There’s a feature I kept seeing everywhere in creator marketing: “Comment LINK and I’ll DM it to you.”
It’s a genuinely useful workflow. A creator posts a Reel, someone comments a keyword, and they automatically receive a private message with a link, resource, product page, newsletter, or anything else the creator wants to share.
The interesting part is that this simple workflow usually lives inside a paid marketing platform. ManyChat is probably the most recognizable example, but if all you need is Instagram comment-to-DM automation, paying for an entire SaaS platform can feel excessive.
So we decided to build a free open-source alternative!
It’s called EngagePilot — an open-source Instagram automation project for turning comments into DMs.
What does it actually do?
The core workflow is intentionally simple.
You create a campaign and choose a keyword, for example LINK. Someone comments that keyword on an Instagram post or Reel, Meta sends the event to EngagePilot, and the person gets a private reply with your message and link.
You can also send a public reply under the comment at the same time.
That means a campaign can look like this:
User comments "LINK" → EngagePilot detects it → keyword matches → DM is sent
There’s no complicated funnel builder required for the basic use case.
[Add your EngagePilot campaign screenshot here]
That’s the entire workflow.
Why build another ManyChat alternative?
Honestly, because we wanted something we could own.
For creators, agencies and small businesses, comment-to-DM automation is often used for very specific things: sending a downloadable resource, sharing a product link, collecting interest, distributing a guide, or moving someone from a public comment into a private conversation.
The bigger reason was technical. We wanted to see whether we could build the entire workflow around the official Meta Instagram API, without relying on scraping or browser automation.
That distinction matters.
What can EngagePilot do?
The project is designed around Instagram engagement and automation workflows. Its exact capabilities depend on the features implemented in the current version and the permissions configured for the connected Instagram account.
The idea is to give creators and developers a way to manage automation workflows without depending entirely on a closed SaaS platform.
There’s a balance here between convenience and control. A hosted platform handles much of the infrastructure for you, while a self-hosted project gives you more control over the code and deployment.
The part that wasn't as simple as it looked
The first prototype was relatively straightforward, but handling real-world automation introduced more complexity.
That includes managing incoming events, matching comments against campaigns, handling background tasks, dealing with API errors, and keeping the application reliable.
A production-ready automation system needs more than just a form and a button. It needs to handle authentication, permissions, background processing, rate limits, error handling, and the different responses an external API can return.
The exact implementation depends on the current EngagePilot codebase, but these are the engineering considerations that matter when building an application around external APIs.
Why open source?
Because this felt like a good candidate for it.
There are already plenty of hosted tools for Instagram automation. What we wanted to provide was the other option: something developers can inspect, modify and run themselves.
EngagePilot is available on GitHub, where developers can explore the source code, review the implementation and contribute improvements.
It also means the implementation isn't hidden behind a SaaS dashboard. Developers can inspect how the available workflows, integrations and application components are implemented.
The goal is to make the project easier to understand, customize and extend.
Who is this for?
The obvious audience is creators who regularly use Instagram as a distribution channel.
For example, imagine a fitness creator posting a free workout plan, a developer sharing a template, an agency distributing a case study, or a business sharing a product catalogue.
Instead of telling everyone to “check the link in bio,” the creator can ask people to comment a keyword and automatically deliver the resource through Instagram DM.
Agencies can also benefit from having a project they can adapt to their workflows rather than building every automation from scratch.
And for developers, it’s an interesting project to experiment with if you're working with APIs, webhooks, queues, databases or background workers.
The bigger idea
The part I find most interesting isn't actually the Instagram automation. It's how many SaaS products package a relatively small technical workflow into a recurring product.
Sometimes that makes complete sense. Hosting, support, analytics and a polished UI are valuable. But sometimes you just want the underlying capability.
That's the idea behind EngagePilot: take useful engagement and automation workflows and make the implementation available through an open-source project.
No need to treat every automation as a black box. Developers should be able to explore the code, understand how things work and adapt the software to their requirements.
Try it
The project is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/AmitDas4321/EngagePilot
If you're searching for a free ManyChat alternative, an open-source Instagram automation project, or a codebase to experiment with, check out EngagePilot.
Explore the source code, try the project in your own development environment, and see whether it fits your workflow.
If you work with APIs and notice something we could handle better, contributions and technical feedback are welcome!
If you find the project useful, consider giving the repository a star. ⭐
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