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The first hour after a post goes up is when the comments come. This recipe puts an automation on a reel the moment your publishing tool posts it, so the earliest comments get their DM too. inDM pulls posts from Instagram on a schedule, so a reel published a minute ago usually isn’t in List media yet. The flow is: look for it, refresh if it’s missing, wait for the refresh, then build and launch. You need a full key and the reel’s permalink, which your publishing tool gets back from Instagram when it posts.
1

Look for the post

List the account’s newest media and match on permalink. If it’s there, skip to building the automation.
2

Refresh if it's missing

Refresh content asks Instagram for the newest posts. It returns 202 with a job_id to poll, or 200 with status: "already_current" when the account synced within the last minute.
3

Wait for the refresh

Poll Get a refresh every few seconds until status is completed, then look again. If the account answered already_current and the post still isn’t there, Instagram may not be serving it yet: wait a minute and refresh once more.
4

Build it and set it live

The whole flow

Good to know

  • One live automation per post. If something is already live on the reel, creating returns 409 live_automation_on_media. Pause the other one first, or let it be.
  • A paused account can’t refresh. If Instagram has paused the connection, refresh returns 409 account_needs_reconnect. Get account health says why.
  • A first sync takes longer. If the account was connected moments ago, refresh answers status: "backfill" and hands you its first full sync to poll. Large accounts take a few minutes.
  • Validate the copy first if it comes from somewhere you don’t control. Validate an automation catches a label Instagram would cut off before anything is saved.