pablostanley/efecto-plugin/social-media

Efecto — Social Media Design Guide

Design social media assets — Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook — using the Efecto design tool. Proper sizing, bold typography, and platform-specific best practices.

Setup

This skill requires the Efecto MCP server. Check if it's available by looking for tools like create_session, add_section, or get_document in your tool list.

If Efecto tools are NOT available, install the MCP server:

Claude Code

claude mcp add efecto -- npx -y @efectoapp/mcp

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "efecto": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@efectoapp/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Windsurf / VS Code / Other MCP Clients

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "efecto": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@efectoapp/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Once installed, you'll have access to 68 MCP tools, including image search and native animation authoring. The MCP server connects your agent to the Efecto design canvas at efecto.app.

How It Works

1. Your agent creates an Efecto session via MCP (create_session)
2. You open the returned design URL in your browser
3. The agent pushes design commands — you see every change live
4. Iterate with natural language until the design is perfect

Using Efecto Tools — Quick Reference

Session Workflow

Every design starts with a session:

create_session  label: "Instagram Carousel"

Returns { sessionId, documentId, designUrl }. Tell the user to open the URL, then call wait_for_connection (blocks until paired). If the user already has an Efecto URL with ?session=..., call attach_session with that URL instead of creating a duplicate session. Never call create_session twice to "reconnect" — a paired session refuses overwrite without force: true. Use session_status to inspect routing ({ all: true } for the full session list).

Building Social Media Designs

The primary workflow is: create artboard → add sections with JSX → refine with updates.

# 1. Create an artboard (Instagram post example)
create_artboard  name: "Slide 1"  width: 1080  height: 1080  backgroundColor: "#111827"  className: "flex flex-col"
 
# 2. Add content with JSX
add_section  parentId: "<artboard-id>"  jsx: '<section name="Carousel Hook" className="flex flex-col items-center justify-center gap-8 p-16 w-full h-full">
  <h1 name="Hook Headline" className="text-7xl font-extrabold text-white text-center leading-none">Stop designing like it&apos;s 2020</h1>
  <p name="Swipe Prompt" className="text-xl text-gray-400 font-medium">Swipe for 5 rules -></p>
</section>'
 
# 3. Duplicate artboard for carousel slides
duplicate_artboard  artboardId: "<artboard-id>"  newName: "Slide 2"
 
# 4. Read state and batch-update the duplicate
get_document
batch_update  updates: [
  { nodeId: "abc", textContent: "01" },
  { nodeId: "def", textContent: "White space is not wasted space" }
]

All 68 Tools

Scoped reads (large docs). get_document returns the whole tree by default — on multi-artboard carousels that can blow past tool-result token caps. Prefer scoped modes: outline: true (one-line summary per top-level child), artboardId: "..." (single slide), maxDepth: N (cap descent; 0 = artboard header only, 1 = top-level children). Response includes an approx-token count so you can decide whether to widen. Drill into a subtree with get_node_tree after.

Routing inspection. session_status returns the legacy single-session shape by default (sessionId, paired, browserConnected, knownSessions). Pass { all: true } for the list shape — every session in this MCP process with isActive/paired flags. If this MCP process restarted, attach_session with the current browser URL makes that session active again.

JSX Format for add_section

Write standard HTML tags with Tailwind className. The tag determines the node type:

<div>/<section>/<nav>  → frame       <img>     → image
<h1>-<h6>/<p>/<span>   → text        <button>  → button
<a>                    → link        <svg>     → icon
<input>                → input       <video>   → video

Icons: <svg icon="arrow-right" className="w-5 h-5 text-gray-600" />

Critical Gotchas

• Artboard `className` must include `flex flex-col` — without it, children overlap at (0,0)
• Artboard `backgroundColor` is a property, NOT a className — use backgroundColor: "#111827", not className: "bg-gray-900"
• Never use arbitrary hex in className — bg-[#f9f9f9] silently fails. Use named colors (bg-gray-50) or inline style
• Use `grow` instead of `flex-1` — flex-1 doesn't work in Efecto
• Buttons ignore children — use a flex container with <span> + <svg> instead
• Always add `w-full` on direct children of artboards
• For carousels: use duplicate_artboard to create slides, then batch_update to change content per slide

Required Structure and Quality Gate

• Name meaningful layers. Give every section, layout group, card, text block, control, image, and icon a concise semantic name attribute (for example, <section name="Carousel Hook">, <div name="Slide Copy">, <h1 name="Hook Headline">). Never ship generic names such as Frame, Text, or Icon; unnamed purely decorative leaves are the only exception.
• Declare nested layout. Every frame with two or more children must explicitly include flex or grid in className, including nested wrappers. Add the matching direction, alignment, gap, and wrapping classes; do not rely on implicit block flow.
• Meet WCAG AA contrast. Normal text must reach 4.5:1 and large text 3:1. Evaluate text against its effective rendered background: use its own background when present, otherwise walk through ancestor frames to the artboard, including opacity/alpha compositing. Resolve semantic theme tokens in the active mode before judging contrast.
• Audit until clean. After building or editing, call audit_design. Fix every contrast-ratio, implicit-block-container, and generic-layer-name finding with batch_update or replace_section, then call audit_design again. If you use repair_design, inspect its changes and re-audit. Do not declare completion until all three finding types are zero, and use get_document to confirm meaningful layers retain semantic names.

Images — Use Real Photos, Not Placeholders

Use search_images to find free, high-quality stock photos from Lummi. No session required — call it anytime.

search_images
  query: "team celebration"
  orientation: "square"
  luminance: "bright"
  limit: 4

Then apply images to your designs:

• Image node: add_node with type: "image", src: "<url>", alt: "...", className: "w-full h-full object-cover"
• Background fill: set_fill with fill: { type: "image", url: "<url>", size: "cover" }
• In JSX: <img src="<url>" alt="..." className="w-full h-full object-cover" />

Tips for social media: Match orientation to the platform format — square for Instagram/LinkedIn posts, vertical for Stories/Reels/TikTok, horizontal for YouTube thumbnails/Twitter. Use luminance: "dark" for dramatic social content. Real photos make social media content feel authentic — avoid empty placeholder boxes.

Shader Nodes & Visual Effects

Make social media content stand out with shader nodes. Use add_node with type: "shader".

Generative Backgrounds

Eye-catching backgrounds without images — perfect for quote cards, carousels, and story slides:

add_node
  parentId: "<artboard-id>"
  type: "shader"
  shaderType: "meshGradient"
  className: "w-full h-full"

Shader types: meshGradient (organic), liquidMetal (premium), chrome (bold), pulsar (energy), particles (ambient), fireworks (celebration).

Apply Effects to Photos

Process images with ASCII, dither, halftone, or glitch effects for scroll-stopping visuals:

search_images  query: "team photo"  orientation: "square"  limit: 1
add_node
  parentId: "<artboard-id>"
  type: "shader"
  inputType: "image"
  mediaInput: { mediaUrl: "<url>", mediaType: "image", objectFit: "cover" }
  effectId: "ascii-standard"
  effectEnabled: true
  className: "w-full h-full"

Best effects for social: ascii-standard (tech/dev content), dither-atkinson (retro), halftone-mono (print/zine), glitch-vhs (nostalgic), art-kuwahara (painterly), glitch-digital (edgy).

Post-Processes

Add film grain, vignette, or scanlines for texture:

postProcesses: [
  { type: "grain", enabled: true, settings: { intensity: 0.3 } },
  { type: "scanlines", enabled: true, settings: { intensity: 0.2 } }
]

Native Animation

Social posts, stories, reels, and carousel slides can use native Efecto layer animations. Do not use Tailwind animate-*, transition-*, or duration-* classes.

Workflow: inspect the selected artboard or nodes, call list_animation_presets, then use apply_animation_plan. Animate the hook first: background/photo, hero headline, supporting line, swipe cue or CTA, then decorative details. For carousel/story motion, add exits only when the user asks for an outro or a video-style sequence.

Good defaults: 0.35-0.6s for the headline or hero image, 0.18-0.35s for badges/icons/details, 0.04-0.1s stagger. Use pop-spark, bounce-in, mask-in, fade-mask-in, slide-mask-in, or scale-mask-in when the brand needs thumb-stopping energy; set maskStyle to linear, diagonal, or iris and use maskDirection/maskOrigin when the reveal needs to feel intentional. Otherwise keep it to fade-in, slide-in, and scale-in.

Mindset: Think Poster, Not Website

When you design a website, you're writing for someone who stopped scrolling and is reading. On social media, you have 1-2 seconds to communicate before they scroll past. This changes everything:

• Type big. The canvas is 1080px wide but renders at ~375px on a phone screen. A text-base paragraph that's perfectly legible on a website becomes unreadable squished into an Instagram card. Default to text-xl or text-2xl where you'd normally use text-base.
• Write less. If a slide has more than 2-3 short lines, it has too much text. Cut ruthlessly. One idea per slide.
• Think like a billboard. Would you put a paragraph on a highway billboard? No. Same energy.

Typography for Social Media

Choose font sizes based on the role, not a formula. The canvas is large (1080px+) but the content is consumed small — so sizes need to be generous.