A few months ago, I built a Claude skill that turns newsletter posts into LinkedIn carousels. I wrote about the whole process here, and the honest truth is that it worked. For the first time, I could make carousels without opening Canva or spending an hour fixing tiny alignment issues.
That mattered because I had avoided carousels for months. They always felt like one of those content formats I knew I should use, but never wanted to touch because the effort-to-output ratio felt broken. The old skill changed that. Claude could:
Read my newsletter or raw idea.
Break the content into a hook, body slides, and CTA.
Generate HTML and CSS using my brand config.
Run a script that embedded my profile photo and exported slide images.
This was a good architecture for version one. HTML is predictable, Claude is good at writing it, and the output is reproducible. If I used the same brand config, I could generate slides that felt consistent every time.
But every time I uploaded one, I had this small, uncomfortable feeling: this is useful, but it still does not look as good as I want.
The old workflow helped me stay more consistent, but it capped the design. The slides all started to share the same rhythm: big headline, body text, footer, dots. The exports were technically 1080x1350, but they looked softer after LinkedIn compressed them. And if one slide felt slightly off, I couldnât open it like a normal design file and fix it. I had to prompt Claude again and hope it got closer to what I wanted the next time, and this is definitely not a reliable way to work.
That was the part that bothered me most.
A lot of design quality comes from tiny human edits: moving a headline two pixels left, giving one word more weight, tightening the spacing, or adding more breathing room. These are not always prompt problems. Sometimes they are taste problems.
And taste is much easier to apply when you can touch the design directly.
So I built a new Claude skill that does the job really well, and it ended up performing strongly on my LinkedIn account, especially considering I have 6,000 followers.
One of the biggest improvements in my new LinkedIn carousel skill is that it takes me from idea to an editable output, with design that is 10x better. You really notice the difference when you actually feel it.
The reframe that changed the workflow
I realized I was giving Claude the wrong final job. I was asking it to write the carousel, design the carousel, and produce the final pixels. That worked, but it trapped the result inside a flat image.
The better process is:
Let Claude handle the content structure.
Let Claude apply the brand rules.
Let Claude build the first version of the design.
Let a real design canvas render the final output.
Let me manually polish anything that still feels off.
That is where Paper Design comes in. Paper is a design tool that feels closer to Figma than Canva, but its MCP (Model Context Protocol) changes the workflow. Paper Desktop runs a local MCP server, and tools like Claude Code or Codex can read and write to the open design file.
To put it simply, Claude Code can create and edit designs directly inside Paper. Instead of asking Claude to generate a finished HTML file and export flat images, I can ask Claude Code to create 1080x1350 artboards inside Paper. Each slide still uses my saved brand details and carousel structure, but the visual style comes from the template I choose. The output lives on a canvas with editable layers.
The first time I ran it, I watched the slides appear one by one inside Paper, then clicked into a slide and moved a headline myself. That was the moment the workflow clicked for me. With the old skill, every small imperfection became another prompt. With Paper, every small imperfection became a small edit.
Why Paper Design instead of Figma
This is the comparison I had to take seriously because Figma is the obvious default answer. If you ask any designer where an editable carousel should live, most of them will probably say Figma. I understand why. Figma is mature, collaborative, and excellent for product design systems.
Figmaâs MCP is also much stronger than I first assumed. Its use_figma tool can create and edit native Figma objects like frames, components, variants, variables, styles, text, and auto layout. If I were building product screens from an existing design system, Figma would probably be the better tool because the agent can reuse components, variables, and libraries that already exist.
But a LinkedIn carousel is a different job. I do not need Claude to search a component library and instantiate the right button variant. I need it to create strong editorial layouts, preserve my profile photo, use my brand font, keep footer alignment stable across slides, and let me polish the final design myself.
That is where Paper fits better. Paper describes itself as a real HTML and CSS canvas, and its MCP exposes tools that map almost directly to carousel production: create_artboard, write_html, duplicate_nodes, set_text_content, update_styles, get_screenshot, get_font_family_info, and get_fill_image.
That matters because Claude is already good at HTML and CSS. Paper keeps that same strength, but changes the destination. Instead of HTML becoming a flat image, HTML becomes the way Claude writes editable design objects onto the canvas.
So the workflow is simple: create a 1080x1350 artboard, write the slide into Paper, duplicate the artboard, swap the text, update styles, screenshot the result, and export at 2x. That feels close to how I would build a carousel manually, just faster.
Figma can write to canvas too, but it has more friction for this specific use case right now. Figmaâs own docs currently list no asset image support yet, no custom font support yet, a 20kb output response limit per call, and Full seat requirements for agent write access. For a carousel that depends on my profile photo, custom typography, and quick visual iteration, those details matter.
That is my actual reason for choosing Paper. Figma is probably the more powerful tool overall. Paper is better aligned with the job I need done: turn my writing into editable, polished carousel slides without making me manage a full product design system.
And yes, this might change fast. Figma is moving quickly, Paper is moving quickly, and agent-to-canvas design is still early. But I do not write these Lab posts for some imaginary perfect future. I write them around what I can build and use right now.
What to know before building
This workflow is better, but it is not an instant process. You need to install Paper Desktop, connect the MCP server to Claude Code, and run the skill from a folder where Claude can access your saved brand setup and profile photo.
There is also a cost to consider. As I am writing this, Paperâs free plan includes 100 MCP tool calls per week. That is enough to test the workflow, but probably not enough if you want to make this part of your regular content process.
Paper Pro is currently listed at $20 per user/month, or $16 per user/month with yearly billing. For me, that price makes sense because Paper is not only useful for LinkedIn carousels. You can use the same agent-to-canvas setup for landing pages, lead magnets, Instagram carousels, visual explainers, and other design assets that need both speed and editability.
I do not think everyone needs another monthly tool. But if Paper helps you create several reusable assets each month, the cost starts to feel reasonable compared with the time you would spend fighting design tools, prompting around tiny layout issues, or rebuilding the same visuals from scratch.
One more thing to keep in mind, sometimes Claude creates a slide that is visually close but not quite right. The heading might be too large, the accent shape might feel random, or a body slide might need tighter spacing. The difference is that these problems no longer kill the workflow. They become normal design edits.
That is the trade I am making. The old skill was faster. The new skill has a higher ceiling. For me, that is worth it.
What you get in the Lab
The goal is simple: take one strong idea from your newsletter, turn it into a carousel that looks good enough to publish, then still have full control to polish it like a real design file.
That is the outcome I wanted from the beginning. Not another AI image generator. Not another rigid template. A system where Claude gets me to a strong first draft, Paper keeps everything editable, and I can use my own taste to finish the last few details.
The other thing I added to the shareable skill is templates. The current version comes with 9 carousel templates, so you are not locked into one visual rhythm. You can use brutalist-mono for a manifesto, data-card for a stat-forward post, terminal-readme for a technical workflow, or sticky-notes for a warmer essay-style carousel.
I also included the publishing layer in the walkthrough. After the carousel is exported, I show how I use Typefullyâs agent skill so Claude Code can generate the LinkedIn caption, attach the carousel file, and schedule the post.
That part requires a Typefully account, either a paid plan or their 14-day trial. But I wanted to include it because it changes the shape of the system. The workflow does not stop at âhere are some nice slides.â It can go all the way from idea to editable carousel to scheduled LinkedIn post.
Inside the Lab, you get:
The
/paper-linkedin-carouselskill I built for this workflow.9 ready-to-use carousel templates, each with its own palette and layout style.
Video walkthroughs showing the setup, first run, manual edits, and export flow.
The Paper MCP setup process for Claude Code.
A one-time brand setup for name, publication, positioning, profile photo, and default template.
Editable 1080x1350 Paper artboards instead of flat HTML exports.
A 2x export process for sharper LinkedIn and Instagram uploads.
A manual polish loop so you can fix the final details yourself.
A Typefully scheduling flow for turning the finished carousel into a drafted or scheduled LinkedIn post
This is not for someone who posts one carousel every few months. The old HTML skill might be enough for that. This is for you who want their ideas to travel farther on LinkedIn and Instagram without spending every post fighting layout, compression, and tiny design fixes.
Step 1: Install Paper Desktop
Download Paper Desktop from Paperâs site:
https://paper.design/downloads
Quick note: Paper MCP can work across multiple AI agents, including Claude Code CLI, Claude Code Desktop, Codex, and Cursor. In this walkthrough, I am using Claude Code CLI so the setup stays focused. If you use another agent, the Paper MCP idea is the same, but the connection screen will look different.
Open the app and create a new file. Paperâs MCP server runs locally through the desktop app, so the app needs to be open while Claude Code is working with the design.
If Claude Code cannot see Paper later, restart both Paper Desktop and Claude Code before debugging anything else.
Step 2: Connect Paper MCP to Claude Code
Follow these two steps to install Paper MCP.
First, you need to add custom marketplace:
/plugin marketplace add paper-design/agent-pluginsThen install the plugin:
/plugin install paper-desktop@paper
Just ask Claude Code to do this and youâll be done in no time.
After installing, run:
/mcp
You should see the Paper MCP server in the available MCP list.
But later on, youâll likely run into a problem where Claude canât access the Paper app, even though you have it open. In these cases, open /MCP again and reconnect it to Paper Design. Thatâs it.
To test the connection, ask Claude Code:
âCreate a red rectangle in Paper.â
If everything is connected, Paper should ask for permission and then create the shape on the canvas.
Do this tiny test before trying the carousel skill.
It saves you from debugging the wrong layer.
