instagram-mcp-free

The problem

The popular Instagram MCP server locks most of its 60 tools behind a PRO paywall and a proprietary browser extension, which makes AI-agent Instagram workflows expensive and fragile for independent developers.

Key decisions

• 01

  Runs against a normal logged-in instagram.com session in a controlled browser — no Meta Graph API app review, no extension, no pairing step.

• 02

  Instagram publishes none of its GraphQL doc_ids, so on first launch the server records its own by driving a few screens — later launches skip straight to work.

• 03

  Session credentials are read from an environment variable for that launch only and are never written to disk.

Outcome

All 60 tools — same names, parameters, and descriptions as the paid server — working as a drop-in replacement, MIT licensed and free for anyone to run.