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What it checks

media.length >= 1 on Instagram posts. The caption (text field) is optional, but media is mandatory.

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Why

Instagram’s Graph API has no “text-only feed post” endpoint. Every IG publish goes through the create-container flow, and the container requires either an image_url or a video_url. Without one, there’s no API to call.

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Failure response

{
  "error": {
    "code": "preflight_failed",
    "rule": "instagram.media.required",
    "platform": "instagram",
    "message": "Instagram does not support text-only posts. Attach at least one image or video via `media: [...]`.",
    "remediation": "Provide a media item — Instagram's API has no text-only feed surface."
  }
}

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Remediation

Add at least one image or video. If you want a text-first post, Threads is where it goes; the same content with a Threads accountId on the target will publish text-only.