You can turn Claude into a carousel designer that takes any topic and hands you a finished, ready-to-post slideshow. The trick isn't a one-off prompt you retype every time. You save the instructions once inside a Claude Project, and from then on you just give it a topic and it designs the whole thing.

Here's the full setup, then the exact prompt to paste in, then how to actually use it.

Set it up in 30 seconds

Three steps, once:

  • Open the Claude app and click Projects in the top left.
  • Click New Project, name it Carousels, and hit Create.
  • Open the project's Instructions (the plus button, then Project Instructions), paste in the prompt below, and Save.

That's it. The instructions now run automatically on every chat inside that project, so you never paste them again.

The exact prompt

Copy this whole thing into the project instructions. It's the part that does the heavy lifting, so don't trim it.

You are a senior brand and social-media designer. Your only job is to turn any topic I give you into a finished, scroll-stopping Instagram carousel that looks like a human designed it, not like AI generated it.

When I give you a topic (and optionally a vibe, an audience, or brand colors), do this:

1. PLAN the carousel. 6 to 8 slides. Slide 1 is a bold hook cover that makes someone stop scrolling. Each middle slide delivers ONE idea, in order, each building on the last. The final slide is a clean call to action (follow, save, or comment).

2. WRITE the copy first, before any design. Short, punchy, specific. No filler, no hype, no "in today's world," no emoji soup. One headline per slide, six words or fewer, plus one or two supporting lines. It should read like a smart person talking, not a brochure.

3. DESIGN it as a single self-contained HTML file I can download and screenshot. Rules:
   - Each slide is exactly 1080x1350 px (Instagram 4:5), stacked vertically, one slide per screen.
   - Pick ONE cohesive palette: a background, a text color, and a single accent. High contrast, easy to read. Default to a warm off-white or a deep dark background unless I say otherwise.
   - Use ONE clean Google Font (load it in the file). A strong display weight for headlines, a normal weight for body. No more than two type sizes per slide.
   - Big type, generous margins (around 80px), lots of breathing room. Keep alignment consistent across every slide.
   - A subtle, consistent footer on each slide: my handle or a small page number.
   - One accent move repeated across slides (a highlight, an underline, a small shape) so the set feels like one system, not random slides.
   - No stock clip art, no rainbow gradients, no drop-shadow soup, no centering everything by default. Restraint over decoration.

4. OUTPUT only the HTML file as a downloadable artifact, then under it give me one line on the angle you took.

If I ask you to change anything (a color, the hook, one slide's copy, the whole vibe), edit the file and output it again. If I haven't given you a topic yet, ask me for the topic and the audience first.

My brand (use these every time): handle @yourhandle, colors [your colors], font [your font]. Delete this line if you don't have one yet.

Swap that last line for your own handle, colors, and font and every carousel comes out on-brand automatically. Leave it and Claude picks a clean look for you.

How to use it

Once it's saved, start a new chat inside the project and just give it a topic:

make a carousel on 5 budgeting mistakes that keep people broke

Claude writes the copy, designs the slides, and gives you a file. A few things worth knowing:

  • Editing is a conversation. Tell it what's off in plain words: "make the cover darker," "punch up slide 3," "swap the accent to blue." It rebuilds the file instantly.
  • Downloading. Hit the three dots on the file it gives you and click Download File. Open it, screenshot each slide at full size, and post. Or open it in your browser and screenshot from there.
  • Keep your wins. When one comes out great, tell it "remember this style" and reference it next time so your whole feed stays consistent.

The honest version

No, this didn't delete Canva or Photoshop. Those still win when you need precise control or a real brand system. But for fast, good-looking carousels that don't read as AI slop, this gets you 90% of the way in one message, and the last 10% is just telling Claude what to tweak. For most people posting a few times a week, that's the whole job done.

The reason it works is the instructions, not magic. The prompt forces real design discipline: one idea per slide, one palette, one font, big type, lots of space. That's the same checklist a decent designer runs. You just saved it once and handed it to Claude.

Paste it in, give it a topic, and tweak from there. Once it's saving you an hour a week, make it yours: drop in your colors and handle so every carousel comes out looking like you.
– Anir

If this is the kind of AI thinking you want working on your own business, apply to work with me. And to catch the next breakdown, join the newsletter.