instagram_monitor

Powerful, real-time OSINT suite for tracking every activity on Instagram - from story updates and bio changes to follower shifts, providing stunning dashboards and instant alerts to keep you in the loop.

🚀 Quick Install & Run

Python from PyPI

New to Python or unsure what is installed? Follow the Python install walkthrough first.

pip install instagram_monitor

Run setup wizard:

instagram_monitor --setup

The wizard asks for the targets, the Instagram login, the interface and optional notifications. Review the settings before saving them. See Setup & First Run for the Instagram login options and the first monitoring run.

Docker image - fastest container setup

macOS or Windows

Use a macOS shell or Windows PowerShell with a Docker-compatible runtime that provides the docker CLI.

docker run --rm --pull=always -it --init -v "${PWD}:/data:z" -v instagram_monitor_session:/home/instagram/.config/instaloader misiektoja/instagram-monitor:latest --setup

In Windows Command Prompt replace ${PWD} with %cd% above.

Linux

Run the container with your numeric user and group IDs (--user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" below). This lets the container write files that your host account can edit.

docker run --rm --pull=always -it --init --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" -v "$PWD:/data:z" -v instagram_monitor_session:/home/instagram/.config/instaloader misiektoja/instagram-monitor:latest --setup

Docker Compose - shorter recurring commands

Download the Compose file:

curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/misiektoja/instagram_monitor/refs/heads/main/docker-compose.yml

Linux container engine requires to export your numeric user ID and group ID so files created in the current directory belong to you instead of root.

export INSTAGRAM_MONITOR_UID="$(id -u)"
export INSTAGRAM_MONITOR_GID="$(id -g)"

Docker-compatible runtimes on macOS and Windows normally do not need these values.

Run setup wizard:

docker compose run --rm --pull=always instagram_monitor --setup

For the manual single-file method, optional extras and upgrade commands, see Installation.

Features

🔍 Real-time Tracking

• Profile Activity: Monitor new posts, reels and stories in real-time.
• Private Posts: Detects collab posts leaking from private accounts via public collaborators.
• Audience Insights: Track changes in followings and followers.
• Visual Changes: Detect updates to profile pictures and visibility (public/private).
• Bio Updates: Stay informed about changes to user bio.

📥 Media Download

• Anonymous Stories: Download story images and videos without leaving traces.
• High-Quality Media: Save post images, reel videos and profile pictures.
• Batch Support: Monitor and download media for multiple users simultaneously.

📱 Interactive Dashboards

• Guided Setup: Interactive wizard writes a ready-to-run config for PyPI, script and Docker workflows.
• Terminal Dashboard: Beautiful, live-updating CLI interface with real-time stats.
• Web Dashboard: Modern, local web UI with activity feeds and remote controls.
• Image Support: View profile pictures and media directly in your terminal (via imgcat).

🔔 Smart Notifications

• Multi-Channel: Instant alerts via Email, Discord webhooks and native ntfy notifications.
• Rich Alerts: Attached media (profile pics, stories, posts) in Discord notifications.
• Error Reporting: Be notified when monitoring starts failing, and again when it recovers.

🛡️ Privacy & Detection Avoidance

• Be Human Mode: Simulates random user actions to blend in.
• Jitter Mode: Adds human-like delays to HTTP requests.
• Hour-Range Checking: Limits activity to specific hours of the day.
• Identity Budget: Caps how many follower and following names are fetched per day.
• Circuit Breaker: Stops every target after Instagram challenges your account until a restart or a fresh session clears it.
• Account Flexibility: Works with or without a logged-in Instagram account.
• Browser Session Import: Reuse Firefox, Chrome, Brave or Chromium sessions with profile selection.
• Browser TLS Impersonation: Routes traffic through curl_cffi to mimic a real browser's TLS fingerprint and dodge fingerprint-based blocks.
• Proxy Support: Route Instagram and webhook traffic through your own proxy.
• Privacy Substitutions: Mask or rename identities across all output, logs and notifications.
• Block Awareness: Detects shadowbans and flagged sessions to avoid false alerts.

⚙️ Power Features

• CSV Logging: Log all activities and profile changes with timestamps.
• Flexible Config: Support for files, dotenv and environment variables.
• Follower Churn: Detailed tracking of exactly who followed or unfollowed.
• Follow Analysis: Inspect mutual, not-following-back and fan relationships offline from saved lists with --analyze-follows or the Web Dashboard.
• Selectable Follower List Source: Reads follower and following lists from the web REST endpoints Instagram's own app calls, falling back to the older GraphQL queries, with an experimental browser source for when both are broken.
• Batched Fetching: Throttle follower/following downloads into delayed batches.
• Remote Control: Manage tracking features via signals or the web UI.
• Docker Ready: Run via Docker Hub, Docker Compose or local image build with persisted config, dotenv and sessions.

Common Commands

Use Quick Install & Run above for first-time setup. The table uses PyPI commands. For manual script, direct Docker and Docker Compose equivalents, see Run Individual Commands.

Replace the target placeholders with an Instagram username.

Running the tool with no arguments offers the wizard if you have not saved any targets or enabled the Web Dashboard. If targets are already saved, it starts monitoring them.

The tool runs until interrupted (Ctrl+C). Use tmux or screen for persistence. One run can monitor several accounts through TARGET_USERNAMES or --targets, so a second copy is not needed.

For browser choices, saved targets, configuration backups and setup recovery, see the full Setup & First Run guide.

For container operation, browser profiles, email and webhook setup, see Configuration. For notification choices, proxy settings and output files, see Usage.

If a run fails, start with Doctor Preflight.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at misiektoja.github.io/instagram_monitor:

Change Log

See RELEASE_NOTES.md for details.

Contributing

Bug reports, documentation fixes and code contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development setup, the checks CI enforces and what a change needs before it is merged. Participation is covered by the Code of Conduct.

Security

Report a suspected vulnerability privately through GitHub security advisories, never as a public issue. SECURITY.md covers the reporting process, the supported versions and the security posture of the Web Dashboard, stored secrets and monitored account data.

Maintainers

• 👤 misiektoja (@misiektoja)
• 👤 tomballgithub (@tomballgithub)

License

Licensed under GPLv3. See LICENSE. Dependency licenses are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Support

Questions, bug reports and vulnerability reports each have a place, listed in SUPPORT.md.

If the project is useful to you, you can support its development through GitHub Sponsors or Buy Me a Coffee.