Quickstart

By the end of this page your newest reel answers every comment that says GUIDE with a DM carrying your link. You need an inDM workspace with an Instagram account connected.

Create an API key

In the inDM app, open Settings → API keys and choose Create key. Give it a name you’ll recognise later, choose Full access, and keep the default expiry of 90 days.The secret is shown once. Copy it straight into your environment:

export INDM_API_KEY="indm_..."

Every example below reads the key from INDM_API_KEY. Keep it out of your code and out of any browser. Authentication explains why.

Check that it works

Ask who you are. If this answers, your key works.

curl https://api.indm.social/v1/workspace \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INDM_API_KEY"

const res = await fetch("https://api.indm.social/v1/workspace", {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.INDM_API_KEY}` },
});
console.log(await res.json());

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.indm.social/v1/workspace",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['INDM_API_KEY']}"},
)
print(res.json())

Response

{
  "id": "2c5e8a1b-7f3d-4c9e-b0a2-5d6e7f8a9b0c",
  "name": "Maya's Studio",
  "plan": "growth",
  "key": {
    "id": "5e7d9c1b-3a2f-4e6d-8b0c-9a1f2e3d4c5b",
    "name": "Quickstart",
    "scope": "full",
    "prefix": "indm_7Kq",
    "expires_at": "2027-02-03T09:14:00Z"
  }
}

Find your newest reel

List media returns what inDM has synced, newest first. Take the first item whose type is reel.

curl "https://api.indm.social/v1/media?limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INDM_API_KEY"

const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.INDM_API_KEY}` };

const media = await fetch("https://api.indm.social/v1/media?limit=10", { headers })
  .then((r) => r.json());
const reel = media.data.find((item) => item.type === "reel");
console.log(reel.id, reel.caption);

headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['INDM_API_KEY']}"}

media = requests.get(
    "https://api.indm.social/v1/media",
    params={"limit": 10},
    headers=headers,
).json()
reel = next(item for item in media["data"] if item["type"] == "reel")
print(reel["id"], reel["caption"])

Published it a minute ago and it isn’t there yet? inDM syncs on a schedule. Refresh, then automate the post you just published pulls it in now.

Build the automation

Create an automation on that reel. Anyone who comments GUIDE gets a public reply and a DM with your link. It is saved as a draft, so nothing reaches anyone yet.

curl https://api.indm.social/v1/automations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INDM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "media_id": "3d2a7f10-9c4e-4b8a-a1f2-6e0b5d7c9a31",
    "keywords": ["GUIDE"],
    "public_reply": "Sent it to your DMs.",
    "dm_message": "Here is the spring planting guide. Enjoy it.",
    "button_label": "Send me the guide",
    "link_url": "https://example.com/spring-guide"
  }'

const automation = await fetch("https://api.indm.social/v1/automations", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { ...headers, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    media_id: reel.id,
    keywords: ["GUIDE"],
    public_reply: "Sent it to your DMs.",
    dm_message: "Here is the spring planting guide. Enjoy it.",
    button_label: "Send me the guide",
    link_url: "https://example.com/spring-guide",
  }),
}).then((r) => r.json());
console.log(automation.id, automation.status); // "draft"

automation = requests.post(
    "https://api.indm.social/v1/automations",
    headers=headers,
    json={
        "media_id": reel["id"],
        "keywords": ["GUIDE"],
        "public_reply": "Sent it to your DMs.",
        "dm_message": "Here is the spring planting guide. Enjoy it.",
        "button_label": "Send me the guide",
        "link_url": "https://example.com/spring-guide",
    },
).json()
print(automation["id"], automation["status"])  # "draft"

The response is the automation as saved. If anything was adjusted on the way in, caveats says what.

Set it live

One call, and the reel starts answering.

curl https://api.indm.social/v1/automations/9a4b1c7e-2d3f-4a5b-8c6d-1e2f3a4b5c6d/status \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $INDM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"status": "live"}'

await fetch(`https://api.indm.social/v1/automations/${automation.id}/status`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { ...headers, "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({ status: "live" }),
});

requests.post(
    f"https://api.indm.social/v1/automations/{automation['id']}/status",
    headers=headers,
    json={"status": "live"},
)

It’s live. Your reel is working for you now: comment GUIDE from another account and watch the DM arrive.

Where to next

Instagram's rules

One private reply per comment, the 24-hour window, three links. Worth five minutes before you build more.

Read how it's doing

Pull stats into your own reporting.

Errors

Every error code, what it means, and the fix.

API reference

Every endpoint and field.

Get started

Working with the API

Recipes

Where to next

Instagram's rules

Read how it's doing

Errors

API reference

​Where to next

Instagram's rules

Read how it's doing

Errors

API reference

Where to next