Print your Instagram Reels feed. Put down your phone. Read instead.

Instead of doomscrolling before bed, Reals captures your feed, runs it through AI, and generates a printable PDF zine you can read offline.

A Playwright browser scrolls through your Instagram Reels, screenshotting each one. A vision AI model extracts the username, caption, and writes a one-line summary of the video content. Everything gets laid out into a two-up printable PDF.

Requirements: Python 3.9+, an API key for Claude or Gemini.

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/reals
cd reals
pip install playwright anthropic google-generativeai fpdf2 pillow python-dotenv PyQt5
playwright install chromium

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your key:

# Use Claude (Anthropic)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_key_here
AI_PROVIDER=claude

# Or use Gemini (Google)
GEMINI_API_KEY=your_key_here
AI_PROVIDER=gemini

Desktop app

python app.py

CLI

python main.py                  # standard run
python main.py --count 12       # capture 12 reels
python main.py --dry-run        # skip AI calls, free, good for testing layout

On first run a browser window opens — log into Instagram, press Enter in the terminal. Your session is saved so you won't need to log in again. reals.pdf will appear in the project folder when done.

Roughly $0.08 per run (8 reels) with Claude Sonnet. Gemini 2.0 Flash is cheaper still. $5 in credits gets you plenty of runs.

Everything runs locally. Your Instagram session and screenshots never leave your machine. The only external calls are to the AI API you configure.

Never commit .env or session.json — both are in .gitignore by default.

reals/
├── app.py            # desktop GUI (PyQt5)
├── main.py           # CLI entrypoint
├── scraper.py        # Playwright browser automation
├── ai_processor.py   # Claude / Gemini vision
├── pdf_builder.py    # PDF layout and export
├── .env.example
└── .gitignore

• Reels are captured as a still frame + AI summary — you can't print a video
• Instagram's UI changes occasionally and may need selector updates
• Intended for personal use — running at scale violates Instagram's ToS

MIT License