A skill that makes Claude build a carousel the way a senior designer and editor would, one stage at a time, with you approving each step. It turns a blog post, a talk or a client case into one takeaway and a slide-by-slide plan, with the job of every slide and two cover headlines to choose from. Then it writes each slide inside a word budget a phone can carry, sets the grid, type sizes and colours in pixels with contrast checked, and makes the slides: rendered as files with code, or as image prompts with the type set separately. One 1080 by 1350 master serves the Instagram carousel and the LinkedIn document post.
Inside are five reference files. One holds the current Instagram and LinkedIn rules, such as the 20-slide limit, LinkedIn's PDF requirements and the five-hashtag cap, each with its source and the date it was checked. The others hold nine carousel shapes and nine cover patterns, word budgets per slide, a type scale and a contrast method based on WCAG 2.2, nine slide layouts with pixel positions, 4:5 settings for six image tools, and a complete worked example for an invented brand studio. It never invents a number, quote, client or offer, never lets an image tool draw your logo or small text, and treats your own brand rules as the first rule.
Claude cannot generate images in claude.ai, so pictures come from your own image tool or your photos; the skill writes the prompts and checks what you bring back. Turn on code execution and it will count every word, compute every contrast ratio, measure your headlines in your real font and render the slides as PNG, PDF and PowerPoint files. Without your font files it renders proofs in a stand-in typeface and labels them. Platform rules change, so trust your app when it disagrees with the file. Bring your source material and your brand colours, and approve the slide plan before any copy is written.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Carousel builder
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In the download · 9 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows, in six stages that end with checked slides and the posting kit.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/worked-example.mdA complete ten-slide checklist carousel for an invented brand studio, with every stage's output.
- references/platform-specs.mdInstagram carousel and LinkedIn document rules, captions, alt text, export settings and disclosure, with sources and dates checked.
- references/story-and-copy.mdNine carousel shapes, nine cover patterns, the slide count rule, word budgets per slide and how to write one.
- references/layout-and-system.mdPhone-size maths, the grid, the type scale, the WCAG 2.2 contrast check, nine slide layouts and the review list.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/carousel-builder.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /carousel-builder. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the carousel builder skill. Turn [WHAT YOU ARE ATTACHING, E.G. OUR BLOG POST] into a carousel for [INSTAGRAM, LINKEDIN OR BOTH]. It is for [WHO WILL READ IT] and we want them to [SAVE IT, SHARE IT OR GET IN TOUCH]. Start with the brief.Attach the source material and your brand colours as hex codes. For slides rendered in your real typefaces, turn on code execution and upload the font files your licence lets you use.
Side by side
Instagram carousel or LinkedIn document
| Instagram carousel | LinkedIn document post | |
|---|---|---|
| The format | Up to 20 photos or videos in one post, every slide in the same orientation. | One PDF, PPT, PPTX, DOC or DOCX file, up to 100 MB and 300 pages, every page the same size. |
| What the skill builds | 1080 by 1350 (4:5) PNGs. Keep to 10 slides and the set can also run as a carousel ad. | The same 1080 by 1350 pages, exported as one flattened PDF with live text. |
| Slides for a teaching piece | 7 to 10. | 6 to 12. |
| Words on a point slide | A headline of 8 words or fewer and a body of 25 at most. | Up to 10 more words in the body, at the same type sizes. |
| The last slide asks for | A save, a share, a comment keyword or a visit to the link in your bio. | A comment, a profile visit or the link in your post text. |
| The words around it | A caption with the point in its first line, five hashtags at most, alt text for every slide. | Post text with the point in the first 140 characters, and a document title. |
| After posting | You can reorder or remove slides and edit captions, but not add slides. | The document cannot be changed. A typo means deleting the post and posting again. |
Format and editing rules are from Instagram's and LinkedIn's help pages, checked on 17 and 18 October 2026. Slide counts and word budgets are the skill's own working rules.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- CanvaFree tier, paid above it
Templates, brand kits and generation in one place, built so a non-designer can produce something acceptable.
Bad at Acceptable is the ceiling as well as the floor. Its templates are so widely used that a trained eye dates a deck in a second.
- FigmaFree tier, paid above it
The shared file where interface design happens: components, variables, prototypes and the handoff to code.
Bad at Its generative features make plausible screens rather than considered ones, and a plausible screen is the hardest kind to argue with in a review.
- GPT ImagePay per use
Generates and edits images with unusually good instruction-following, and can hold text inside a picture better than most.
Bad at Faces drift between generations unless you feed a reference every time. Skin can come out plasticky at default settings, and a heavy fidelity setting costs many times more and takes many times longer.
- GeminiFree tier, paid above it
Google's assistant, with a very long context window and tight links to their other products.
Bad at Behaviour changes between the app, the API and the versions inside other Google products.
- IdeogramFree tier, paid above it
An image model built around getting words right inside the picture.
Bad at Strong at type, weaker at photographic realism. A poster comes out well, a product on a plinth less so.
- MidjourneySubscription
Generates images from a written description, with the strongest default aesthetic of anything in the category.
Bad at That default aesthetic is the problem as often as it is the draw. It has a house look, it pulls everything towards it, and getting a plain honest photograph of a real product out of it is harder than it should be. Text inside an image is unreliable.
Why it matters
Ask a chat for a carousel and you get ten slides of fifty words each, a cover that names a topic instead of promising anything, and a last slide with three asks. On a phone, people swipe past that. This skill makes Claude cut the material to one takeaway, give each slide one point, hold every slide to a word budget and a 36-pixel type floor, and test the whole set at phone size before you post.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing