Slidev Presentations Skill

Generate professional, browser-based presentations using Slidev - the presentation framework for developers.

When to Use This Skill

Activate when the user requests:

• Creating presentation slides
• Technical talks or conference presentations
• Developer-focused slide decks
• Markdown-based presentations with code examples
• Interactive presentations with animations

Example Trigger Phrases

These prompts should activate this skill:

• "Create a presentation about Kubernetes architecture"
• "Make slides for my talk on TypeScript best practices"
• "Generate a Slidev deck explaining our API design"
• "Build a technical presentation for the team meeting"
• "I need slides for a conference talk on microservices"
• "Create a workshop presentation with code examples"
• "Make a deck covering React hooks for beginners"
• "Generate presentation slides about CI/CD pipelines"

NOT This Skill

Do NOT activate for:

• PowerPoint or Google Slides requests (different format)
• Simple document or README generation
• Non-presentation Markdown files
• Requests for presentation tips without actual slide creation

Recommended Workflow

Follow the plan-first approach for quality presentations:

1. Gather Context  →  2. Create Plan  →  3. Review Plan  →  4. Generate Slides

Why Plan First?

• Plans capture audience, duration, and core message
• Review checkpoint before investing in slide generation
• Plans become presenter notes and Q&A preparation
• Easier to iterate on structure than on finished slides

Workflow Options

Scenario	Command	Output
New presentation on a topic	/slidev:plan [topic] then /slidev:from-plan	Plan + Slides
Presentation about a codebase	/slidev:from-codebase [path]	Plan + Slides
Quick slides (skip planning)	/slidev:new [topic]	Slides only
Generate from existing plan	/slidev:from-plan [plan-file]	Slides only

Plan Document Structure

A presentation plan includes:

• Metadata: Duration, audience, format, venue
• Core Message: The ONE thing to remember
• Time Allocation: Section breakdown with minutes
• Section Details: Key points, visuals needed, talking points
• Diagrams to Create: Architecture, flow, comparisons
• Code Examples: Files, lines, what to highlight
• Demo Plan: What to show, commands, backup plan
• Q&A Preparation: Anticipated questions and answers
• Presenter Checklist: Before/during presentation tasks

Questions to Gather

When creating a plan, gather:

1. Duration: Lightning (5-10 min) to deep dive (45-60 min)
2. Audience: Peers, leadership, external, onboarding
3. Format: Lecture, demo-heavy, workshop, Q&A-heavy
4. Venue: Team meeting, conference, client presentation
5. Focus Areas: Architecture, features, API, testing, DevOps
6. Technical Depth: High-level, moderate, deep dive
7. Core Message: What's the ONE thing to remember?
8. Call to Action: What should audience DO after?

Example Outputs

See the assets/ directory for complete example presentations:

• example-technical-talk.md - Conference-style deep dive (Kubernetes)
• example-tutorial.md - Workshop format with exercises (TypeScript)
• example-team-update.md - Internal team presentation (Q4 update)

Reference Documentation

See the references/ directory for detailed documentation:

• slidev-quick-reference.md - Complete syntax cheatsheet
• layouts-guide.md - All layouts with usage guidance
• themes.md - Theme options and customization
• advanced-features.md - Monaco editor, animations, addons, icons
• multi-file-organization.md - Splitting presentations across files

Quick Setup

If the user doesn't have Slidev installed, provide these commands:

# Create new presentation (recommended)
npm init slidev@latest

# Or with pnpm
pnpm create slidev

# Or add to existing project
npm install @slidev/cli @slidev/theme-default

Linting Configuration (Required)

Slidev's multi-frontmatter syntax conflicts with standard markdown linters. Always ensure a .markdownlint.json exists in the presentation directory before generating slides.

Why This Matters

Slidev uses --- separators with per-slide frontmatter:

---
layout: section
---

Standard markdownlint interprets layout: section + --- as a setext-style heading and "fixes" it to ## layout: section, corrupting the presentation.

Required Configuration

Create .markdownlint.json in the presentation directory:

{
  "MD003": false,
  "MD024": false,
  "MD025": false,
  "MD026": false,
  "MD033": false,
  "MD041": false
}

Rule	Why Disabled
MD003	Prevents setext→ATX conversion that corrupts frontmatter
MD024	Slides often have repeated headings across slides
MD025	Each slide can have its own H1
MD026	Slide titles may end with punctuation
MD033	Slidev uses inline HTML for layouts and animations
MD041	First line is YAML frontmatter, not a heading

Automatic Setup

All /slidev:* commands should check for and create this config file before writing slides.md. If modifying an existing presentation, verify the config exists first.

Run the presentation:

# Development mode with hot reload
npx slidev

# Build for production
npx slidev build

# Export to PDF (requires playwright-chromium)
npx slidev export

# Export to PPTX
npx slidev export --format pptx

Output Format

Generate a complete slides.md file that can be run directly with Slidev.

Core Syntax (Quick Reference)

For full syntax details, see references/slidev-quick-reference.md.

Basic Structure

---
theme: default
title: My Presentation
transition: slide-left
mdc: true
---

# First Slide

Content here

---

# Second Slide

More content

Key Layouts

Layout	Use Case
cover	Title slide
center	Centered content
section	Section divider
two-cols	Side-by-side content
two-cols-header	Header + two columns
image-right	Image right, content left
fact	Highlight a statistic

Two-Column Layout

---
layout: two-cols-header
---

# Header

::left::

Left content

::right::

Right content

Code with Line Highlighting

```typescript {2,3}
function add(a: number, b: number) {
  const sum = a + b  // highlighted
  return sum         // highlighted
}
```

Click-to-Reveal Code

```typescript {1|2|3|all}
const a = 1  // click 1
const b = 2  // click 2
const c = 3  // click 3
```

Animations

<!-- Reveal items one-by-one -->
<v-clicks>

- First item (click 1)
- Second item (click 2)

</v-clicks>

<!-- Single element reveal -->
<div v-click>Appears on click</div>

Presenter Notes

# Slide Title

Content

<!--
Speaker notes here (presenter mode only)
-->

Diagrams (Mermaid)

```mermaid
graph TD
  A[Start] --> B{Decision}
  B -->|Yes| C[Action]
  B -->|No| D[End]
```

Advanced Features

For advanced functionality, see references/advanced-features.md:

• Shiki Magic Move - Animated code transitions
• Monaco Editor - Interactive, editable code blocks ({monaco}, {monaco-run})
• v-motion - Movement animations
• v-mark - Hand-drawn style annotations
• Addons - Python execution, QR codes, diagrams
• Icons - 100k+ icons via UnoCSS
• Live Drawing - Annotation during presentations

Multi-File Organization

For large presentations (30+ slides), split across multiple files. See references/multi-file-organization.md.

Quick example:

---
src: ./slides/01-intro.md
---

---
src: ./slides/02-content.md
---

Benefits: No linting conflicts, easier reorganization, better version control.