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Every 30 minutes

Turn topics in your content sheet into carousel slides

Each new topic you add to your content sheet becomes a 6-slide carousel written by AI in a copy of your Slides template, with the link written back.

Runs
Every 30 minutes
Apps
Google Sheets, Google Slides
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Sheets read+write; Slides write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 30 minutes, when I add a topic to my Content sheet, write a 6-slide carousel with AI into a copy of my Slides template and put the link and status in the sheet.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Carousel posts perform well on LinkedIn and Instagram, but each one means writing six punchy slides and laying them out in the brand template. A small marketing team manages one a week when they'd like three.

Writing the first draft and filling the template as soon as a topic is added means the team edits and exports instead of starting from a blank slide.

What you get out of it

  • More posts from the same team

    First drafts appear automatically, so the team can publish more often.

  • Always in brand style

    Every carousel uses your template's fonts, colours and layout.

  • A content pipeline in a sheet

    Topics, status and deck links sit together in one list.

  • Easy to export

    Each slide can be downloaded as an image from Slides for posting.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 30 minutes, ClickRuntime reads your Content sheet.

  2. It picks out topics that don't have a status yet.

  3. AI writes text for six slides on each topic.

  4. It copies your Slides template and fills in each slide.

  5. It writes the deck link and the status Drafted back to the row.

Before it runs live

  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use
  • Connect Google Slides

What you get

RunsEvery 30 minutes
Turn topics in your content sheet into carousel slidestoday, 9:00Succeeded
Google Sheets · Content5 signs your invoicing process is costing you · Drafted · docs.google.com/presentation/d/…

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Google Sheets and Google Slides steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
build_carousel_slides_from_topics_in_a_sheet.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai, report_fetched

SHEET_ID, TEMPLATE_ID = "your-spreadsheet-id", "carousel-template-id"
VOICE = "Plain, practical, friendly. Short sentences. No hashtags."

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    sheets = build("sheets", "v4", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).spreadsheets()
    rows = sheets.values().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Content!A2:C").execute().get("values", [])
    todo = [(i, r[0]) for i, r in enumerate(rows, start=2) if r and r[0] and len(r) < 2]
    report_fetched(len(todo))
    if not todo:
        return {"summary": "Nothing new"}
    drive, slides = build("drive", "v3", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False), build("slides", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).presentations()
    for i, topic in todo:
        texts = ai.generate(f"Write a 6-slide carousel on '{topic}'. Voice: {VOICE} Slide 1 is a hook, slide 6 a call to action. Max 25 words each.",
                            json_schema={"type": "object", "properties": {"slides": {"type": "array", "items": {"type": "string"}}}}, max_output_tokens=500).json["slides"]
        deck = drive.files().copy(fileId=TEMPLATE_ID, body={"name": f"Carousel – {topic}"}).execute()["id"]
        slides.batchUpdate(presentationId=deck, body={"requests": [{"replaceAllText": {"containsText": {"text": f"{{{{s{n}}}}}"}, "replaceText": t}}
                           for n, t in enumerate(texts[:6], 1)]}).execute()
        sheets.values().update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range=f"Content!B{i}:C{i}", valueInputOption="RAW",
                               body={"values": [["Drafted", f"https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/{deck}"]]}).execute()
    return {"carousels": len(todo)}

FAQ

Common questions

What does the template need?
Six slides with {{s1}} to {{s6}} placeholders for the text on each slide.
Can I set the tone of voice?
Yes. Describe your brand voice once and it's used for every carousel.
Does it post to social media?
No. It prepares the slides; you export and post them yourself.
What permissions does it need?
Sheets read+write; Slides write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Turn topics in your content sheet into carousel slides” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.