museprompts
Open Muse
Instagram

Set up a friend

Tell Muse their type, get 3 to 5 matches.

What it reaches for

  • Handles personal data
  • Sends messages
One chore down.

Three steps

  1. 1Copy the prompt and paste it into a new Muse chat.
  2. 2Tell Muse what you need, in your own words.
  3. 3Answer its questions. It follows the prompt from there.

Last verified: September 2026. The best setups come from a friend who knows both people. This skill takes one friend the user wants to set up, learns what that friend is looking for, and goes through the user's followers for the few people who fit. The user is the matchmaker: they decide who to introduce, ask both people first, and send every message.

Why this skill exists

People want to set up a single friend but can't think of anyone on the spot. The right person is often in their followers already: someone from a different friend group, a coworker's roommate, a person they met once at a party. A follower list holds that whole network. Reading it against one friend's preferences, with the user's knowledge on top, turns "I'll keep an eye out" into a short list of real options.

Step 1: Ask who you're matching, and what they want

Ask these in one message, since everything depends on them:

  • Who's the friend? Their @handle if they're on Instagram, or a first name and a line about them
  • Who they're interested in: women, men, nonbinary people, or anyone. Always ask; never assume from the friend's profile.
  • Age range they'd date, roughly
  • Location: where they live, and how far they'd go
  • What they're looking for: something serious, casual dating, or open to seeing
  • Their type and vibe: what they're into, what kind of person they click with, and anyone they've liked before as an example
  • Deal-breakers: e.g. smoking, no pets, wants kids or doesn't, very online, party-heavy
  • Who's off-limits: exes, people with history, anyone in the friend's close group, anyone who's asked not to be set up

Also ask the user to check with the friend that they want to be set up, if they haven't already. A setup the friend didn't ask for rarely goes well.

If the user doesn't know some answers, fill in what you can from the friend's profile in step 3 and say which parts are guesses.

Step 2: Get the follower list

In order of preference:

  1. The connected Instagram account, if the agent has access
  2. The user's Instagram data download (Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Download your information → Followers and following, JSON)
  3. A list of names the user types out

Start with mutual follows. These are people the user actually knows and can vouch for, which is the whole point of a setup. Add one-way followers only if there aren't enough good candidates.

Step 3: Get to know the friend

If the friend has a public account, or the user can see it, read it before looking at anyone else:

  • Captions on their last 20 or so posts, and comments they've left on the user's posts
  • What they're doing in photos, including the profile picture: a trail, a climbing wall, an instrument, a dog, a kitchen
  • Highlight titles and pinned posts

Build a short profile: recurring hobbies, voice and humor, values, and scene, with a quote or example for each. Combine it with what the user said in step 1, and show the user a three-line summary to correct. The user's answers win wherever they disagree with the profile.

Step 4: Narrow to candidates

Remove these before reading anyone closely, and don't mention them in the answer:

  • Anyone who might be under 18. When unsure, leave them out.
  • Anyone visibly in a relationship: a partner in the bio, "taken", a ring emoji, a partner tagged in recent posts, engagement or wedding posts
  • Anyone who doesn't match who the friend is interested in. Go by how people describe themselves (pronouns in the bio, how they write about themselves). If there's nothing to go on, leave them out rather than guessing from a name or photo.
  • Anyone outside the age range or too far away, where you can tell
  • Brands, businesses, big creators, meme pages, and bots
  • Anyone on the off-limits list, and the friend themselves

Step 5: Read captions and comments for personality

A bio is a few words. Captions and comments show how someone actually talks and what they keep coming back to, which is what makes two people click.

For each remaining candidate with a public account, read:

  • Captions on their last 12 to 20 posts
  • Comments they've left on the user's posts and on mutual friends' posts, where you can see them. How someone jokes in the comments is the best read on their humor.
  • Highlight titles and pinned posts, which show what they want people to know about them
  • What they're doing in photos, including the profile picture: a race bib, a climbing wall, a trail, an instrument, a dog, a kitchen. Treat these as hobby and lifestyle signals, like "runs half marathons" or "always outdoors". Describe the activity, never the person's body or looks: "hiking in most photos" is fine, "looks fit" is not.
  • How recently they posted: an account that's been quiet for over a year may be inactive, and its location and interests may be out of date. Note it as a watch-out.

Build the same profile for each: recurring hobbies, voice and humor, values, and scene, with a quoted caption or comment as evidence. For a long list, profile the 30 or so most promising people (by location and bio) rather than everyone. Skip private accounts, never read direct messages, and don't keep these notes after the conversation.

Step 6: Pick 3 to 5

Score each candidate against the friend's preferences and profile, roughly in this order:

  1. Fits what the friend asked for: who they're into, age, what they're looking for, and no deal-breakers. Anyone who misses one of these is out.
  2. Location: same city is best. Someone a flight away is a harder sell; say so.
  3. Shared hobbies: the same specific hobby, scene, or obsession beats a broad one. Both captioning bouldering sessions is a real match; both liking "travel" isn't.
  4. Matching voice and humor: two deadpan captioners, or two people who reply to everything with a bit, will likely get each other's jokes
  5. The friend's type: how well they fit the vibe the user described, and the example of someone the friend liked
  6. How the user knows each: someone from a different friend group than the friend is a better setup, since they've likely never met. friend-group-analyzer can map the groups first if that helps.

Never pick on looks. Don't rate or compare anyone's appearance, even if asked; the user and the friend can judge photos themselves. Don't guess at religion, politics, health, or finances unless the user named one as a deal-breaker.

Hand back 3 to 5 people, best first, and don't let one scene take every spot. If there aren't 3 good fits, give fewer, say how many people you looked at, and say what would widen the search, like a bigger radius or one-way followers.

Output format

Open with one line restating the brief, e.g. "Setting up Maya: into men, 27 to 34, in Brooklyn, wants something serious, loves climbing and bad puns." Then for each pick:

  1. @handle and first name
  2. Where: their location and how close it is to the friend
  3. Why they match: two or three specific reasons, each tying something from the brief or the friend's profile to something from theirs, backed by a caption or comment. "Maya wants someone outdoorsy with a dumb sense of humor; he captioned a summit photo 'the mountain was mid' and posts from the same climbing gym" is the level of specific to aim for.
  4. How you know them: the friend group or context they come from, and whether they've likely met the friend
  5. Watch-outs: anything uncertain, like an old location, a hint they're seeing someone, a quiet account, or a thin profile
  6. Confidence: high, medium, or low, based on how much you could see

End by offering to look further, adjust the brief, or draft the messages.

Making the introduction

The user checks with both people privately before connecting them. Draft these on request:

  • To the friend: a short message sharing the pick with one or two reasons, and asking if they'd be up for an intro
  • To the pick: a casual check-in asking if they're open to being set up, with one line on the friend and an easy way to say no. For example: "Random, but would you be up for me setting you up? My friend Maya is also obsessed with climbing and would get your humor. Zero pressure."
  • The intro, once both say yes: a group chat that introduces them with the shared interest that made the match, then steps back
  • A low-key plan: a group hang or both at the next party, for a pair who'd rather meet naturally

Extras, if they want them

  • No one in mind? If the user just wants to play matchmaker, ask which single friends they'd want to set up and run this for each, one at a time, so every friend gets their own brief.
  • Two friends already in mind: check the pair against both briefs and say honestly how well it fits.

Rules

  • Ask before connecting. Both people agree before anyone is introduced. Never draft an intro that goes to someone who hasn't said yes.
  • The user sends every message. Draft them, but never send, post, follow, or reply to anyone on the user's behalf unless they explicitly ask for that exact action, and confirm the message and the person first.
  • Keep it private. Don't share the picks or notes about anyone beyond this conversation, and don't tell either person why the other was chosen in more detail than the user wants.
  • Public info only. Don't search for anyone's other accounts, workplace, address, or family, and don't cross-reference other sites. The point is a good introduction, not a background check.
  • Respect a no. If either person isn't interested, drop it and don't suggest ways around it.
  • Be honest. A few captions don't make a person. Say when a pick is a hunch, and remember the user knows these people far better than their profiles do.

Pairs well with

Map your crews