Insta(nt)-Graph

A tool to create a visual representation how accounts are following each other on Instagram.

NOTE: THIS TOOL IS NOT ASSOCIATED OR ENDORSED BY INSTAGRAM OR META. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Usage

Make sure Node.js >= v20.x is installed on your system.

Download or clone this repository on your machine. Then install the project dependencies via

npm install

To compile and run the program use

npm run cli

The result will be stored in a JSON file. Additionally, an interactive visualization is generated as a single HTML file, which can be viewed in any modern Browser. The tool will stop early if it receives an SIGINT-Signal (when pressing CTRL+C for example) and create the output for the current state.

Options

Name	Environment variable	Description	Default value
Session ID		The session ID used by Instagram to authenticate the user. It can be attained either by logging in via the tool or through the data stored by the official Instagram web app.
Root account		The account from which the graph generation should start.
Generations		The distance between the root account and the current user. It is defined by the number of accounts between them. Generation 0, therefor, only includes the root account.	1
Maximal follower count		Maximum amount of followers to fetch for each account. If more followers are over-fetched, they will be included but not further queried. It also applies to the followed accounts.	250
Include following		Also fetch the accounts are followed by an account, not only their followers.	Yes
	RATE_BATCH_SIZE	How many followers can be fetched before pausing. This is determined by the total account count in the graph. The batch size should not exceed 9000. Less then 5000 is recommended.	3000
	RATE_BATCH_COUNT	How many consecutive batches can executed before pausing between them. Should not exceed 20.	15
	RATE_PARALLEL_TASKS	How many requests to Instagram can be executed in parallel.	3
	RATE_DELAY_IMAGES_MAX	How long to wait at most before downloading a profile image in seconds.	5
	RATE_DELAY_IMAGES_MIN	How long to wait at least before downloading a profile image in seconds.	1
	RATE_DELAY_PAGES_MAX	How long to wait at most before sending a new request to Instagram in seconds.	60
	RATE_DELAY_PAGES_MIN	How long to wait at least before sending a new request to Instagram in seconds.	30
	RATE_DELAY_BATCHES_MAX	How long to wait at most between batches in minutes.	60
	RATE_DELAY_BATCHES_MIN	How long to wait at least between batches in minutes.	30
	RATE_DELAY_DAILY_MAX	How long to wait at most between consecutive batches once the set batch count is reached in hours.	30
	RATE_DELAY_DAILY_MIN	How long to wait at least between consecutive batches once the set batch count is reached in hours.	25

The actual wait-time is always determine at random and between the MIN and MAX values.

Handling of errors and Instagram's rate limits

To not be flagged as automated behaviour, the tool needs to pause for a while after retrieving a lot of followers. The tool will output the current state in the meanwhile.

Also, if an error occurs, the tool will try to output the current state. This might fail if the error is unhandled.

Running the tool on a VPS

If you wish to run this tool on a VPS due to its long-running nature, you may be unable to use the login functionality of this tool as captchas are not handled.

Another issue you might run into is Node.js running out of memory if your VPS does not have an adequate amount of RAM. To work around this, you enable SWAP within your VPS and explicitly allow Node.js to use more memory via --max-old-space-size.