deck-flow

Build and edit PowerPoint presentations with AI. A Claude Code plugin that generates .pptx files through a guided workflow — separating story, structure, design, and slide generation into distinct phases for better results.

Instead of asking AI to "make me a presentation" and getting generic slides, deck-flow walks you through developing a strong narrative, structuring content, researching visual design, and then generating validated slides. Already have a deck? Import it and improve it through any phase.

Requirements

The narrative, craft, and design phases have no dependencies. The present phase (PPTX generation) requires:

• Node.js — runs PptxGenJS to generate .pptx files
• Python — creates thumbnail grids for visual validation
• Microsoft PowerPoint or LibreOffice — converts .pptx to images for validation

npm and pip packages are installed automatically during generation and import.

Installation

Add this plugin to Claude Code:

claude plugin add michaelengland/deck-flow

Skills

/deck-flow:narrative — Develop your story

Start here. This skill helps you figure out what to say before thinking about slides. Through a guided conversation, it explores:

• Audience — Who's watching and what do they care about?
• Purpose — What should the audience think, feel, or do afterward?
• Key message — The one thing they should remember
• Story framework — The structure that best fits your content

It recommends from five proven narrative frameworks:

Framework	Best for
Problem → Solution → Impact	Pitches, proposals
Situation → Complication → Resolution	Strategic updates, analysis
What → So What → Now What	Data presentations, reports
Before → After → Bridge	Transformations, case studies
Hook → Build → Payoff	Persuasive, storytelling

Output: A narrative document saved to the deck folder.

/deck-flow:craft — Structure your content

Organizes your narrative into logical sections — without locking in slide counts or layouts. For each section it specifies:

• Key message (the takeaway)
• Supporting content and evidence
• Emphasis level (high / medium / low)
• Speaker notes and transitions

Output: A content outline saved to the deck folder.

/deck-flow:design — Plan slides and visual direction

Turns your content outline into a complete slide design. This skill:

1. Researches visual design excellence — reads bundled design principles and searches the web for inspiration relevant to your topic
2. Plans how content sections become slides — decides slide count, layouts, and rhythm based on emphasis levels
3. Proposes the visual direction (color palette, typography, style) for approval

Output: A slide design document saved to the deck folder.

/deck-flow:present — Generate the PowerPoint

Executes your slide design to produce the actual .pptx file:

1. Generates slides using PptxGenJS
2. Validates every slide against a visual checklist (whitespace, contrast, anti-patterns)
3. Fixes and regenerates until all slides pass
4. Delivers the final file

/deck-flow:import — Import an existing presentation

Already have a deck you want to improve? This skill takes a .pptx file and reverse-engineers it into an editable PptxGenJS generation script:

1. Parses all slides — text, shapes, images, tables, charts, speaker notes
2. Creates a deck folder with a generation script and extracted images
3. Validates the import by regenerating and comparing visually

After import, you can edit the deck directly or enter any phase of the workflow above to make targeted improvements.

Output: A deck folder (e.g., decks/quarterly-review/) containing the generation script, extracted images, and all subsequent artifacts.

Deck Folder Structure

Each deck gets its own folder under decks/, keeping all artifacts self-contained:

decks/quarterly-review/
  quarterly-review.js         # generation script
  quarterly-review.pptx       # output
  quarterly-review.pdf        # PDF export
  narrative.md                # story (from narrative phase)
  content-outline.md          # structure (from craft phase)
  slide-design.md             # visual plan (from design phase)
  assets/                     # extracted/embedded images
  slides/                     # validation images + thumbnails

Typical Workflow

New Presentation

/deck-flow:narrative → /deck-flow:craft → /deck-flow:design → /deck-flow:present
    (story)              (content)           (design)            (slides)

Each phase produces a document you can review and revise before moving to the next.

Editing an Existing Deck

/deck-flow:import → choose your starting point → /deck-flow:present
                     ├─ /deck-flow:narrative (rethink the story)
                     ├─ /deck-flow:craft (restructure content)
                     ├─ /deck-flow:design (redesign visuals)
                     └─ direct edits (tell Claude what to change)

You don't need to go through all phases. Edit at whatever level makes sense — the generation script carries your changes through to the final output.

License

MIT