Instagram Tracker 📈

Track changes in an Instagram profile's followers and following lists over time — even for private accounts (if you follow them). Built with Python + Instaloader, runs locally on your machine, and saves clean changelogs after each run.

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✅ Features

• Detects:
  • ➕ New followers
  • ➖ Lost followers
  • ➕ Newly followed accounts
  • ➖ Unfollowed accounts
• Saves a timestamped changelog (.md) per run
• All users are output as clickable Instagram links
• Summary stats with net gain/loss
• Optional --dry-run mode to preview changes without saving
• Includes an optional pyfiglet ASCII banner ("ig-tracker")
• Fully local and private — no remote logging or storage

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⚙️ Setup

1. Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/your-username/instagram-tracker.git
cd instagram-tracker

2. Create virtual environment (optional but recommended)

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

If you don't want to use the full requirements file, install the core packages manually:

pip install instaloader python-dotenv pyfiglet

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🔐 Login to Instagram (one-time setup)

To track followers/following, you must be logged into an account that can view the target profile. Run:

instaloader --login=your_username

This will:

• Prompt for your IG password
• Ask for 2FA code if enabled
• Save a session file locally (usually at ~/.config/instaloader/session-your_username)

If your session ever expires or breaks, just re-run the above command to refresh it.

💡 Tip: To avoid hardcoding usernames, we use a .env file.

Create one like this:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit .env with your info:

TARGET_USERNAME=target_ig_username
YOUR_IG_USERNAME=your_ig_username

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🚀 Usage

Track a profile:

python3 main.py

Each run will:

• Display an ASCII banner: ig-tracker
• Compare current followers/following to the last saved snapshot
• Print changes in the terminal (with clickable profile links)
• Save a Markdown changelog per run
• Save updated snapshot .json files

Preview changes only (no saving):

python3 main.py --dry-run

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📁 Project Structure

instagram-tracker/
├── main.py                          # Main script
├── .env                             # Your actual config (not committed)
├── .env.example                     # Shared template
├── .gitignore
├── requirements.txt                 # Installed dependencies
└── instagram_tracking/
    ├── followers.json               # Latest followers list
    ├── following.json               # Latest following list
    └── history/
        └── 2025-07-18_17-48-15_username.md  # Timestamped changelog

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🧼 Reset Snapshot (optional)

If you ever want to clear the saved snapshot and start fresh:

rm instagram_tracking/*.json

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🤝 Credits

• Built with ❤️ using Instaloader
• ASCII banners via pyfiglet