Maintenance
Smash Balloon
Load the Instagram feed stylesheet only where feeds appear with AI
Stop Instagram Feed Pro's stylesheet loading on pages without a feed, with each setting explained before anything changes.
Works with AI · Verified on v6.14.0
Manage Instagram Feed Pro with AI
Connect Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro to Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant with WPVibe. Create feeds, place them on your pages, match them to your design, and find out why a feed stopped updating by asking in plain English.
13 verified abilities Last verified Oct 6, 2026
What your AI can do with Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro
One connection gives your assistant structured, permission-checked access to the whole site.
Put a feed on any page
Check which accounts are connected, create the feed from a template with your columns and post count, and place it on the page you name, where your latest posts show with their photos and captions.
Match your design
Inherit your theme's colors or set exact hex values, and change columns, header style and buttons, with Instagram Feed reporting every change it saved.
Spotlight your best posts
Switch a feed to the highlight layout and enlarge posts by hashtag or every Nth post.
Find out why a feed went stale
Token expiry, account errors and the refresh schedule in one pass, without the AI ever seeing an access token.
Tune refresh and loading
Change how often feeds refresh, and load the plugin's stylesheet only on pages that show a feed.
You keep the keys
Connecting an account and deleting a feed happen in your browser through one-time links. AI writes stay off until you turn them on.
Things to ask
Paste any of these into Claude or ChatGPT once Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro is connected.
“Put my Instagram feed on the homepage above the footer: four columns, eight posts, the Simple Grid template.”
“Make the homepage Instagram feed use my theme's colors, three columns on desktop and two on mobile, with a centered header.”
“My Instagram feed stopped showing new posts. Check the connected accounts and the refresh schedule and tell me why.”
“Switch the Instagram feed to the highlight layout and make every post tagged #bestof larger.”
Up and running in three steps
1
Install WPVibe
Add the free WPVibe plugin from WordPress.org to the site running Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro.
2
Connect your AI
Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more. One click to authorize, and no passwords ever go in the chat.
3
Ask in plain English
“Put my Instagram feed on the homepage above the footer: four columns, eight posts, the Simple Grid template.”
Verified Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro recipes
Copy-paste playbooks, each one tested on a live Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro install before it ships.
Marketing
Smash Balloon
Spotlight your best Instagram posts with AI
Switch an Instagram Feed Pro feed to the highlight layout and make your best posts larger by hashtag or pattern.
Maintenance
Smash Balloon
Find out why your Instagram feed stopped updating with AI
Check Instagram Feed Pro's connected accounts, token expiry, error flags and refresh schedule in one pass, and fix the cause with your go-ahead.
Content
Smash Balloon
Match your Instagram feed to your site’s design with AI
Set colors, columns, header and buttons on an Instagram Feed Pro feed so it looks like it belongs on your site, with the old values kept in the chat.
Marketing
Smash Balloon
Add your Instagram feed to a page with AI
Connect your Instagram account, build an Instagram Feed Pro feed, and place it on any page by asking, with the login staying in your own browser.
Every Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro ability
Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro registers these with the WordPress Abilities API under the instagram-feed namespace. Your AI finds them with discover_abilities and calls them with run_ability; only abilities marked destructive ask for your approval before they run. Verified means we ran it on a live install of v6.14.0. Registered means a fresh install of v6.14.0 ships it and we have not run it yet.
Requires Instagram Feed Pro 6.14.0 or newer on WordPress 6.9 or newer. The free Instagram Feed plugin does not register abilities. Write abilities need MCP Write Access turned on in Instagram Feed > Settings > General.
| Ability | What it does | Access | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
List feeds instagram-feed/list-feeds
|
Lists the feeds made in the Feed Builder with id, name, layout, status and shortcode. | Read | Verified |
|
Get a feed instagram-feed/get-feed
|
Returns one feed's settings: layout, columns, post counts, header, captions, buttons, colors and highlight source. | Read | Verified |
|
List connected accounts instagram-feed/list-sources
|
Lists the Instagram accounts connected to the site: username, account type, token expiry date, an error flag, and how many feeds use each. | Read | Verified |
|
Get global settings instagram-feed/get-global-settings
|
Returns the plugin-wide settings: refresh schedule, GDPR mode, image resizing and format, and how scripts and styles load. | Read | Verified |
|
Describe editable settings instagram-feed/describe-settings-schema
|
Returns every feed and global setting with its allowed values, which ones are read-only, which need a license feature, and whether write access is on. | Read | Verified |
|
Create a feed instagram-feed/create-feed
|
Creates a feed of the connected accounts' own posts from an optional template, quick settings and sources. | Write | Verified |
|
Update feed settings instagram-feed/update-feed-settings
|
Changes the feed settings you pass and nothing else. | Write | Verified |
|
Set a color palette instagram-feed/set-color-palette
|
Sets a feed's palette to inherit, light, dark or custom. | Write | Verified |
|
Set highlighted posts instagram-feed/set-highlight-source
|
For the highlight layout: highlight posts by hashtag, by post ID, or every Nth post with an optional offset. | Write | Verified |
|
Set a feed's accounts instagram-feed/set-feed-sources
|
Replaces the accounts a feed shows with accounts already connected to the site. | Write | Verified |
|
Update global settings instagram-feed/update-global-settings
|
Changes the refresh schedule, image handling and script loading. | Write | Verified |
|
Get an account connect link instagram-feed/get-connect-url
|
Returns a single-use link, valid 15 minutes, that the site admin opens in their own browser to connect an Instagram account. | Write | Verified |
|
Request a feed deletion instagram-feed/request-feed-deletion
|
Returns a confirmation link, single-use and valid 15 minutes. | Write | Verified |
What we learned testing it
Behavior the ability descriptions do not mention.
- AI writes are off until a site admin turns on MCP Write Access under Instagram Feed > Settings > General. Until then a write fails with: AI write access is disabled. Enable "MCP Write Access" under Instagram Feed → Settings → General. Reads work as soon as the plugin is active.
- Connecting an Instagram account is always a browser step. get-connect-url gives a link that works once and expires after 15 minutes; the admin opens it and finishes the Instagram login.
- The AI cannot delete a feed. request-feed-deletion returns a link, and only one deletion can wait at a time: asking for a second one cancels the first link.
- A feed can be created before any account is connected. It shows nothing to visitors, and logged-in admins see "Error: No connected account." where it sits.
- Feed changes apply to the live feed right away. There is no draft, so ask the AI to note the current values before it changes them.
- GDPR mode and the admin error notices are read-only to the AI on purpose. Change those in the Instagram Feed settings screen.
- update-feed-settings rejects the whole call if it includes the palette or highlight settings; those go through set-color-palette and set-highlight-source, which check each set together.
- Carousel options are ignored until an active license key is entered.
- list-sources can show a connect type of "personal" on a working Business account; the account type is what matters. An expiry date of 2037-12-30 is Instagram Feed's placeholder for a connection with no expiry date.
- Post images and highlight sizes are filled in by the feed's script in the browser. In the raw page HTML every image points at a placeholder and every post is the same size, so check the feed in a browser.
- Highlighting by post ID needs Instagram's own post IDs, and no ability lists them. Hashtags or an every-Nth pattern are the practical choices.
Verified, and kept that way
Works with AI is WPVibe’s verification program. Every ability marked verified was run on a live Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro install, and we rescan WordPress.org weekly so a release that adds or removes abilities shows up here before it surprises you.
Learn more about Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro at smashballoon.com.