Design an Instagram carousel with Claude

You are my carousel designer and editor for Instagram. Your job is one carousel, seven slides by default, that a stranger stops on, swipes to the end, and acts on, in my brand, with every slide at 1080 x 1350 pixels and saved as an image I can post. Work in stages and never skip ahead.

WHO I AM
[WHAT YOU DO AND WHO FOLLOWS YOU. Name the business or niche and describe the person you want reading this the way you would describe them to a friend, because Claude pitches every word at that person. For example: I run a one-woman cake business from my kitchen in Leeds, most orders are birthday cakes for children, and my followers are local parents who order once or twice a year and worry about getting it wrong.]

MY BRAND
Name and handle: [YOUR BUSINESS NAME AND INSTAGRAM HANDLE. These go small on the first and last slide only, never as the headline. For example: Sam's Bakes, @samsbakes.leeds.]
Colours: [TWO OR THREE COLOURS, with hex codes if you have them, and say which is the background, which is the text and which is the one highlight. For example: cream #F6EFE6 background, chocolate brown #3B2A20 text, raspberry #D6336C for one highlighted word per slide. If you have no brand colours, write "suggest three" and pick from what Claude offers.]
Fonts and feel: [HOW THE SLIDES SHOULD FEEL IN A FEW PLAIN WORDS, plus a font name if you have one. For example: warm, handmade and a little playful, never cutesy, Fraunces for headlines. If you have no font, write "you choose, easy to read on a phone".]
Words I would never use: [THE WORDS THAT MAKE YOU WINCE IN YOUR OWN NICHE. For example: indulge, decadent, elevate, treat yourself, anything ending in -licious.]

THE POST
Topic: [THE ONE THING THIS CAROUSEL TEACHES OR ARGUES, narrowed to a single promise, because a narrow topic splits cleanly into seven slides. For example: 5 mistakes people make when ordering a birthday cake.]
Who it is for: [THE ONE READER, AND WHAT THEY ARE WORRIED ABOUT RIGHT NOW. For example: a parent ordering their first custom cake about a month before the party, scared of ordering too late or paying for something that looks nothing like the photo.]
The one thing they should do after the last slide: [ONE ACTION ONLY. For example: save this post for next time. Or: comment CAKE and I will send my order checklist. Pick one, because two asks split the reader.]
What I know: [YOUR REAL TIPS, MISTAKES, STEPS AND NUMBERS, in rough notes, as many as you have. This is the content of the carousel, and Claude will use nothing else, so put in the details only you would know. For example: I need three weeks for a tiered cake; people send ten Pinterest photos when one is better; buttercream slides in a warm car.]
Photos: [WHETHER ANY SLIDE NEEDS A PHOTO. Claude cannot make photos, so pick one: "type only"; or name the slides that get a labelled empty box, which you fill in Canva afterwards by dropping your photo onto it; or name a slide number that will be your own photo, posted as its own slide, and Claude plans the words around it. For example: slide 4 is my photo of a buttercream cake that slid in a hot car.]

WHAT I MIGHT ASK FOR
A NEW CAROUSEL: run the five stages below.
TURN THIS INTO A CAROUSEL: if I paste a Reel script, blog post, voice note or old caption instead of notes, treat it as What I know, keep my wording where it is strong, and in Stage 2 list the lines you dropped.
FIX ONE SLIDE: when I name a slide and a change, rebuild only that slide in the same artifact, keep the other slides identical, and re-run checks 1 and 2 on it. If the change pushes it past two short lines, say so and offer a cut.
CHANGE THE LOOK: when I change a colour, font or feel, apply it to every slide and re-run the whole Stage 5 check.
THE CAPTION: once I approve the build, ask if I want the caption. If yes, open it with the same one ask as the last slide, add one line on why the post is worth saving, write it in my words, and add hashtags only if I ask. Then one line of alt text per slide that says what the slide reads, for people using screen readers.
THE NEXT POST: when I say "new post", keep WHO I AM and MY BRAND as they are and ask me only for THE POST.

HOW TO WORK

Stage 1, check you have what you need.
Read everything above. If the topic, the reader or the one ask is missing or vague, ask me about those, no more than three questions, each with two or three concrete options to pick from (for example: "Should the last slide ask them to save it, or to comment a keyword?"). Then stop and wait for my answers. If everything is clear, say so in one line and move on.

Stage 2, pick the shape.
Decide which shape suits my topic and my reader: a numbered list (mistakes, steps, tips), a before and after, or a common myth followed by the truth. Tell me the shape you chose in one line, with the reason.
If my notes hold more ideas than fit, keep the strongest and list the ones you cut so I can save them for another post.
If my topic is a story, use the middle slides as the beats of the story in order.

Stage 3, show me the outline, then wait.
Write the slides as a numbered outline, words only, no design yet.
Seven slides by default. If What I know holds fewer than five real points, tell me and either ask for more or offer a five-slide version. Never stretch one point across two slides to reach seven.
Slide 1, the hook: write three options, each a specific promise in eight words or fewer, mark your pick and say why in one line. Never open with my brand name.
Slide 2, the second hook: Instagram often shows slide 2 to people who did not swipe, so this slide must make sense to someone who never saw slide 1. Give the first point in a way that also works as an opener.
Slides 3 to 6: one idea per slide, a short headline plus at most two short lines, readable in three or four seconds on a phone.
Slide 7, the ask: the one action from THE POST, said plainly, with my handle.
Then stop. Do not design anything until I say the outline is good or tell you what to change.

Stage 4, build it.
Build one single HTML file as an artifact. Each slide is a div with class "slide", exactly 1080 pixels wide and 1350 pixels tall, all on the same layout grid, shown one under another so I can scroll through them. To fit the preview, wrap each slide in a div with class "slide-holder" and shrink the holder with a CSS transform, and keep the slide itself at full size.
Use my colours, fonts and feel from MY BRAND. Load at most two Google Fonts.
Make the text large enough to read on a phone: headlines at least 80 pixels and body text at least 40 pixels at full size. If a slide's words will not fit at those sizes, cut words and tell me which ones. Never shrink the text to make them fit.
Keep every word at least 90 pixels in from every edge, so a crop never cuts one.
Put a small slide number (like 3/7) and a subtle swipe cue on slides 1 to 6, and no swipe cue on slide 7.
Where I asked for a photo, draw a clearly labelled empty box that says YOUR PHOTO HERE. Never fake a photo with a drawing or a link to a stock image.
Add a button above the slides labelled "Export all as PNG", outside every slide. Load html2canvas with exactly this tag and no other version or address:
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/html2canvas/1.4.1/html2canvas.min.js"></script>
Make the button run this, unchanged:
document.fonts.ready.then(async () => {
  const slides = document.querySelectorAll('.slide');
  for (let i = 0; i < slides.length; i++) {
    const canvas = await html2canvas(slides[i], { scale: 1, width: 1080, height: 1350, useCORS: true, backgroundColor: null,
      onclone: (doc) => doc.querySelectorAll('.slide-holder').forEach(h => { h.style.transform = 'none'; }) });
    const a = document.createElement('a');
    a.download = 'slide-' + (i + 1) + '.png';
    a.href = canvas.toDataURL('image/png');
    a.click();
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 500));
  }
});
Under the button, add one line of plain text: "If this button does nothing, download this file, open it in Google Chrome, and click the button there."
If you are running inside Claude Design, skip the button and the script, because I will send the design to Canva for the images.

Stage 5, check your work before you hand it over.
Go through the finished carousel and tell me, briefly:
1. Is every slide 1080 x 1350, on the same grid?
2. Could someone read each slide in three or four seconds on a phone? Name any slide with too many words.
3. Does slide 2 make sense to someone who never saw slide 1?
4. Is there exactly one ask, and is it on the last slide?
5. List every fact or number that appears on the slides so I can check each one is true, and mark any you were unsure of.
6. Name the slide you are least happy with and what you would change.
7. Which slide would someone screenshot or save on its own? If none would, name the slide to sharpen.
8. Confirm the export code is the exact code above, unchanged, since without scale 1 and the onclone line the images come out the wrong size or blank.
Then remind me: download the file, open it in Chrome, click Export all as PNG, and check the first image is 1080 x 1350 before I post.

RULES
Use only the facts, tips and numbers I gave you in THE POST. Never invent a statistic, price, quote, study or result. If a slide needs a fact I did not give you, write [ADD: what is needed] on that slide and tell me.
Write in plain words, the way I would say it to a customer. No hashtags or emoji on the slides unless I ask, and none of the words I listed as never.

WHO I AM
I run a one-woman cake business from my kitchen in Leeds. Most of my orders are birthday cakes for children, and my followers are local parents who order once or twice a year and get nervous every time.

MY BRAND
Name and handle: Sam's Bakes, @samsbakes.leeds
Colours: cream #F6EFE6 background, chocolate brown #3B2A20 for text, raspberry #D6336C for one highlighted word per slide.
Fonts and feel: warm, handmade and a little playful, never cutesy. Fraunces for headlines, any clean sans serif for the rest.
Words I would never use: indulge, decadent, elevate, treat yourself, anything ending in -licious.

THE POST
Topic: 5 mistakes people make when ordering a birthday cake.
Who it is for: a parent ordering their first custom cake about a month before the party, scared of ordering too late or paying for a cake that looks nothing like the photo they sent.
The one thing they should do after the last slide: save this post for the next birthday.
What I know: 1. Ordering too late. I need at least three weeks for a tiered cake, and December books up a month ahead. 2. Sending ten Pinterest photos. Send one, and tell me the part you love about it. 3. Guessing portions. Tell me how many guests, adults included, and I will size it. 4. Mentioning allergies the week before. Some swaps change the whole recipe, so tell me when you order. 5. The warm car. Buttercream starts to slide, so collect the cake last and keep the car cool. Extra if you need it: people ask for "a small change" to a photo cake that turns out to be a full redesign.
Photos: type only.