Import

import_from_instagram

Scrapes an Instagram creator's posts via Apify and imports them as media into the authenticated user's Outline media library.

Free, but rate-limited

Importing is free on every account tier — there is no Pro gate on building. Imports are rate-limited per user as an abuse guard, so a burst of calls can return RATE_LIMITED; retry after a few minutes rather than treating it as a permission error.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
handle	string	Yes	Instagram handle of the account to scrape. Leading '@' is stripped automatically — pass 'mycreator' or '@mycreator', both work.
outlineId	string	—	ID of the outline to import media into. Omit to target the authenticated user's own outline.

Response

Field	Type	What it means
handle	string	The bare Instagram handle that was scraped (leading @ already stripped).
profileUrl	string	Full Instagram profile URL for the scraped account, e.g. https://www.instagram.com/mycreator/.
displayName	string	Display name from the scraped Instagram profile.
bio	string	Bio text from the scraped Instagram profile.
partial	boolean	True if the Apify scrape returned fewer posts than requested (e.g. private account, rate-limited, or handle has fewer posts than the batch size). The import still ran on whatever was returned.
scrapedPostCount	number	Number of posts returned by the Apify scraper before filtering/import.
importedMedia	array	Array of media items successfully persisted to the outline media library. Each item has mediaId (string\|number), mimeType (string), and sourceUrl (string). Items that failed to persist are excluded (not returned as nulls).

Example

Request

json

{
  "handle": "@saffron.ink",
  "outlineId": "42"
}

Response

json

{
  "handle": "saffron.ink",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/saffron.ink/",
  "displayName": "Saffron Ink Studio",
  "bio": "Fine line tattoos • Portland, OR • DMs open for bookings",
  "partial": false,
  "scrapedPostCount": 24,
  "importedMedia": [
    {
      "mediaId": 318,
      "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
      "sourceUrl": "https://cdn.outline.build/media/318/saffron-ink-post-1.jpg"
    },
    {
      "mediaId": 319,
      "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
      "sourceUrl": "https://cdn.outline.build/media/319/saffron-ink-post-2.jpg"
    }
  ]
}

When to use

Call this at step 3 of the create→curate→optimize loop, after get_guidance and get_taste_fingerprint have established the creator's goals and aesthetic, to bulk-populate the media library before building stacks with add_card. It is the fastest way to seed a new outline with a creator's existing visual content.

Gotchas

Watch out

Rate limit is per user, not per handle — agent loops that scrape many accounts in sequence share one budget; hitting the limit returns RATE_LIMITED and no media is imported for that call.
partial:true means the scrape returned less than a full batch; don't assume importedMedia is exhaustive — the account may have more posts than were fetched.
APIFY_TOKEN must be configured in the environment; a missing or invalid token causes the scrape to throw and the tool returns SAVE_FAILED with no media persisted.
importedMedia silently drops failed individual uploads (they are filtered out, not returned as errors); scrapedPostCount vs importedMedia.length tells you how many were lost.

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