---
name: carousel
description: Template for Instagram or Facebook carousels that teach one lesson in 7-10 slides. Use whenever the user asks for a carousel, a slide post, a swipe post, or a picture series.
---

# Carousel template

Made by Chris Spark (@chrissparkai). Free to use and change. The first time you use it, ask the user for their brand colours and handle (section 4) and save the answers into this file so you never ask again.

## 1. The cover (slide 1) decides everything

A cold viewer must know within one second **what tool or topic this is** and **what problem it solves**.

- **Name the tool on the cover.** A small tag above the art (for example `>_ CLAUDE CODE`) and a top-right label (`Claude Code tip`). Use text, not the vendor's logo.
- **Hook = the problem, catchy, readable at thumbnail size.** 3-5 words. Not what happened to the author ("My session got so big…") but what hurt ("Claude **stopped working**."). One phrase in the accent colour.
- **Sub-line, one sentence:** the cause plus the promise of the fix ("My session got too heavy to open. One button made it worse. Here's the fix.").
- **Picture contrast:** wrong way vs right way as two small tiles (the wrong one crossed out, the right one in the accent colour).
- **Truth-check the hook.** Catchy but true. If the stronger word is not true, pick another word.

## 2. Structure (7-10 slides, 4:5, 1080×1350)

| # | Job |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cover: tool tag + problem hook + wrong-vs-right art |
| 2 | Setup, also a hook (Instagram re-shows slide 2): the situation in one line + one big number |
| 3-4 | The mistake, shown simply, one idea per slide |
| 5 | What made it worse (one picture + one number) |
| 6 | The fix as numbered steps, each naming who acts (Claude / you) |
| 7 | **Copy this:** the exact prompt(s) as chat bubbles, labelled by where to type them. This is the slide people save. |
| 8 | When the "wrong" thing is actually right: one everyday example |
| 9 | One more tip, with a metaphor |
| 10 | The one-line lesson + a pill that says **why** to save it ("Tap save, so you can find the card again") |

Do not pad to 10. Drop slides 8 or 9 if the lesson does not need them.

## 3. Wording rules (check every line)

- **Simple and to the point, for non-technical people.** One example per rule. A metaphor for every abstract idea. No filler.
- **Name the actor in every step:** "Ask Claude for…", "Paste that line", "Claude reads the note". Never "let it read the note".
- **Describe what the tool really does, step by step.** Verify against how the tool actually behaves before writing.
- **Use the tool's own words** for buttons and objects ("session", "Fork", "New session"), and use them consistently.
- **Prompts on slides are real, copyable prompts** with a concrete example file name, never placeholders like `xyz`.
- **No technical units as the message** (MB, px). Numbers people feel: "over 300 pictures", "95%", "eight times". Technical numbers go in the caption's P.S.
- **Every statement is true, not just every number.** Recompute every number; check every claim about how a tool behaves against its documentation. If it cannot be verified, do not print it.

## 4. Design system

Fill these in once, on first use, then keep them:

- Background: `#0E0E0E` · Text: `#F2F2F2` · Secondary text: `#B4B4B4` · Accent (one colour only): `#FF7A1A`
- Headline font: Space Grotesk Bold · Body font: Inter 600 (both free on Google Fonts)
- Handle for the footer: `@yourhandle` · Name for the footer: `Your Name`

Rules that stay the same whatever the colours:

- Every slide: top label (uppercase, small) + `NN / 10` counter, content vertically centred, progress ticks, footer with name + handle + `NEXT →` (`SWIPE →` on the cover).
- Headlines 80-112 px, body 40 px. Keep the key cover content inside Instagram's 3:4 grid crop.
- Panels = rounded dark cards with an accent-coloured icon cell (a number, a letter, a tick, a ×).
- Fix orphan words with a line break; keep file names on one line.

## 5. Art (optional)

Two flat 2D cartoons, square, no text: bold outlines, flat shading, accent colour + off-white on the dark background. Generate the first, check it, then generate the second with the first as a style reference so they match. Reuse the same two pictures on the cover tiles and on the slides where the idea comes back.

## 6. Build and review

- Deliver every slide as a PNG file, 1080×1350, named `slide-01.png` … `slide-10.png`, plus one contact sheet (all slides tiled in one picture) for review.
- **In Claude Code:** build the slides as one HTML file (one `<section>` per slide) and render each section to PNG with a headless browser (Chrome headless or Playwright).
- **In the Claude app:** draw each slide as a PNG with Python and Pillow (fonts, rounded panels, text wrapping), then tile the contact sheet the same way. Give the user the files to download.
- Review the contact sheet, once per build. Check: copy matches the plan, line breaks, centring, nothing clipped, counters right.
- Before showing the user, run a logic check: is every claim true, does a cold viewer follow the story, does every teaser pay off, does the CTA fit?

## 7. Captions

- **Facebook (long):** problem line → what happened → what most people miss → numbered fix with named actors → the exact prompt → when the "wrong" way is right → metaphor → one line saying why to save it → sign-off → P.S. with the technical numbers and the real cost.
- **Instagram (short):** the same in five lines, "The exact prompt is on slide 7", same CTA, five lower-case hashtags including the tool.
- Write both captions in one file first, then build the post from that file so the captions match word for word.