User reels

When to use this

The public reels tab returns previews and engagement counts. Captions, timestamps and video URLs are absent; call the Post endpoint with a reel's code for those fields. Pass end_cursor as after for the next page. Private reels are unavailable.

Parameters

All parameters go in the query string.

Example request

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key, or set LURKAPI_KEY for the code. Get a free key.

curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels?username=nike&first=12" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  username: "nike",
  first: "12",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data.reels);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/instagram/user/reels",
    params={
        "username": "nike",
        "first": "12",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data["reels"])

Example response

A real response from this endpoint, captured from the live API and trimmed to a couple of items. Strings over 96 characters (mostly signed media URLs) are cut short and end in ….

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 99,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "reels": [
    {
      "pk": "3993300839542953931",
      "code": "DdrDfTGOhfL",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdrDfTGOhfL/",
      "display_url": "https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/797725010_186670…",
      "like_count": 107,
      "comment_count": 17,
      "play_count": 12145,
      "clips_tab_pinned_user_ids": []
    },
    {
      "pk": "3991849403537918302",
      "code": "Ddl5eH-u4le",
      "url": "https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ddl5eH-u4le/",
      "display_url": "https://scontent-iad6-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.82787-15/809201733_186664…",
      "like_count": 67593,
      "comment_count": 1062,
      "play_count": 2317934,
      "clips_tab_pinned_user_ids": []
    }
  ],
  "end_cursor": "AQHTKRUgapY-YIJL3ILe9dr1pwmQSvqY4V6JQg3_BluiL95O4Xl7M2s9Y8jH-6y7-4eP1wGbT1xZsWB58pzKat-6Pw",
  "has_next_page": true
}

Response fields

Every field of a successful response. [] marks a list: a[].b is the b of each item in a. nullable fields can be null; optional fields can be missing.

Pagination

Pass a cursor from a previous response as after to load more (see When to use this). Each call costs 1 credit.

Caching and freshness

Responses are cached for up to 3 minutes, so a repeat call within that window can return the same data. It still costs 1 credit.

Errors

Errors return { success: false, error, code, docs } with the HTTP status below. Validation errors, 401/402/429 rejections and 5xx failures are free; not_found is charged (how charging works). All error codes.

Use it in Claude

Once LurkAPI is connected to Claude, this endpoint is the instagram_user_reels tool. Ask in plain English, for example:

Use LurkAPI's instagram_user_reels with username "nike", first "12" and summarize what you find.

Claude calls instagram_user_reels with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit:

{
  "username": "nike",
  "first": "12"
}

Tool results skip nulls and empty lists to save tokens.