Welcome to Instance

Instance is a modern open-source Instagram sales automation engine and CRM designed for creators, coaches, e-commerce brands, and agency owners. Most automation platforms charge recurring subscriptions that scale aggressively as your contact list grows. Instance gives you the exact same automated sales superpowers with zero software subscription fees, zero arbitrary contact limits, and 100% control of your customer data in your own infrastructure.

Why Instance?

Feature	Closed SaaS (ManyChat, etc.)	Instance
Monthly Software Cost	Scales up as contacts increase ($15 to $1,000+/mo)	$0 (Self-hosted on free or low-cost tiers)
Contact Storage Limits	Rigid tier pricing based on audience size	Unlimited contacts in your own database
Data Privacy and Ownership	Stored on third-party multi-tenant servers	100% owned by you in PostgreSQL
Workflow Freedom	Limited by vendor roadmaps	Fully extensible open-source TypeScript stack
Instagram Anti-Ban Safety	Opaque rate limiting rules	Built-in circuit breakers, jitter, and health monitors

System Architecture

Instance is engineered as a modular TypeScript monorepo where each component is isolated for high availability, fault tolerance, and simple local development.

Core Stack Components

Web Dashboard (apps/web): Built with Next.js, Tailwind CSS, and React Flow. Provides the visual automation canvas, CRM, audience list management, analytics dashboard and Settings.
API Server (apps/api): Built with NestJS. Handles authentication, workspace settings, REST endpoints, and incoming Meta webhook ingestion.
Worker Service (apps/workers): Background worker service running BullMQ queues to handle outbound message delivery, Instagram profile enrichment, and scheduled jobs without blocking web requests.
Cache and Queues (Redis): Manages BullMQ job queues and provides atomic distributed locks for webhook deduplication.
Primary Database (PostgreSQL): Relational data store managed through Prisma ORM with strict type safety across all apps.

Next Steps

Ready to install locally? Follow the Installation guide.
Prefer one-command containerization? Jump straight to the Docker setup.