Highlight a passage
Highlight a passage of text in a saved article.
MCP tool instapaper_write → create_highlight
write
Highlights the text you pass inside one article and returns the highlight. Pass position to pick which occurrence when the text appears more than once; 0 is the first. Free accounts can create 5 highlights a month; past that the call fails. Reaches no one and is undone by deleting the highlight in Instapaper, so it runs without asking.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| bookmark_id integer required | integer | Bookmark ID from list_bookmarks. |
| text string required | string | The exact passage from the article. |
| position integer | integer | Which occurrence of the text to highlight, counting from 0. Default: 0. |
tools/call
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": 1,
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"name": "instapaper_write",
"arguments": {
"operation": "create_highlight",
"arguments": {
"bookmark_id": 1,
"text": "text"
}
}
}
}Example response
{
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"text": "{ ... same JSON as structuredContent ... }"
}
],
"structuredContent": {
"highlight_id": 77120502,
"bookmark_id": 1893240551,
"text": "Salt the water until it tastes like the sea.",
"created_at": "2026-10-17T08:15:00Z"
},
"isError": false
}