🌸 Posy

Posy turns the reels and posts you saved on Instagram into a calm, searchable, self organized library, built entirely from your own data export.

• 🔒 100% local and private. No login, no scraping, no servers. Posy only reads the export file you already downloaded from Instagram. Your data never leaves your computer.
• 🗂️ Auto categorizes your saves using your own Instagram collections, then lets you re file anything in one click.
• 🖼️ A beautiful offline dashboard: light and dark, responsive on phone, tablet and desktop, with unique watercolor cover art for every reel.
• 🐍 Pure Python standard library. Nothing to pip install to get started.

Posy began life as LTSOP, short for "Lost The Saved Ones Project", because we all save hundreds of reels and never find them again. 😄

Contents

1. Get your Instagram data export
2. Install Posy
3. Run it
4. Open your library
5. Organize your reels
6. Commands
7. How categorization works
8. Privacy and safety
9. Project layout
10. FAQ
11. Author

1. Get your Instagram data export

Posy reads the official data export Instagram gives you. It never touches your account.

1. On Instagram, go to Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information.
2. Request a download of Your information. Either format works:
   • HTML (easiest to read) is fully supported.
   • JSON is also supported.
3. Make sure Saved activity is included (the default "All" includes it).
4. Instagram emails you a .zip when it is ready. This can take minutes to a day.
5. Unzip it. You get a folder like instagram-yourname-2026-06-15-XXXX/ containing your_instagram_activity/saved/....

You only need the Saved part, but the whole export is fine. Posy ignores everything else.

2. Install Posy

Requirements: Python 3.8 or newer (standard library only, nothing else to install). Node is optional and only used for the in dashboard feedback toolbar.

git clone https://github.com/theacmajor/posy.git
cd posy

Now drop your unzipped Instagram export folder into the project directory:

posy/
  instagram-yourname-2026-06-15-XXXX/   <-  put your unzipped export here
  main.py
  ig_organizer/
  ...

3. Run it

python3 main.py scan

This parses your export and creates:

• output/saved_items.json and output/saved_items.csv, your normalized database
• an Instagram Saved Library/ folder with category subfolders and a dashboard

Optional and recommended, give every card a unique watercolor cover:

python3 main.py covers

4. Open your library

Open the dashboard file in your browser:

Instagram Saved Library/_metadata/index.html

Or serve it locally, which is nicer because it enables a few browser features:

python3 -m http.server 8000 --directory "Instagram Saved Library/_metadata"
# then visit http://localhost:8000/index.html

A welcome guide pops up on first open and walks you through everything. You can replay it anytime from the ⓘ Guide button at the top right.

If you open the dashboard before adding an export, it tells you exactly what to do next:

What you can do in the dashboard

• Browse by Category (a tidy scheme) or Collection (your original Instagram folders)
• Click a card's category pill to re file it. Saved instantly to your browser.
• Search by caption, username or folder, toggle grid and list, expand captions
• Create your own categories, switch light and dark, and Export your edits
• Works on phone, tablet and desktop

5. Organize your reels

Posy does not download videos, because that would mean scraping Instagram. The dashboard is your organized index. If you separately download a reel and want it filed too, drop the file into Instagram Saved Library/01 Inbox/ and run:

python3 main.py organize        # copies (originals untouched) into category folders
python3 main.py organize --move # move instead of copy

Name files with the reel's shortcode, for example reel_DZgszzuocNc.mp4, for reliable matching, or use Instagram Saved Library/_metadata/manual_mapping.csv.

Commands

• python3 main.py scan parses the export into the database, folders and dashboard. Safe to re run, and it keeps your edits.
• python3 main.py covers generates a unique watercolor cover per reel. Local, offline, instant.
• python3 main.py organize files media from 01 Inbox/ into category folders (copy by default, add --move to move).
• python3 main.py build-index rebuilds just the dashboard from the current database.
• python3 main.py scan --export PATH points at a specific export folder instead of auto detecting.

The same actions are available as npm run scan, npm run covers, npm run organize and npm run build-index.

How categorization works

1. Your Instagram collections win. If a reel is in a folder you made (Workout, Bali, Chicken and so on), Posy files it by that. Your own labels are the strongest signal.
2. Keyword fallback. Reels that only live in the default "Today" bucket are scored against caption and hashtag keywords. Ambiguous ones stay Uncategorized rather than being guessed wrong.
3. You are in control. suggested_category is a starting point. final_category is yours. Edit it in the dashboard, where it auto saves, or in the CSV and JSON.

Categories, keywords and collection routing live in ig_organizer/config.py, which is easy to tune.

Privacy and safety

• Nothing leaves your machine. There are no network calls to Instagram, ever. Posy cannot and does not log in, scrape, or bypass anything.
• Your originals are never deleted. organize copies by default.
• Your data is git ignored. Your export, the generated library and outputs are excluded from version control. Only code is tracked. Never commit your export.
• Every run is logged to Instagram Saved Library/_metadata/logs/.

Project layout

main.py                 CLI entry (scan, covers, organize, build-index)
ig_organizer/
  config.py             categories, keywords, collection routing
  parser.py             export discovery, HTML and JSON parsing
  categorize.py         scoring engine
  organize.py           Inbox media matching, safe copy and move
  covers.py             watercolor cover generator (pure SVG)
  indexer.py            the self contained dashboard
  store.py              JSON and CSV read and write, paths, logging
tools/                  optional esbuild bundle for the feedback toolbar

FAQ

Does Posy download my reels? No. It organizes an index of your saves. The videos stay on Instagram. The actual files would require scraping, which Posy intentionally never does.

My export is JSON, not HTML, does it work? Yes, both are supported.

Lots of reels are "Uncategorized", is that a bug? No, it is honest. Those are saves that only sit in Instagram's default "Today" bucket with no caption signal. Sort them in the dashboard, or filter a Collection and bulk assign in list view.

Will it work offline? Completely. After scan and covers, the dashboard needs no internet.

Can I change the categories? Yes. Make your own in the dashboard with the ＋ button, or edit ig_organizer/config.py.

Author

Made by Anand Chauhan.

• Website: anandis.pro
• X: @xyanandc

License

MIT. Built with 🌸 for everyone who saves more than they revisit.