instagram-carousel

Create high-performing Instagram carousels with Canvora — right format, right slide count, hook-first content shaping, and the correct refine workflow. Use when the user wants an Instagram carousel, multi-slide IG post, swipe post, or educational/listicle content for Instagram.

Instagram Carousel Creation

Map the user's intent onto the right Canvora levers. Canvora's carousel pipeline owns the design execution — layout, composition, imagery, visual variety per slide. Your job is the content and the parameters. Setup, credits, and general CLI usage: see the canvora skill.

Intake — ask only what you can't infer

Usually you already know the topic. Then you need at most two more things:

1. How many items? ("5 tips" → 5, plus a cover if they want one). If they don't say, use 6.
2. Whose brand? If a client/company is named → canvora brands --json → --brand. If they have no kit, don't ask again.

Anything else — style, language, CTA — infer it and state your assumption in one line when you report back. Do not run a questionnaire.

The rule that matters

Don't art-direct slide by slide. Do not prescribe per-slide layouts, color values, or illustration details; over-specified briefs fight the tuned format pipeline and produce worse, samey output.

But do carry the user's stated look. If they said "black and white with big type" or "hand-drawn", pass it through as one line of overall direction. It is honoured, and dropping it is the more common and more damaging mistake. The line is: overall aesthetic = yes, slide-by-slide instructions = no.

Parameter mapping (your actual job)

User intent	Lever
Any IG carousel	--format instagram_carousel_portrait (1080×1350 — outperforms square for reach). Square (instagram_carousel) only if they ask for it.
"N tips/mistakes/steps"	--slides instagram_carousel_portrait=N (or N+1 with a cover). Never leave a promised count unmatched. No count promised → 6.
A named client or brand	canvora brands --json → --brand <uuid>. Mandatory when a kit exists. Add --logo to actually stamp the logo.
Tone words	--style: educational/punchy → bold; clean/professional → modern or minimal; luxury/coaching → elegant; consumer/fun → playful.
No tone signal at all	--style modern. Note: omitting the flag does NOT auto-pick — it pins modern anyway. Choosing deliberately is free.
"End with a follow/save CTA"	--cta (final slide becomes the call to action)
Exact wording required (quotes, taglines)	--input "..." --exact
User gave a topic only	--idea (Canvora develops the substance)
User gave finished content	--input (wording respected)

Content shaping (what goes IN the brief — copy craft, not design)

• Hook first: phrase the idea as the specific promise the cover should carry — "5 client-content mistakes that kill engagement", not "content mistakes". Numbers and specificity win.
• One idea per item: if using --input, structure it as a clean list (item = one point, ≤25 words). The pipeline maps items to slides.
• End intent: if they want a save/follow CTA, use --cta rather than describing it in prose.

bash

ID=$(canvora generate \
  --idea "5 client-content mistakes that kill engagement — for freelance social media managers" \
  --format instagram_carousel_portrait --slides instagram_carousel_portrait=6 \
  --brand $BRAND_ID --logo --style bold --cta | head -1)
canvora status "$ID" --json    # repeat every ~30s until completed

• A carousel is always 3+ outputs, so fire-and-poll — never --wait, which your harness usually kills at 120s while the generation carries on server-side. Never re-run generate after a timeout; poll status. Detail in the canvora skill's "Long runs" section.
• State the cost in the same message as the run — 15 credits per slide, so the 6-slide carousel above is 90. Announce it, don't ask permission. Confirm the number only when you picked it (the 6 default), not when they said "5 tips".

After generation

• Sort outputs by sortOrder before presenting or posting — outputs can complete out of order.
• partial status? Some slides were blocked or failed and those credits were refunded. Say so, and offer to re-run the missing slides — don't hand over a 4-slide carousel that was meant to be 6 without explaining.
• Different look wanted? canvora variations <id> — fresh takes from the pipeline (15 credits per slide). Do NOT regenerate with a more prescriptive brief.
• One slide needs a fix? canvora edit <outputId> --prompt "..." --yes — targeted, design preserved, 3 credits. Always the first thing to try.

Quality checklist

• Portrait format; slide count matches the promised item count
• Brand kit applied when one exists (--brand, plus --logo if they want the mark)
• Brief carries hook + content items + the user's stated look — no invented art direction
• Style chosen deliberately, not left to default
• Outputs sorted by sortOrder; partials reported
• Revisions via edit (3 cr) or variations, never regeneration