Switch your account to Creator or Business (Settings → Account type) and link it to a Facebook Page. This is just Instagram's "professional" mode, and it is what lets official tools connect to your account. Free, and it takes a few minutes.

Instagram's owner, Meta, lets you build your own tools through a free area called Meta for Developers. You'll create a developer account, make a new "app" (just a container for your project), add the Instagram messaging permissions, and generate an access token, a secret key that lets your tool send DMs on your behalf.

This is the fiddliest part, but you don't do it alone. Have Claude walk you through each click:

Walk me step by step through setting up a Meta for Developers app so my own Instagram account can auto-send DMs from comments. Tell me exactly what to click, which permissions to add, how to get an access token, and what a privacy policy and data-deletion page are. I'm not technical, so keep it simple.

This is the most important step, and it is not technical at all. A brief is just a clear, plain English description of what you want. The clearer your brief, the better your tool. Start a project in Claude Code and paste something like this, filling in the bracketed bits:

I want to build a private tool for my own Instagram account. When someone comments a keyword on one of my posts, they should automatically get a DM with a link (usually to my [blog or affiliate link]). It is just for me, not a product for anyone else.

I have never coded before. Please explain everything in plain language, tell me clearly when I need to click something myself, and warn me before anything cannot be undone.

Let us plan it together first, then build it in small pieces and test as we go.

Tip: telling Claude "I have never coded" genuinely changes how it talks to you. It slows down and explains. Do not skip that line.

Now Claude writes all the code. Ask it to build in small pieces and test each part before moving on, so you actually see it working instead of a big mystery at the end. You'll end up with a little dashboard where you pick the post, the keyword, the message, and the link.

You never touch the code itself. You review, ask questions, and steer. Ask to see a preview whenever you want:

Build this in small pieces and pause after each part so I can review it. Can you show me what the dashboard looks like so far, and let me test it before we continue?

GitHub is like a private cloud folder for code. You'll make a free account and a private repository, which is just a project folder. Claude uploads the code there for you. Two reasons it matters: it is a safe backup, and it is how your tool stays updated automatically later.

Help me put this code on GitHub in a private repo, one step at a time. Tell me exactly what to click, and make sure none of my secret passwords or tokens get uploaded.

Keep it private: your repo should be set to Private, and your secret keys should never be in it. Claude keeps those separate for you.

Your tool needs to run on an always on computer in the cloud, because your laptop cannot stay awake all day and all night. Railway does exactly that. You connect it to your GitHub, paste in your secret settings, and it hands you a free web address like yourname.up.railway.app.

That address is your dashboard. You open it on your phone, log in, and add automations. It is also where Instagram sends comment alerts behind the scenes.

Guide me through putting this online with Railway, one step at a time. Help me add a database, paste in my secret settings safely, and get my public web address. Tell me exactly what to click and warn me about common mistakes.

Cost check: Railway has a small free trial, then it is roughly $5 a month for something this light. Still cheaper than ManyChat, and it is yours.

Last connection: back in Meta, you tell Instagram where to send comment alerts (your Railway address), subscribe to comments, and flip one toggle on for your account. Claude gives you the exact things to paste and where.

Help me connect my live Railway app to Instagram: setting the webhook address and verify token in Meta, subscribing to comments, and turning on the subscription for my account. Give me each step one at a time.

Comment your keyword on one of your posts, ideally from a friend's account, because your own comments are ignored on purpose. Then watch the DM land. That is it. You built a real tool that works while you sleep.