Manage Instagram DM automation from Claude (MCP server)

You already ask Claude to draft emails, write code, and summarise documents. Now you can ask it to run your Instagram DM automation too. ReplyAtlas ships an MCP server — a small program your AI assistant runs on demand — that lets Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any Model Context Protocol client operate your ReplyAtlas account directly.

No new dashboard to learn, no copy-pasting API responses. You type "create a comment-to-DM automation on my latest Reel for the keyword LINK" and it happens.

What is MCP, in one paragraph

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard for connecting AI assistants to real tools and data. Instead of an assistant guessing from its training data, MCP lets it call live functions — read your leads, create an automation, pull this week's numbers — and act on the results. ReplyAtlas exposes its public API as an MCP server so your assistant becomes a hands-on operator of your account, with your permission and your own API key.

What you can do from chat

The ReplyAtlas MCP server exposes 18 tools across six areas. In practice that means you can say things like:

"Show me all my automations and which ones are active." → lists every automation with status, trigger, and send counts.
"DM everyone who comments INFO on my newest post with my link." → creates a keyword-triggered comment-to-DM automation.
"How many DMs went out this week and what's my reply rate?" → pulls your dashboard and analytics and summarises them.
"Show me leads from the summer-launch automation and tag the ones who clicked as hot." → filters leads and applies a tag.
"Reply to that DM thread with a thank-you and my booking link." → drafts a reply and shows it to you before anything sends.

That last one matters: sending is deliberately two-step. Reply and broadcast actions first return a preview plus a confirmation token. Nothing leaves your account until a second call confirms it — so an assistant can't fire a DM blast by accident.

Why run it from an assistant at all?

Three reasons it beats clicking through a dashboard:

Speed for one-off jobs. Spinning up a quick automation for a launch, or pulling a number for a client update, is faster spoken than clicked.
It reads the data for you. "Which automation drove the most replies last month?" is a question, not a report you have to build. The assistant queries, compares, and answers.
It fits where you already work. If you live in Cursor or Claude Desktop, your Instagram growth ops now live there too — next to everything else you're building.

What you need

A ReplyAtlas account on the Pro or Pro+ plan. MCP access rides on the same API access feature as the public REST API. Free, Starter, and Growth plans can't mint an API key, so the server won't start on those tiers.
An MCP-compatible client — Claude Desktop and Cursor are the two we document, but any client that speaks stdio MCP works.
About two minutes to paste in a config block.

Setup in three steps

1. Mint an API key. In ReplyAtlas, go to Settings → API Keys and create a key. You'll see the mf_live_… value once — copy it.

2. Add the server to your client. Drop this into claude_desktop_config.json (Claude Desktop) or ~/.cursor/mcp.json (Cursor):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "replyatlas": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "replyatlas-mcp"],
      "env": { "REPLYATLAS_API_KEY": "mf_live_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

There's nothing to install — your client fetches and runs the published replyatlas-mcp package via npx on demand.

3. Restart and ask. Restart the client, then try: "List my ReplyAtlas automations." If it comes back with your automations, you're connected.

The full, always-current setup guide lives on the ReplyAtlas MCP integration page, and the complete API reference is at /docs.

Is it safe?

Yes, by design:

You hold the key. The server authenticates with an API key you create and can revoke at any time from Settings. Revoke it and the connection dies instantly.
Sends are preview-then-confirm. As noted above, replies and broadcasts never go out on the first call — the assistant shows you exactly what it'll send and waits for confirmation.
It only does what the API allows. The MCP server is a thin wrapper over the same rate-limited, plan-gated /api/v1/* endpoints the public API uses. It can't do anything you couldn't do through the API yourself.

The bigger picture

Instagram DM automation used to mean logging into yet another dashboard. With MCP, the automation comes to you — inside the assistant you're already talking to all day. Set a keyword, check your numbers, tag your hottest leads, all in plain English.

Ready to try it? Connect ReplyAtlas to Claude & Cursor →

Manage Instagram DM Automation from Claude (MCP Server)