Tell Claude once.
Same result, every time.
Claude is an AI helper. A skill is a recipe card you give it for one job. Claude takes the card out every time you ask for that job, and does it exactly your way. This is my card for Instagram picture series. It is free.
A skill is a recipe card in the drawer
A good helper remembers things about you. Your name, that you take milk in your tea, what you are working on. Claude does that too. It is called memory, and it happens by itself.
But a whole job, done exactly your way, step by step, the same every time? You would not trust that to anyone's memory. You would write it on a recipe card and keep it in the kitchen drawer. Whoever cooks, they take out the card and follow it. The card does not fade. You can copy it for a friend.
That is a skill. A written recipe for one job. Claude keeps it in its drawer and takes it out whenever you ask for that job. My card says how to make a good picture series for Instagram. You can put my card in your drawer.
You write the card one time. Or you take mine, ready made.
Claude follows the card step by step. Not roughly. Exactly.
Close Claude, come back next month. The card is still in the drawer.
Do not like a line? Tell Claude to change it. It is your card now.
What my card says
It tells Claude how to make a picture series for Instagram, the kind you swipe through. It is the exact card I use for my own posts. In plain words, it says:
The first picture says what the problem is, in five words or less.
Seven to ten pictures, each one makes one point.
No jargon. Every step says who does it: you, or Claude.
Is every number true? Would a stranger understand it?
Put it in the drawer. Two ways.
The card works in the Claude app, the one on your phone or computer where you chat. It also works in Claude Code, the version for people who work in folders on a computer. Pick the one you use. About one minute either way.
In the Claude app
Needs a paid Claude plan (Pro or Max) and the setting "Create and edit files" switched on. Once.
Fill in the form below. I send you a link by email. Click the link and a small file called carousel.zip lands in your Downloads folder. Do not open it. Claude wants it closed, as it is.
Open claude.ai/customize/skills. Press the + button, then Create skill, then Upload a skill. Choose carousel.zip from your Downloads.
Next to "carousel" there is a small switch. Turn it on. That is it. You never do this again.
From now on, whenever you want a picture series, you just say:
Use the carousel skill and make one about my grandmother's apple cake recipe.The very first time, Claude asks for your two favourite colours and your Instagram name. It writes them on the card. After that it just works.
In Claude Code
For the computer. The card goes in the folder where you keep your things.
Same form below. The email also has a link to the plain card, a file called carousel-skill.md. Click it, it lands in your Downloads folder.
Open it in the folder where you keep your things. Any folder is fine, even an empty one.
Install the skill file Downloads/carousel-skill.md into this project as .claude/skills/carousel/SKILL.mdClaude asks you twice if it may do this. Say yes both times. Claude puts the card in the drawer and tells you it is done. Then ask for a picture series the same way as above.
Get the card for free
Leave your email and I send you both links, for the app and for Claude Code. Then it is waiting for you wherever you sit down. When I write a new card, you hear about it too.
Free. No spam. One word from you and I stop writing. Privacy
See what it makes
I make my Instagram picture series with this card. Follow along for the next one, and for my mistakes, so you do not have to make them.