skill-deck

Slide Deck Generator

Generate professional slide decks from briefs with optional research, outline approval, and PPTX export.

Prerequisites

The document-skills plugin MUST be installed for PPTX rendering:

/plugin list | grep document-skills

If not installed, tell the user:

The document-skills plugin is required for PPTX generation.
Install it with: /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills

Pipeline (4 Steps)

Step 1: Gather Brief

Parse the user's topic and description. Use AskUserQuestion to clarify:

Question 1 - Audience:

• Executives / Board
• Engineers / Technical
• Investors / Fundraising
• General / Mixed

Question 2 - Slide count target:

• Short (5-10 slides)
• Standard (10-20 slides)
• Extended (20+ slides)

Question 3 - Tone:

• Formal / Business
• Technical / Detailed
• Casual / Conversational

If the user already provided clear context (e.g., "10-slide investor pitch deck about our Series A"), skip questions where the answer is obvious.

Step 2: Research (Optional)

If the topic needs external research or context gathering:

• Use the Task tool with Explore or general-purpose subagent to gather relevant information
• For deeper multi-AI research, suggest: "For comprehensive multi-provider research, run /octo:discover [topic] first, then /octo:deck to build slides from the results"
• If the user provides their own content, notes, or a research file, skip this step entirely

This step is OPTIONAL. Many decks are built from the user's own knowledge or existing documents.

Step 3: Generate Outline

Build a slide-by-slide outline in markdown format. Structure:

## Slide 1: [Title Slide]
- Presentation title
- Subtitle / Date / Author

## Slide 2: [Agenda / Overview]
- Key topics to cover

## Slide 3: [First Content Section]
- Bullet point 1
- Bullet point 2
- Bullet point 3

## Slide N: [Summary / Next Steps]
- Key takeaways
- Call to action

IMPORTANT: Present the outline to the user for approval using AskUserQuestion:

• "Looks good, generate PPTX" — Proceed to Step 4
• "Add more slides" — Expand specific sections
• "Change focus" — Restructure around different themes
• "Start over" — Return to Step 1

This is the wireframe gate — the user MUST approve the outline structure before PPTX generation.

Step 4: Render PPTX

Once the outline is approved:

1. Use the document-skills:pptx skill to convert the approved markdown outline to PowerPoint
2. Each ## heading becomes a slide
3. Bullet points under each heading become slide content
4. Save the PPTX file to the current working directory with a descriptive filename

Example filename: Series-A-Pitch-Deck-2026-02-14.pptx

Slide Structure Best Practices

Apply these when generating outlines:

• Title slide: Presentation name, subtitle, date, presenter
• Agenda slide: 3-5 key topics (for decks > 7 slides)
• One idea per slide: Keep slides focused
• 5-7 bullets max: Per slide for readability
• Summary slide: Key takeaways at the end
• Next steps / CTA: Final slide with clear actions

By Audience Type

Executives / Board:

• Lead with business impact and metrics
• Use "So what?" framing for every slide
• Include financial implications
• End with decisions needed

Engineers / Technical:

• Include architecture diagrams (describe for slides)
• Show trade-offs and alternatives considered
• Include implementation timelines
• Reference technical specifications

Investors / Fundraising:

• Problem → Solution → Market → Traction → Team → Ask
• Include market size (TAM/SAM/SOM)
• Show growth metrics and projections
• Clear funding ask and use of funds

General / Mixed:

• Balance detail with accessibility
• Define technical terms
• Use analogies and examples
• Include visual descriptions

Integration with Other Skills

This skill works well in combination with:

• /octo:discover [topic] — Research first, then build deck from findings
• /octo:docs — For converting existing markdown to other formats
• /octo:prd — Generate a PRD, then create a presentation summarizing it
• /octo:brainstorm — Brainstorm ideas, then structure into a deck

Example Workflows

Quick Deck from Brief

User: "Create a 10-slide deck about our Q1 results"
→ Step 1: Clarify audience (executives)
→ Step 2: Skip (user has the data)
→ Step 3: Generate outline, get approval
→ Step 4: Render PPTX

Research-Backed Deck

User: "Build a presentation about AI trends in healthcare"
→ Step 1: Clarify audience and scope
→ Step 2: Research using Task agents
→ Step 3: Generate outline from research, get approval
→ Step 4: Render PPTX

Deep Research + Deck

User: "I need a comprehensive investor deck about the autonomous vehicles market"
→ Suggest: "/octo:discover autonomous vehicles market" first
→ Then: "/octo:deck" using the research synthesis

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Slide deck skill for claude-octopus v8.12.0+