Instagram DM automation: your AI sorts, you reply

How a professional Instagram inbox looks to a tool

To a tool connected to Meta’s API, your inbox is a list of conversations, each with its messages. PlugKit gathers Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram into a single inbox, in the same format (PlugKit documentation, read on 24 October 2026). Your AI can read your Instagram DMs and your WhatsApp messages with the same request.

Two details matter before you hand your inbox to an AI:

• Old message requests: Meta states that messages in the Requests folder that have not been active for 30 days are not returned by the API. A tool does not see them.
• An incomplete inbox: new messages arrive in real time. If the inbox looks incomplete, after you first connect an account for instance, PlugKit offers a sync from Instagram.

The native way: sorting in Meta Business Suite

Meta already offers two automations that help with sorting in the Meta Business Suite Inbox, on desktop: Identify unanswered messages and Assign admins to new conversations (Meta Business Help Center, read on 24 October 2026). If you work as a team and your messages stay simple, that is a good start. These automations sort, but they do not read the content to draft a reply for you.

The demo: Claude sorts the Instagram inbox

In Zéro Corvée video 3 (below, in French), we start from PlugKit’s to-do card, then send a single request to Claude. A request like this one is enough:

“Read my unread Instagram messages. Sort them: handle today, handle this week, ignore. Draft a reply for every important conversation, without sending anything.”

Claude sorts the conversations and drafts a reply for each one. You read, you edit, and only then do you tell it which ones to send. The video shows the sorting, the drafted replies and the three limits to know.

What your AI needs to know about your inbox

On 24 October 2026, Occirank’s Instagram inbox held 160 conversations, only 3 of them inside Meta’s 24-hour window. So your AI’s priority is clear: open conversations first, because they are the only ones a tool can answer. The others can be read, but the reply has to wait until the person writes again.

Also give your AI what it cannot guess: your prices, your lead times, the questions you never answer by DM, the tone you use. The more precise your request, the less you correct. A short brief pasted at the start of the conversation is enough:

• what you sell and at what price, with the date of your price list;
• the lead time you can promise;
• the topics you never handle by DM (refunds, legal questions, health);
• three replies you have already written and liked, as a tone sample.

Three useful requests for your Instagram DM automation

Once your account is connected, these three requests cover most of the daily sorting:

“Show me the Instagram conversations still inside the 24-hour window, oldest first.”

“Summarise each unread conversation in one line: who is writing, what they want, how urgent it is.”

“Draft a reply to every quote request, using my prices below, without sending anything.”

The first tells you where to act now, the second saves you the reading, the third saves you the writing. Sending stays your call.

Why you approve before sending

A DM reaches the person immediately. The Zéro Corvée course rule is simple: the AI drafts, you see the preview, you say yes. PlugKit helps you stick to it: its MCP server accepts a read-only connection in which write tools are hidden (MCP documentation, read on 24 October 2026). Start there if you only want to see the sorting.

The limits to know

• The 24-hour window: after that, no automated reply goes out. The details are on the instagram 24 hour rule page.
• No DMs everywhere: according to PlugKit’s documentation, TikTok and YouTube do not expose their messaging to third-party apps, and X DMs are not exposed.
• The AI only knows what you tell it: any answer about a price, stock or appointment needs your check.
• Other people’s data: your conversations contain information about other people. Keep screenshots and names to yourself.