Instagram one-post supervised pilot (throwaway account)

A runbook for the first live Instagram action ReachWeaver should ever take: one JPEG post with caption and alt text, to a throwaway Professional Instagram account you own, sent by you from a terminal an AI agent does not drive. It follows the structure of BLUESKY-PILOT.md and condenses FIRST-LIVE-PILOT.md and SECURITY-CHECKLIST.md. Account preparation is in INSTAGRAM-SETUP.md; adapter behavior is in INSTAGRAM.md.

Status (UNVERIFIED, MOCK-TESTED only): no Meta app, Instagram account or live post exists, and no receipt exists in this repository. The adapter is exercised only against mocked responses. The capability registry keeps Instagram at api_gated with adapter none, and instagram is not in policy.SUPPORTED_LIVE, so steps 4 and 8 below cannot run today: connect-check --online and publish --live refuse Instagram before any credential read or request. This is deliberate. Enabling it is a separate, reviewed change that needs the owner’s security review and go (the Instagram security review proposal, kept private); this runbook does not do it and an agent must not. Do not report the pilot as complete until you hold a first-party receipt (the post opened in the native Instagram app).

Nothing here changes or bypasses the human approval, the dry-run default, the emergency pause, credential isolation or ambiguous-send reconciliation.

Legend

Tag	Meaning
SAFE-OFFLINE	No network, no credential read. An agent may run these (they cannot post).
OWNER-ONLY	Needs a credential, an online request, an approval or a live send. Run it yourself, in your own terminal. Never paste a secret into Claude, a chat, an issue or a screenshot.
BLOCKED	Refused by the code until the reviewed enablement change exists.

Commands use python3 -m reachweaver from the repository root. Exit codes are as in BLUESKY-PILOT.md: 0 done, 2 blocked before sending, 3 outcome uncertain (never retry), 130 interrupted.

Step 0. Throwaway account and Meta app (OWNER-ONLY)

1. Create or convert an Instagram account used for nothing else and switch it to Professional (Business or Creator).
2. Follow INSTAGRAM-SETUP.md: Meta developer app with the Instagram API using Instagram Login, your account added as a tester or app role, a dashboard token valid about 60 days.
3. Read the current Meta platform terms and the content-publishing guide yourself and note the date. Whether app review or business verification is required for your account is not verified here; if Meta requires it, the pilot waits.
4. Put the JPEG on an HTTPS host you control (plain path, no query string, no redirect, at most 8,000,000 bytes, aspect ratio 4:5 to 1.91:1).

Step 1. Offline readiness (SAFE-OFFLINE)

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -q
cp config/accounts.example.json config/accounts.json   # ignored by git

Keep only the throwaway account, public values only:

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "id": "my-instagram",
      "platform": "instagram",
      "env_prefix": "REACHWEAVER_IG",
      "handle": "your_username",
      "ig_user_id": "17841400000000000",
      "authorization_expires_at": "2026-12-01T00:00:00+00:00"
    }
  ]
}

python3 -m reachweaver init
python3 -m reachweaver doctor
python3 -m reachweaver capabilities --platform instagram

doctor is the read-only preflight. It lists the missing credential variable names (REACHWEAVER_IG_ACCESS_TOKEN), a SETUP: line naming any of handle, ig_user_id or authorization_expires_at still absent from the config, the token-expiry state, and the INFO line saying the adapter is blocked by the registry. It never prints a value and makes no request. Expected today: the credential shows as missing until you export it, and capabilities shows no live Instagram adapter.

Step 2. Provide the token in your own terminal (OWNER-ONLY)

read -r -s -p 'Instagram token (input hidden): ' REACHWEAVER_IG_ACCESS_TOKEN; printf '\n'
export REACHWEAVER_IG_ACCESS_TOKEN
python3 -m reachweaver credentials-audit --history ~/.bash_history   # exit 0 expected

If credentials-audit exits 1, revoke and regenerate the token before continuing.

Step 3. Optional safeguards (OWNER-ONLY)

Same as BLUESKY-PILOT.md step 3: approval-mode --confirmation tty_hash_prefix, and the keyed approval only if you can keep the key from the agent.

Step 4. Online identity check (OWNER-ONLY, BLOCKED today)

python3 -m reachweaver connect-check --account my-instagram --online

Today this is refused before any request. After the reviewed enablement it would read GET /me, require user_id to equal ig_user_id, username to equal handle and account_type to be Business or Media_Creator. It never posts. Any mismatch blocks publishing.

Step 5. Draft one post and attach the image (SAFE-OFFLINE except the one image GET)

Use one true, low-stakes sentence and an image you own. Never use a claim you cannot source.

python3 -m reachweaver draft --account my-instagram --text 'Testing ReachWeaver, an approval-first publisher, on my own throwaway account.'
python3 -m reachweaver media-attach POST_ID --url https://img.example.org/pilot.jpg --alt 'Describe the image in one sentence' --online
python3 -m reachweaver show POST_ID
python3 -m reachweaver check POST_ID

media-attach --online makes one credential-free GET of your image URL and records its SHA-256, size and dimensions. Do not change or remove the image until the post is published.

Step 6. Approve this exact post (OWNER-ONLY)

python3 -m reachweaver approve POST_ID

The approval binds the caption, alt text, image URL, MIME type and image SHA-256. Changed your mind: unapprove POST_ID or cancel POST_ID.

Step 7. Dry run (SAFE-OFFLINE)

python3 -m reachweaver publish --post-id POST_ID

No --live, so no network. Confirm one post, the right account, DRY RUN: 1 due approved posts; no requests sent and a Live gate: line. Have the stop command ready in a second terminal: python3 -m reachweaver pause.

Step 8. The single live send (OWNER-ONLY, BLOCKED today)

Only after the reviewed enablement exists and you explicitly authorize sending this exact post to this verified account:

REACHWEAVER_ENV=prod REACHWEAVER_ALLOW_LIVE=1 python3 -m reachweaver publish --live --post-id POST_ID

Exit 0 prints PUBLISHED POST_ID: URL; open it in the native Instagram app. Exit 2 means nothing was sent. Exit 3 (needs_review) means the outcome is unknown: never rerun publish --live, go to the unknown-outcome steps below. Stages and their failure hints are listed in INSTAGRAM.md. Do not start an unattended scheduler for the pilot.

Step 9. Record the receipt (OWNER-ONLY)

Keep a private record (not a public issue; nothing containing a token): date and time with timezone, account id and observed native profile, the exact reviewed caption and image SHA-256 shown by approve, the dry-run result and live exit code, the media id and permalink, delivery status from list and show POST_ID, any error or needs_review outcome, that no other queued post was sent, and the date you checked Meta’s current terms and limits. Only a first-party receipt checked into the private records and named in release-readiness.json supports a live_receipt_verified claim. One test post establishes nothing about reach or growth.

Emergency stop (OWNER-ONLY, any time)

python3 -m reachweaver pause
python3 -m reachweaver resume    # only when you know the cause

pause blocks every new claim; it cannot recall a request already sent. Leaked token: pause, revoke the token in the Meta dashboard first, replace it everywhere, re-approve queued posts (SECURITY-CHECKLIST.md section C).

Unknown outcome (exit 3)

1. Open the throwaway account in the native Instagram app and look for the post.
2. python3 -m reachweaver dead-letter lists needs_review posts (read-only).
3. Record exactly one of:

python3 -m reachweaver reconcile POST_ID --published --remote-id 'MEDIA_ID' --remote-url 'https://www.instagram.com/p/SHORTCODE/'
python3 -m reachweaver reconcile POST_ID --not-published

reconcile records your attestation, not proof. A container that Meta created but never published expires after 24 hours; it is not a public post.

Teardown (OWNER-ONLY)

1. Delete the pilot post in the app if you do not want it public; revoke the token in the Meta dashboard; remove the test role if the app is retired.
2. unset REACHWEAVER_IG_ACCESS_TOKEN REACHWEAVER_APPROVAL_SECRET REACHWEAVER_ENV REACHWEAVER_ALLOW_LIVE, then close the terminal.
3. Run python3 -m reachweaver credentials-audit --history ~/.bash_history (must exit 0) and python3 -m reachweaver doctor (credential shows missing again).
4. Local retention: data-purge --help, privacy-status and PRIVACY-LIFECYCLE.md.

Troubleshooting

See TROUBLESHOOTING.md and the failure hints in INSTAGRAM.md.