The moment it happens

Post to Instagram by sending a link

Send an image URL and caption from any tool and it's live on Instagram.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: Instagram
AI: Not needed
Access: instagram_business_content_publish

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: give me a link I can send an image URL and caption to. Publish each one on Instagram and reply with the post link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

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First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A small e-commerce team shoots product photos in batches, and every item then has to be posted to Instagram by hand: open the app, upload the picture, paste the caption from a spreadsheet, tag the product, publish. Whoever does it is interrupted several times a day, and posts go out late or in the wrong order. Developers who already generate images and captions in other systems have no clean way to hand them to Instagram.

ClickRuntime gives you a link that accepts an image URL and a caption. When something sends data to it, the automation creates an Instagram media container from that image, publishes it to your professional account, and replies to the caller with the permalink of the live post.

It is handy for teams connecting a CMS, a product database or an internal tool to Instagram without writing their own integration.

What you get out of it

Posting becomes part of an existing workflow
Whatever tool produces your images and captions can trigger the post directly. A new product added to your catalog can appear on Instagram without anybody opening the app, which removes a repetitive step from launches.
No more copy and paste mistakes
Captions pasted by hand end up on the wrong photo or lose their line breaks. When the caption travels with the image in one request, the pairing is exact and the post is published as the author intended.
The caller gets the post link back
The reply contains the permalink of the published post, so the sending system can store it, show it in a dashboard, or share it with the team. You know immediately that the post went live and where to find it.
Developers avoid building Instagram plumbing
Creating containers, waiting for processing and publishing are several API steps with their own quirks. Having them wrapped behind a single link saves days of integration work and ongoing maintenance for a small engineering team.
Launch timing is under your control
A post can go out the second a product is ready, a campaign is approved, or a blog article is published. Nothing waits for a free person with a phone, and time-sensitive announcements are not published hours late.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When you send an image link and caption to the automation's private link, from a form, a spreadsheet or another tool, the automation starts.
It prepares the image and caption as a new Instagram post.
It publishes the post to your Instagram account straight away.
You get an email with the link to the published post.

Before it runs live

Connect Instagram
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Post to Instagram by sending a linkjust nowSucceeded

Email · Published on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/p/C9wR8sT/

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Instagram steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

publish_from_a_webhook.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, notify

IG = "https://graph.instagram.com/v21.0"

@on_event
def handle(event):
    body = event.json
    token = credentials.connection("instagram", "work")
    container = http.post(f"{IG}/me/media", data={"image_url": body["image_url"], "caption": body.get("caption", ""),
                                                  "access_token": token}).json()["id"]
    media_id = http.post(f"{IG}/me/media_publish", data={"creation_id": container, "access_token": token}).json()["id"]
    link = http.get(f"{IG}/{media_id}", params={"fields": "permalink", "access_token": token}).json()["permalink"]
    notify.email_me("Published on Instagram", link)
    return {"permalink": link}

FAQ

Common questions

What kind of image can I send to the link?

Send a public URL that points to a JPEG image, which is the format Instagram accepts for feed photos through its API. The picture must be reachable without a login. Videos and Reels need a different request, so say if you need them.

Does the Instagram account need to be a particular type?

Yes. Publishing through the API works only for Instagram professional accounts, meaning Business or Creator, connected to a Facebook Page. Personal accounts cannot publish this way. The connection is stored as a secret, and the automation posts only when your link receives a request.

How do I stop anyone else from posting to my account?

Only someone who knows the link can trigger a post, so keep it private and treat it like a password. If the link leaks, ask your AI assistant for a replacement link and update the sending system, so the old one stops working.

What permissions does it need?

instagram_business_content_publish. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens