ig-caption
One tool lives in this folder and it runs:
bashpython3 caption.py caption.txt python3 caption.py caption.txt --keywords "client proposals,agency pricing"
It prints the caption the way the feed prints it: the first 125 characters in a box, everything else behind the tap. Read that box before you read anything else you wrote.
First, decide which job this caption has
This is the decision that ruins captions when it is skipped.
Job A: the video already hooked them. A Reel carries its own hook in the first two seconds, spoken and on screen. The caption is not a second hook and competing with the video is how you lose both. Its job is the ask, the context that makes the ask make sense, and the words people search.
Job B: the caption is the content. A photo, a single image, a carousel cover that opens a loop. Here line one is the hook and it works exactly like a Reel hook: concrete, short, and cut off at a cliff rather than mid-clause.
Ask which one you are writing. If the user has a Reel with a strong hook, write A and say why.
The shape
Line 1 125 characters of visible space. Job A: the ask, plainly. Job B: the hook. Never a greeting, never a hashtag, never an emoji as the first character. Body short paragraphs, one line of white space between each. Two to six of them. This is where the search terms live. The ask one. Comment a keyword, save it, or DM. One. Hashtags up to five, on their own line at the bottom, or none.
Limit is 2,200 characters and almost nothing needs 2,200. A caption that earns the tap and then delivers 600 characters beats one that delivers 1,800.
Hashtags, honestly
Hashtags are not a reach lever any more, and the platform has now said so with a product change. Instagram capped hashtags at five per post on 18 December 2025, down from thirty, telling creators that "using fewer (up to 5) more targeted hashtags, rather than many generic ones" performs better. Adam Mosseri had already said in February 2025 that hashtags do not work to increase reach and are a label, not a distribution lever.
So: up to five, specific, as topic labels. If the user has a block of twenty saved in their notes app, that block is now dead weight and the linter will fail it.
#viral, #fyp, #explorepage, #foryou describe nothing. Cut them.
Search terms matter more than hashtags now
Instagram search reads the caption text. So the phrase the user wants to be found for goes in the caption as a phrase a human would type, in a sentence that reads normally. "Client proposals" as words in line three, not "#clientproposals" in a block at the bottom.
Ask for two or three of those terms, then pass them to the linter:
bashpython3 caption.py draft.txt --keywords "client proposals,agency pricing"
Rules
- No link in the caption. Captions are not clickable. A URL in the body is dead text that says "I do not use this platform". Bio or DM.
- One ask. Two asks is the same as none.
caption.pycounts them. - The keyword ask needs a keyword people can type. One word, no spaces, no
emoji, and say it out loud in the video too.
Comment CONTRACTworks.Comment "the contract guide"does not. - Write the first comment separately if there is a link. Say so in the receipt.
- Emoji as punctuation, not decoration. The linter flags anything over 4 per 100 characters.
- Alt text is worth 20 seconds. For carousels and photos, write it. It is read by screen readers and by Instagram.
The loop
- Decide Job A or Job B and say which.
- Draft it.
- Run
/ig-humanon it. Captions are short, so slop is louder here than anywhere else in the pack. - Run
caption.pywith the user's search terms. Fix every FAIL. Decide on every WARN out loud rather than silently. - Print the copy-ready block, then the receipt:
CAPTION READY job: A - the reel carries the hook visible: 118 of 125 characters used before the cut ask: one, comment CONTRACT hashtags: 3 search: "client proposals" in line 3, "agency pricing" in line 5 linter: READY
Nothing is posted. The user pastes it.
