Signalinstagram · user · reels
Public Instagram reels (guest). GET /v1/instagram/user/reels accepts your x-api-key header. Costs 1 credit per successful fresh call; failures and opt-in cache hits (cache_max_age) are free. Native path: GET /api/v1/web/instagram/user/reels. Same request parameters and JSON shape as the reference API, so you can switch by changing the base URL.
Request parameters
Reels tab in pages of 12 with play, like and comment counts.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
handle | string | No | Public Instagram username (required: user_id alone is not resolvable as a guest). |
user_id | string | No | Ignored unless handle is given (guests cannot resolve ids to profiles). |
max_id | string | No | Cursor from a previous page. |
require_play_counts | boolean | No | Play counts are always included. Accepted for compatibility and ignored (guest source). |
trim | boolean | No | Return a slimmer object (drops carousel/tag/coauthor arrays). |
freshness | string | No | 24h (default), 1h, 7d, or live. Accepted cache hits are free; live forces refresh except simultaneous requests may share newly fetched data. |
Code examples
Set SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL and SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY on your server.
curl "$SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL/v1/instagram/user/reels?" \
-H "x-api-key: $SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY"const response = await fetch(process.env.SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL + "/v1/instagram/user/reels?", {
headers: { 'x-api-key': process.env.SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY },
});
const body = await response.json();
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(body.error.message);
console.log(body.data, body.meta);import os, requests
response = requests.get(
os.environ['SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL'] + "/v1/instagram/user/reels?",
headers={'x-api-key': os.environ['SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY']},
timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json())Response and pagination
The response contains data and meta. data includes platform, resource, sample:false, provider, and the public source payload. Lists return data.items; individual resources return data.data.
Author feeds include data.next_cursor. Return it unchanged in cursor for the next page. Feed entries can include reposts. Single-post lookups resolve the handle to a DID first. Deleted or moderated posts may be unavailable.
meta includes event_id, mode, cache, credits_charged, fetched_at, age_seconds, and duration_ms. A fresh successful result costs one credit; accepted cached results and failures cost zero.
Availability and failures
Implementation is not a continuous availability guarantee. Source rate limits, retention, deleted content, restrictions, and regional availability apply. This is an independent SignalShelf contract, not a drop-in competitor response format.
400: invalid parameters. 401: missing/revoked key. 402: insufficient credits. 404: missing public resource. 429: SignalShelf throttle. 502/503: upstream failure or rate limit, with credit restored.