# Newsjack Carousel > Turn any social post URL into a same-day reaction/announcement carousel for the user's brand. Drop a link to a launch, news drop, viral post, or product reveal — Scrape Creators pulls the post, Gemini analyzes the visuals + caption to figure out what's being announced, the skill writes 6–8 fresh slide specs that react to or announce the topic in the user's voice, optionally clones a second URL's visual format for the layout, generates slides with Wavespeed gpt-image-2 (typography baked in), hosts on VidJutsu CDN, and publishes via Zernio. Use when the user shares a URL and says "make a carousel announcing this," "react to this," "make a carousel about this drop," or "newsjack this for our account." - Skill: `tfcbot/newsjack-carousel` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 13 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tfcbot/newsjack-carousel` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tfcbot/newsjack-carousel/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Design & Media - Author: tfcbot (https://skillmd.com/u/tfcbot) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tfcbot/newsjack-carousel --- ## When to invoke - The user shares a URL to a launch, news drop, model release, viral post, product reveal, or any topical event and wants a carousel ABOUT it for their account - They want to react to or announce a third party's news (e.g., "Higgsfield just dropped MCP — make a carousel announcing it") - The source post is video, reel, carousel, or single image — the skill adapts to all four - They optionally provide a second URL as the visual format reference (e.g., "match the format of this carousel") This is the topical / newsjack sibling of `clone-carousel`. Difference: - `clone-carousel` — input MUST be a carousel; output reuses its FORMAT for the user's own brand niche (no relation to the source's subject matter) - `newsjack-carousel` — input can be ANY post; output is ABOUT the source's subject matter (the source is the topic seed, not the format seed); a second optional URL provides the format If the user wants to clone a format and keep it niche-agnostic, use `clone-carousel`. If the user wants to react to / announce a specific topic from a URL, use this skill. ## Required environment variables - `SCRAPE_CREATORS_API` — required. Pulls the topic post (and optional format reference). - `GEMINI_API_KEY` — required. Analyzes frames + caption to determine the announcement, key facts, and visual style. - `WAVESPEED_API_KEY` — required. Slide generation via gpt-image-2. - `VIDJUTSU_API_KEY` — required. CDN hosting for stable public slide URLs. - `ZERNIO_API_KEY` — required. Publishes to the user's connected account. The skill checks all five before any provider call. If a key is missing it stops with a signup link. ## The pipeline (6 steps) 1. **Fetch the topic post** → `recipes/01-fetch-topic.md` — Scrape Creators handles video / reel / carousel / image. Downloads media + caption + author handle. 2. **Analyze the topic** → `recipes/02-analyze-topic.md` — Gemini reads frames (or carousel slides) + caption and returns structured JSON: announcement summary, key features, visual style, and a one-line carousel angle. 3. **Optionally fetch a format reference** → `recipes/03-pick-format.md` — if the user provided a second URL, pull and analyze it the same way `clone-carousel` does. Otherwise pick a default tech-announcement format (black bg, brand-color heading, white body, photo card lower half). 4. **Write slide specs** → `recipes/04-write-slide-specs.md` — 6–8 slides in the user's brand voice: cover (announcement), 4–6 capability/proof slides drawn from the analysis, CTA closer. Brand color is the user's, NOT the source's — match Higgsfield green for Higgsfield news, Anthropic orange for Claude news, etc. 5. **Generate, host, draft caption** → `recipes/05-generate-and-host.md` — Wavespeed gpt-image-2 in parallel → VidJutsu CDN upload → caption drafted in the user's voice mirroring the format reference's caption pattern. 6. **Confirm and publish** → `recipes/06-publish.md` — Surface payload (caption + slide order + target account + schedule) for approval. Fire `POST /v1/posts` with `publishNow: true`. Stop polling on the permalink — surface the post ID and let Zernio finalize asynchronously. ## Working directory layout ``` CWD/newsjack-carousel-/ ├── topic/ │ ├── post_.json # Scrape Creators full body │ ├── reference.mp4 # if video/reel │ ├── frames/frame_*.jpg # extracted via ffmpeg fps=1/3 │ └── analysis.json # Gemini structured output ├── format/ # only if user gave a 2nd URL │ ├── post_.json │ └── images/slide_*.jpg ├── specs/ │ └── slide__.json # one per slide ├── frames/ │ └── slide__.png # final 4:5 2K renders ├── caption.md ├── publish_payload.json └── post.md # zernio post id + permalink + slide URLs ``` ## Schema and endpoint references - `references/slide-spec.md` — JSON schema for one slide - `references/typography-rules.md` — baking type into gpt-image-2 in a single pass - `references/wavespeed-gpt-image-2.md` — endpoint, params, parallelism, content-flag retry - `references/vidjutsu-cdn.md` — uploading PNGs for stable public URLs - `references/zernio-publish.md` — create-post payload, the `publishNow` gotcha, stuck-publish recovery - `references/scrapecreators-instagram.md` — post-fetch endpoint shapes for video, reel, carousel, image ## Style guardrails - **Brand color belongs to the user, not the source.** If the topic post is from Higgsfield (neon lime), the user posts in their own brand color. Pull the user's brand color from `MEMORY.md` or ask once and remember. - **Announcement framing.** The cover headline names the topic + drops the news. The body slides are concrete value (features, prompts to try, before/after, proof points). The closer is a CTA. - **Source attribution in the caption opening line.** Lead with `@ just shipped X` — gives credit, signals topical relevance, and improves IG ranking via the @-mention. - **No reproduction of source visuals.** The carousel is ABOUT the topic; never reuse the source's photographs, logos, or screen recordings beyond a small attribution mark if the user explicitly asks. - **Polling discipline.** Per user preference: do not start tight poll loops on Zernio/Wavespeed/Meta without surfacing the cadence and total duration first. Default to ScheduleWakeup at 2–10 min intervals over short-sleep loops. - **Confirmation before publish.** Surface the full payload (caption, slide order, target @username, schedule). Wait for explicit go. ## Cost and time expectations - Scrape Creators: ~$0.01 per post (×1 if no format ref, ×2 if user provided one) - Gemini 2.5 Pro analysis: ~$0.02–0.05 per analysis (depends on # of frames passed) - Wavespeed gpt-image-2 at 2K, 4:5: ~$0.02 per slide - VidJutsu CDN: free - Zernio publish: free A typical 8-slide newsjack carousel: ~$0.20 in API costs, ~6–10 min wall time, including a single regen on one slide if typography misfires. ## Failure modes worth knowing upfront - **Source URL is a Reel/video and user asked clone-carousel** — wrong skill; this one handles it. - **Source is a paywalled or private post** — Scrape Creators returns 404; tell user and stop. - **Gemini SSL cert error from system Python** — use `curl` via subprocess instead of `urllib.request`. See `recipes/02-analyze-topic.md`. - **Zernio dedup error after a stuck publish** — DELETE the stuck post first, tweak the caption (one sentence is enough), then re-POST. Don't try to PUT-then-publish — it stays as a draft. - **Brand color mismatch.** If user has not set a brand color, ask once and save to memory; don't guess.