Mesh

Maps social circles from Instagram mutual follows.

Two people who follow each other are "friends." A group where everyone is friends with everyone else is a circle. Mesh finds those circles around a target account and shows you the overlapping social structure that isn't visible from a follower list alone.

Note

Everything is subject to change. Nothing is final. This tool is in active development.

Example output

Target: target_user

Profile info: target_user (Target User)
follower count:  87
following count: 94
friends:
alice
bob
carol
dave

Circle 1:
target_user
alice
bob
carol

Circle 2:
target_user
dave
erin

Alice, bob and carol all follow each other and the target - one circle. Dave and erin form a separate cluster.

Install

git clone https://github.com/k41ku/Mesh
cd Mesh
pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

python script.py

Use -h if you need any help.

Caution

It is currently reccomended to log in with sessionID (--sessionid). How? Pull the sessionid cookie from instagram.com in a logged-in browser (DevTools > Application > Cookies)

Flag	Description
-V, --verbose	Show progress for every request
-v, --version	Show version and check for updates
-L, --level	How deep to traverse [1]
-mx, --max-follows	Skip targets above this follower/following count [100]
--country	Account's country code [US]
--locale	Account's locale [en_US]
--sessionid	Log in with a session ID instead of a password

Note

As of now, -L / --level flag does nothing. Will fix soon.

Known limitations

Login is unreliable. Instagram frequently rejects username/password logins from unrecognised devices, returning a misleading "incorrect password" error. --sessionid is more likely to work.

Rate limits are aggressive. Each friend costs three API calls with delays between them. A target with 30 friends takes several minutes.

Private accounts can't be analysed unless you follow them.

Roadmap

• Mutual follow detection
• Circle detection
• non-mutual-follow based circles + Confidence levels
• SVG output
• Multi-account rotation

Disclaimer

For educational and research purposes. Only analyse accounts you have permission to analyse. Automated access violates Instagram's Terms of Service - use at your own risk.