This guide walks you through the complete workflow for generating on-brand Instagram carousels using Claude Code. You will set up a workspace, teach Claude your brand, and produce ready-to-post slides without opening a design tool.
What you need before starting
- Claude Code installed on your machine (terminal or VS Code extension)
- Your brand design system document (colours, fonts, spacing rules, design guidelines)
- 2 to 3 carousel designs you like as visual reference
- Any images you want used in your slides (AI-generated or your own)
- Your carousel content: topic, slide text, or a content calendar row
Create Your Carousel Workspace
Start by creating a dedicated folder for all your carousel projects. This keeps your assets, reference files, and finished slides organized in one place.
- a. Create a new folder on your desktop called ig-carousels
- b. Open your terminal and navigate into the folder:
cd ~/Desktop/ig-carousels
- c. Launch Claude Code inside this folder:
claude
Claude Code now has read/write access to this folder. Every carousel it generates will be saved right here.
TIP
If you use VS Code, open the ig-carousels folder as your workspace and launch Claude Code from the integrated terminal. You can preview generated HTML slides directly in the editor.
Feed Claude Your Brand System
This is the step that separates generic AI carousels from ones that look like they came from your design team. You give Claude your complete brand system so every slide it produces matches your visual identity.
- a. Place your brand design system file inside the ig-carousels folder. This can be a Markdown file, a PDF, or a plain text document containing your brand rules.
- b. Your brand file should include the following:
| Element | What to include |
|---|---|
| Colours | Every hex code in your palette, with names and usage rules (primary, accent, background, text) |
| Typography | Font families, weights, sizes for headlines, body text, and labels |
| Spacing | Your spacing scale and any layout grid rules |
| Decorative elements | Gradients, shapes, borders, shadows, or motifs your brand uses |
| Voice and tone | Banned words, preferred phrasing, and any copywriting rules |
- c. Tell Claude to read and internalize the brand system:
Read the brand-system.md file in this folder. Every carousel
you generate from now on must use only the colours, fonts,
and design rules defined in that document. No improvisation.
IMPORTANT
The more complete your brand system document, the more consistent your output. A file with just hex codes produces passable results. A file with usage rules, banned colours, and component specs produces carousels that match your brand exactly.
Add Reference Designs
Reference designs teach Claude what "good" looks like for your brand. These are not templates to copy. They are visual benchmarks that inform layout decisions, whitespace balance, and overall composition quality.
- a. Save 2 to 3 carousel designs you admire into the ig-carousels folder. These can be screenshots, exported slides, or images saved from Instagram. Name them clearly: ref-01.png, ref-02.png, etc.
- b. If you want custom images in your slides (photos, illustrations, or AI-generated visuals), add those to the folder too. Name them by their intended purpose: hero-bg.png, slide-3-visual.png, etc.
- c. Tell Claude about the reference files:
Look at ref-01.png, ref-02.png, and ref-03.png in this folder.
These are the level of design quality I expect. Use them as
visual benchmarks, not templates to replicate. Also use the
images hero-bg.png and slide-3-visual.png in the slides
where appropriate.
NOTE
For AI-generated images, tools like Magnific, Midjourney, or DALL-E all work. Generate your visuals separately and drop them into the folder before you start the carousel build.
Write Your Carousel Prompt
Now you give Claude the content. You can provide as little as a topic or as much as fully written slide text. Claude will fill in the gaps, but more detail produces better results on the first pass.
- a. Decide which input format fits your situation:
| Input type | When to use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Topic only | You want Claude to write everything | "Make a carousel about why founders should batch their content" |
| Topic + key points | You have the ideas, Claude structures them | "Carousel about AI tools for founders. Cover: scheduling, writing, design, analytics" |
| Full slide text | You wrote the copy, Claude designs the slides | Provide the exact text for each slide |
| Content calendar row | You have structured data from your planner | Paste the row with hook, angle, key points, CTA |
- b. Send your prompt to Claude. Here is an example for a topic-based carousel:
Create a 7-slide Instagram carousel at 1080x1350px.
Topic: Why founders should stop designing carousels manually.
Slide breakdown:
- Slide 1 (Cover): Hook that creates curiosity
- Slides 2-5: Four reasons, one per slide
- Slide 6: The honest caveat
- Slide 7: CTA slide
Use my brand system from brand-system.md.
Use the reference designs as quality benchmarks.
Save all slides as PNG files in this folder.
TIP
Specify the slide count and the role of each slide (cover, body, caveat, CTA). This gives Claude a clear structure to work with and produces tighter results than an open-ended "make a carousel about X" request.
Review and Refine
Claude generates the slides and saves them into your folder. Open the files and check them against your brand standards.
- a. Open the generated slides in your file manager or image viewer. Check each slide for colour accuracy, font usage, spacing, and readability.
- b. If a slide needs adjustment, give Claude specific feedback:
Slide 3 has too much text. Cut the body copy to 2 lines max.
Slide 5 background should be the dark variant, not light.
Regenerate only those two slides.
- c. Repeat until every slide meets your standards. Targeted feedback ("change the background on slide 3") is faster than general feedback ("make it look better").
WARNING
Avoid vague revision requests like "make it pop" or "improve the design." Claude responds best to concrete, specific instructions about what to change and where.
Export and Post
Your finished slides are sitting in the ig-carousels folder on your desktop, ready to upload.
- a. Open your ig-carousels folder. The slides are saved as numbered PNG files (e.g., slide-01.png, slide-02.png, etc.)
- b. Transfer the files to your phone via AirDrop, Google Drive, Dropbox, or your preferred method.
- c. Open Instagram and create a new carousel post. Select the slides in order. Add your caption and publish.
TIP
Build a library. After a few weeks, your ig-carousels folder becomes a reusable asset bank. Claude can reference previous carousels to maintain visual consistency across your feed.
What comes next
Once you are comfortable with this workflow, you can extend it in several directions. Add a carousel prompt skill to your Claude Code CLAUDE.md file so your brand rules load automatically in every session. Create sub-folders for different content series so each one maintains its own visual identity within your brand. Batch five or ten carousels in a single Claude session when you sit down to plan a week of content.
The goal is a system where the creative thinking stays with you (topics, hooks, angles) and the production work stays with Claude (layout, rendering, file export). That split is where the speed comes from.