Automate Instagram Carousels with Claude Code
I just built a system in Claude Code that generates a full on-brand Instagram carousel every time I finish a feature. Zero blank-page staring. Here is exactly how I did it.
Ryan FrizellePublished Apr 19, 2026What you'll walk away with
- The brand file that makes every slide look like your account
- The prompt that pulls winning patterns out of your own posts
- One command that turns what you shipped into seven slides
I just automated carousel creation. Every time I ship something in my day to day, Claude Code turns it into a full on-brand Instagram carousel. Cover slide, steps, CTA, all of it. Ready to post. Not even exaggerating.. this thing has already saved me hours a week.
Carousels are crushing right now. They get saved more than any other format, the algorithm is rewarding them hard, and every big account on Instagram has gone all-in on them. But a good one takes 30 minutes if you actually care. So most people post bad ones or give up. I wanted a system that makes good ones automatically. So I built one.
How the system runs
Here is the workflow once it's set up. I finish a real task in my Claude Code project. Then I run one command. Claude looks at what I just built, pulls my top-performing past content patterns, and generates a full 7-slide carousel on-brand for my account. I approve the copy in 90 seconds. The images render. It ships to Instagram on autopilot at 2 PM.
Build your own version
Here is how to build your own version:
- 1Have Claude Code analyze your best-performing posts. It scans what you have already published and figures out which formats, hooks, and patterns actually work for you. Not for some random creator. You.
- 2Save those patterns in a single markdown file at your project root. Call it CAROUSEL-BRAND.md. This is the file that teaches Claude your exact carousel style. Your colors. Your typography. Your voice. Claude reads it fresh every run.
- 3Inside that file, define the slide types you use (cover, problem, list, steps, before/after, CTA). Each slide type gets a short image prompt template with placeholders Claude fills in per carousel.
- 4Build a slash command like /post-carousel that ties it all together. You run the command. Claude reads your brand file, looks at what you have been working on, drafts a 7-slide idea, fills the templates, and kicks off image generation.
- 5For the images, plug Claude into Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview, also known as nano banana. Right now it is the only model that can put real readable text on a slide without it looking warped. Claude passes each slide's prompt to it and gets back a finished 1080x1080 slide in seconds.
Find what already works
Analyze my last 20 Instagram posts and tell me what is actually working. For each post, look at the format (reel, carousel, static image), the hook, the structure, and the CTA. Then tell me:
1. The top 3 hook patterns that got the most saves, shares, and comments
2. The 2 to 3 carousel structures that consistently outperform (like "problem to steps to payoff" or "list of 5 things")
3. The tone and voice patterns my best posts have in common
Give me this as a short report I can paste into a file called CAROUSEL-BRAND.md. Do not invent patterns. Only pull what is actually in my data.What goes in the brand file
Once your brand file is dialed in, everything else gets easy. The hard part is not the code. The hard part is getting specific enough about your carousel style that Claude knows exactly what to render. Vague in, vague out. The more specific you are, the more scroll-stopping the output.
Here is what goes inside your CAROUSEL-BRAND.md:
- 1Your active style. One clear visual direction (handwritten notebook, terminal dark mode, minimal typographic, magazine editorial, whatever fits your brand). Pick one. Do not mix.
- 2Your exact color palette with hex codes. Not "warm tones." Actual hex values. The more specific you go here, the more on-brand the output.
- 3Your typography direction. Fonts, weights, which font goes where, what emphasis looks like. Claude needs this spelled out.
- 4Your slide type templates. For every slide type you use, write a short image prompt with {{variables}} for the headline, body, list items, and so on. Claude fills these in per carousel.
- 5Hard rules. The things to never do. No em dashes on slides. No emojis. No clip art. No phrases you would not say out loud. Constraints make the output way better.
Write the brand file
Create a CAROUSEL-BRAND.md file in the root of this project. This is the file you will read fresh every single time I ask you to generate a carousel. Never cache it.
Walk me through it section by section. Ask me:
1. My active style. Pick one clear visual direction that matches my brand (handwritten notebook, terminal dark mode, minimal typographic, magazine editorial, etc.).
2. My exact color palette. Give me hex codes, not adjectives.
3. My typography direction. Fonts, weights, which font goes where.
4. The slide types I use (cover, problem, list, steps, before/after, CTA). For each one, write a short image prompt template with {{variables}} I can fill in per carousel.
5. Hard rules. The stuff to never do on a slide.
After my answers, save the full file as CAROUSEL-BRAND.md in the project root. Format it cleanly so I can edit it later without asking you.Generate a carousel
Now the fun part. The file is in place, the slide templates are written, and Claude knows your style. Everything from here is one command.
I just finished [what you built today]. Read CAROUSEL-BRAND.md fresh (do not use a cached version) and pull my best-performing carousel structure based on my Instagram data. Draft a 7-slide carousel that teaches what I just shipped.
For each slide give me:
1. The slide type (cover, problem, list, steps, before/after, CTA)
2. The exact on-slide copy (headline, body, list items, whatever the slide type needs)
3. The image generation prompt filled with my brand's visual identity, palette, typography, and required elements from CAROUSEL-BRAND.md
Then generate the 7 slide images using Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview (nano banana) at 1080x1080. Save them to a local folder so I can review and post them.Three things to know
A few things to know before you build this. Your brand file has to be read fresh every single run, never cached. If Claude caches it, your edits never show up. Tell Claude to reload it on every single carousel.
Nano banana (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) is miles ahead of every other image model for slides with real text on them right now. Do not try to use DALL-E or Stable Diffusion for this. The text accuracy just is not there yet.
The brand file is the whole ballgame. A vague brand file gives you AI-looking carousels. A hyper-specific brand file gives you carousels that look like a designer made them. Spend 30 minutes getting it right. It pays you back forever.
That is the whole thing. Analyze your best posts. Build a brand file. Write one slash command. Generate 7 slides on autopilot. Ship. I went from 30 minutes per carousel to 3 minutes of approval. And honestly, the output looks better than anything I was making by hand.
The full course walks through my exact CAROUSEL-BRAND.md, the full slash command I use, and how I wire it into my Instagram posting queue so carousels ship every day without me thinking about it.
The Claude Code Course
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