Hey friends,
A few weeks ago, I was putting together content about the new Claude Cowork computer use update.
I had the notes ready, the copy was written, and I decided I wanted to make an Instagram like carousel for Threads.
But I couldn’t find a Claude skill for it.. so after scouring the internet I combined a few skills and made my OWN.
(keep reading to get it for free).
I have been low-key obsessed with Claude Skills lately because they solve a really annoying problem:
doing the same setup work with AI over and over again.
Like, genuinely amazed at how much they 10x my work with AI.
SKILL.md files are reusable playbooks for AI agents. They can include instructions, references, and sometimes scripts, and the agent only pulls them in when they’re relevant.
For this IG carousel skill:
Nine slides. Fully designed. Brand colours added automatically.
Progress bars and swipe arrows on every slide.
Exported as individual 1080x1350px PNGs ready to post.
Let me show you how to do it too.
📌 What Are SKILLs?
Skills are the most underrated feature in AI right now.
Here is the simplest way I can explain them:
A skill is a folder of instructions you teach an AI once.
After that, it follows those instructions automatically every time it is relevant, without you having to explain anything again.
Most people explain their preferences to Claude over and over.
Same tone. Same format. Same list of things they never want it to say. Every new conversation, from zero.
A skill ends that completely. You build it once, Claude follows it every time.
Here is what makes them special:
- Auto-triggering: Loads the right skill based on what you’re asking
- Saves tokens: Claude only loads a skill file when it’s needed
- Portable across tools: Skills created for Claude can work in other AI systems that adopt the standard (OpenAI, Cursor, Manus)
I would say there are 2 types of skills:
- Capability uplift skills: they teach Claude something it could not do before
- Workflow/preference skills: they teach Claude to do things YOUR way
✨ Skills Are Not Just a Claude Thing
This is where it gets interesting.
The SKILL.md format is starting to become a shared standard across a growing set of AI agents.
Agent skills are SKILL.md files that extend what Claude and other AI agents know how to do.
When you install a skill, you give the agent a specialized playbook.
Skills can be invoked explicitly with a slash command or trigger automatically when the agent recognizes a relevant task.
Skills work across:
- Claude Chat where you’re adding them from Settings > Customize > Skills
- Claude Cowork where picks up any skill in the skills directory automatically
- Claude Code where skills live in a directory and Claude loads them automatically
- OpenAI Codex adopted the same open standard
- Cursor and other IDE agents that follow the SKILL.md format
- Perplexity Computer, Manus where skills can define specific task behaviours
The idea is the same across all of them.
You write a playbook once, any compatible agent can follow it.
✨ The Instagram Carousel Generator Skill
Okay, so here is the actual skill I want to talk about today.
I built this skill specifically to produce on-brand, export-ready Instagram carousels.
Not just a mockup, actual social media ready slides you can post immediately.
Here’s what it includes:
✅ 1. Brand Guidelines
Before generating a single slide, the skill asks for your brand details: your name, Instagram handle, primary colour, logo or initials, font preference, and tone. If you give it a website URL, it derives the colour system from that directly.
Pro tip: If you have a primary hex code, that is all you need to hand it. The rest derives from there.
✅ 2. Engaging Design
One of the things I love most about this skill is how it creates visual rhythm.
Slides automatically alternate colours (if you want) and every single slide gets a progress bar at the bottom that fills as the viewer swipes through
Even includes a subtle chevron arrow on the right edge. These are baked directly into the image, not overlay or anything like that
Pro tip: The swipe arrow and progress bar together dramatically improve carousel completion rates so you’re welcome!
✅ 3. Export Ready
After you approve the preview in the chat, the skill runs a browser export script (Playwright) that takes each slide and outputs it as a 1080x1350px PNG ready to post.
This way you get all images fully exported in one go. No screenshots, no lopsided lines etc.
Just files ready to post!
Pro tip: Before exporting, swipe through the full HTML preview in Claude and flag any slides that look off. Iterate on those specific slides rather than rebuilding everything from scratch.
🛠 How to Get Started With This Skill (3 Steps)
- Download: Click here to download the file
- Install: Go to Settings > Customize > Skills in Claude and upload the folder. In Claude Code, place it in your skills directory and Claude will pick it up automatically
- Create: Tell Claude “Create an Instagram carousel about [topic] for [your brand].” The skill will trigger, ask for your brand details, and take it from there. You can also type '/' and you can select it
If you’ve never used a skill before, don’t overthink it.
Install it once, then just describe the carousel you want in plain English.
PRO TIP: The absolute AI pros are combining more than one skill per workflow. Stack skills that go together for that task 👌
📈 Why This Matters
Skills are not just a productivity trick.
They represent a real shift in how we should THINK about working with AI.
One strong skill can be more useful than a great prompt because it turns a one-off instruction into a repeatable workflow.
The prompt works once. The skill works forever.
For content creators specifically, the carousel skill solves something real: the gap between having ideas and having polished, on-brand content ready to post.
That gap used to require a designer, a Canva subscription, or hours of manual work.
Now it requires a skill file and a description of what you want to create.
The open standard also means the skills you build today are an investment.
As the ecosystem grows, those same files will work across more tools.
You aren’t building for one app. You’re building a reusable system.
🫡 Final Thoughts
Download the starter SKILL.md below and use it as your base for building branded carousels in Claude.
This is especially useful if you create educational content, repurpose long-form ideas into social posts, or want your AI outputs to stop looking generic.
What’s in the download
- The core SKILL.md file
- Brand input structure
- Carousel generation workflow
- Export setup instructions
- Any scripts/templates needed for the PNG export
If this was useful, forward it to a creator friend who is spending WAY too much time in Canva.
They will thank you.
To faster carousels and more time for the things that actually matter, Nahid
