedence is flag > env (HIKERAPI_TOKEN) > config.toml; the same precedence applies to the proxy (--proxy, HIKERAPI_PROXY, [hiker].proxy). socks5h:// (Tor) and http:// proxies are both supported.

Environment variables

Variable	Purpose
HIKERAPI_TOKEN	API token (overrides [hiker].token in config.toml)
HIKERAPI_PROXY	Proxy URL (overrides [hiker].proxy)
INSTO_HOME	Override the default ~/.insto/ config root
INSTO_BACKEND	Set to fake for the network-free backend used by the e2e suite

Examples

REPL:

$ insto
… wasp banner …
Tips: /target @user · /info · /posts --limit 10 · /watch · /quit
> /target @ferrari
> /info
> /posts --limit 10 --download
> /followers --limit 200 --json followers.json
> /diff
> /watch ferrari 600
> /quit

/watch <user> [interval-seconds] — interval defaults to the 5-minute floor; /unwatch <user> removes a watch and /watching lists active ones.

One-shot:

insto @ferrari -c info
insto @ferrari -c posts --limit 10 --json -
insto @ferrari -c followers --limit 500 --csv followers.csv
insto -c batch targets.txt info --json - --yes
insto @ferrari -c dossier

-c <cmd> consumes the rest of argv as the slash-command's arguments, so -c batch targets.txt info runs batch targets.txt info (one -c per invocation). --yes is required when /batch reads from stdin or when the target list exceeds the confirmation threshold.

Global flags

Flag	Purpose
-c / --cmd <name> [args...]	One-shot mode: run a single slash-command and exit
-i / --interactive	Force the REPL even when a target is provided
--proxy <url>	Override HIKERAPI_PROXY for this invocation
--json [PATH or -]	Write the JSON envelope (default path, file, or stdout)
--csv [PATH or -]	Same for flat-row commands
--maltego [PATH or -]	Maltego entity-import CSV (alias for --output-format maltego)
--output-format {json,csv,maltego}	Explicit format selector
--limit N / --no-download	Per-command paging cap and media opt-out
--yes / -y	Skip confirmation prompts (required for /batch -)
--verbose / --debug	Logging level for ~/.insto/logs/insto.log
--version	Print the version and exit
--print-completion {bash,zsh}	Emit a shell-completion script

Pipe to jq:

insto @ferrari -c info --json - | jq '.username, .followers_count'

Shell completion (uses argparse via shtab):

insto --print-completion zsh > ~/.insto/_insto
echo 'fpath+=~/.insto && autoload -Uz compinit && compinit' >> ~/.zshrc

Command surface

Profile: info, propic, email, phone, export. Media: posts, reels, stories, highlights, tagged. Network: followers, followings, mutuals, similar. Content: hashtags, mentions, locations, captions, likes. Interactions: comments, wcommented, wtagged. Watch / diff: watch, unwatch, watching, diff, history. Operational: quota, health, config, purge. Session: target, current, clear. Batch / dossier: batch, dossier (full target package: profile + media + network + analytics, with --maltego CSV export).

Inside the REPL each command may be invoked with or without a leading /.

Where things go

• ~/.insto/config.toml — settings (mode 0600).
• ~/.insto/store.db — sqlite store: snapshots, watches, cli history.
• ~/.insto/logs/insto.log — rotating log file (mode 0600, secrets redacted).
• ./output/<user>/<type>/… — downloaded media. Override with [output_dir] in config or --out on commands that accept it.

Design & spec

Architecture is documented in docs/superpowers/specs/2026-04-27-insto-design.md (442 lines, source of truth). Implementation plan: docs/plans/2026-04-27-insto-v0.1-implementation.md.

Contributor docs: CLAUDE.md.

License

MIT.