slide-builder

SlideCraft

A plugin for Claude Code and Claude Cowork that builds PowerPoint presentations from natural language. Describe the deck you want, and Claude generates a YAML content file, builds it into a polished .pptx, and iterates with you until it's right.

No templates to fight with. No dragging boxes around. Just say what you need.

Install

Claude Code (CLI)

Add the plugin marketplace, then install:

/plugin marketplace add jvsteiner/slidecraft
/plugin install slide-builder@slidecraft

Claude Cowork (Desktop)

1. Download or clone this repository
2. Open Claude Desktop and switch to the Cowork tab
3. Click Plugins in the left sidebar
4. Click Upload plugin
5. Select the downloaded plugin folder

The plugin handles its own Python dependency installation on first use.

Usage

Just ask Claude to make a presentation:

"Create a 10-slide pitch deck for a B2B SaaS product called Archway"

"Make a quarterly board update with our key metrics"

"Build a team intro deck with profile cards for our engineering leads"

Claude will write the YAML, pick an appropriate theme, build the .pptx, and hand you the file. You can then ask for changes — swap layouts, adjust colors, rewrite copy — and it rebuilds.

In Claude Code, you can also invoke the skill explicitly with /slide-builder.

---

Themes

6 built-in themes, each with curated fonts, colors, and spacing:

Theme	Style	Best for
Boardroom	White/navy	Corporate, consulting, board decks
Midnight	Dark slate/sky-blue	Technical, dev tools, engineering
Ember	Warm white/burnt orange	Editorial, brand strategy, marketing
Ink	Pure white/red	Minimal, Apple-style, product launches
Canopy	Off-white/forest green	Sustainability, wellness, education
Signal	White/vivid purple	Consumer products, demo day, pitch

Claude picks the theme that fits your content, or you can ask for a specific one.

Theme configuration

Themes are defined in the theme: block of the YAML file:

theme:
  font_display: "Futura"           # Headings, titles, large text
  font_body: "Avenir Next"         # Body text, bullets, captions
  background_image: "images/bg.jpg" # Optional — global background image
  overlay:                          # Optional — overlay on background images
    color: "#000000"
    opacity: 0.4
  colors:
    bg: "#0F172A"                  # Slide background
    surface: "#1E293B"             # Cards, sidebars, table headers
    primary: "#38BDF8"             # Accent color (headings, highlights)
    primary_dark: "#0EA5E9"        # Darker accent variant
    text: "#F8FAFC"               # Primary text
    text_secondary: "#CBD5E1"      # Body text, bullets
    text_muted: "#94A3B8"          # Subtitles, captions
    text_dim: "#64748B"            # Footers, slide numbers
    divider: "#334155"             # Horizontal rules
    row_alt: "#1E293B"             # Alternating table rows
    border: "#475569"              # Card/table borders
    danger: "#F87171"              # Red accent
    success: "#34D399"             # Green accent
    warning: "#FBBF24"            # Yellow accent
  spacing:
    margin: 0.8                    # Outer margin (inches)
    gutter: 0.4                    # Gap between columns (inches)
    margin_top: 0.6                # Top margin for headers
    title_height: 0.8              # Title zone height
    footer_y: 7.0                  # Footer vertical position

---

Background Images

Slides can use an image as the background, configured globally or per-slide.

Global background (all slides)

Set background_image in the theme block. Every slide uses this image unless overridden:

theme:
  background_image: "images/dark-texture.jpg"
  overlay:
    color: "#000000"
    opacity: 0.5

Per-slide override

Individual slides can use a different image, or disable the background entirely:

slides:
  - layout: title
    title: "Welcome"
    background_image: "images/hero-photo.jpg"   # different image for this slide
    overlay:
      color: "#000000"
      opacity: 0.6

  - layout: content
    title: "Details"
    background_image: null                       # no background image, solid color

Overlay

The optional overlay adds a semi-transparent color layer between the background image and slide content, improving text readability over photos. opacity ranges from 0.0 (fully transparent) to 1.0 (fully opaque).

Image paths are relative to the YAML file.

---

Layouts

21 slide layouts covering the patterns you actually use in decks.

Openers and closers

title

Opening slide with large title, optional tagline, subtitle, and footer.