---
name: instagram-carousel-builder
description: "Generate 10-slide Instagram carousels. Hook, body, CTA — on-brand typography and layout. Outputs ready-to-render 1080×1080 carousel slides with hook + body + visual + CTA. Includes Figma/Canva-importable JSON or direct AI-image-tool prompts."
license: MIT
---

# Instagram Carousel Builder

Generate complete 10-slide Instagram carousels — hook, body slides, and a closing CTA — laid out at native 1080×1080 with consistent typography and brand colors. Built for marketers, solo creators, and content writers who need to ship a polished carousel from a single topic or outline without opening a design tool first.

## When to use it

- You have a topic ("5 retention mistakes SaaS founders make") and need a publish-ready carousel, not just copy.
- You're batching a week of content and want every post to share one type scale and palette.
- You want editable design files to hand to a designer in Figma/Canva, rather than flattened PNGs.
- You're feeding an AI image generator and need precise per-slide prompts instead of writing them by hand.

## How it works

Describe the carousel — topic, audience, tone, and (optionally) brand colors and fonts. The skill structures the narrative across 10 slides: slide 1 is the scroll-stopping hook, slides 2–9 carry one idea each with a short headline + supporting body, and slide 10 is the CTA (follow, save, link in bio).

Output comes in two forms you choose between:

- **Importable JSON** — a per-slide layout spec (frame size, text layers with font/size/weight/position, color tokens, safe margins) you paste into Figma via a plugin or rebuild in Canva. Each slide is a 1080×1080 frame.
- **Image-tool prompts** — one prompt per slide written for tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, or Ideogram, including the on-slide text, layout intent, and style direction.

Typography defaults follow Instagram-safe sizing (large hook headline, readable body, ~80px edge padding so text isn't cropped by the UI).

## Example

```bash
curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o ~/.claude/skills/instagram-carousel-builder/SKILL.md https://claudeskil.com/skills/instagram-carousel-builder/SKILL.md

# Then, in chat:
"Build a carousel: topic 'how to price a freelance project',
 audience freelance designers, tone confident-but-friendly.
 Brand: #0A0A0A bg, #F5C518 accent, font Inter.
 Output: Figma JSON."
```

You get 10 slide specs plus the caption and hashtag block for the post.

## Tips & gotchas

- **Keep body text to ~2 short lines per slide.** The generator front-loads the point; if you cram a paragraph in, slides 2–9 lose readability at thumbnail size.
- **Pass exact hex codes and a font name** up front — without them you get sensible neutral defaults, but regenerating to match a brand later is more work than specifying once.
- **The JSON positions text layers, not background art.** If a slide prompt references imagery, generate the image separately and drop the text frame on top.
- **Slide 1 is optimized for the feed crop** — Instagram shows a square preview, so the hook avoids the outer edges. Don't reposition it tight to the border.

## FAQ

**Can I make fewer than 10 slides?** Yes — ask for a specific count (e.g. "6 slides"). Ten is the default because it's Instagram's per-carousel max and gives the most room for a hook→body→CTA arc.

**Does it post to Instagram?** No. It produces slide files/specs and the caption; publishing stays in your own scheduler or the app.

**JSON or image prompts — which should I pick?** Use JSON when you'll edit and reuse a template across posts; use image prompts when you want a one-shot visual and don't plan to tweak layout.