course-deck

name: course-deck description: >- Generate professional PPTX slide decks for cogni-teacher courses. Two modes: (1) curriculum overview deck showing all 7 courses at a glance, or (2) per-course intro deck with learning objectives, module breakdown, and prerequisites. Use this skill whenever the user asks to "create course slides", "generate a curriculum deck", "make an intro presentation", "course overview pptx", "training deck", "course introduction slides", or mentions creating presentation materials for cogni-teacher courses. Also trigger when someone says "prepare materials for a training session" or "I need slides for onboarding new learners". version: 0.1.0

course-deck: Course Presentation Generator

Generate polished PPTX slide decks for cogni-teacher training programs. You produce two types of decks that course organizers use to introduce learners to the program before they start self-paced, mentor-guided learning with the /teach skill.

Two Deck Types

1. Curriculum Overview (curriculum)

A program-level deck introducing the full cogni-works training program. Use this when the organizer wants to present the overall learning journey to a group of new learners.

Slides to generate (~8-10 slides):

1. Title slide — "cogni-works Training Program" with subtitle "Master AI-Powered Consulting with Claude Cowork". Dark background (111111) with chartreuse accent line.

2. Why this program — The value proposition: what consultants gain by learning cogni-works (faster deliverables, consistent quality, AI-augmented research). Use 3 key benefit statements with icons.

3. How it works — Explain the learning format: 45-minute self-paced courses, mentor-guided by Claude, theory + hands-on exercises + quizzes. Visual showing the module cycle: Theory > Demo > Exercise > Quiz > Recap.

4. Learning journey — Visual roadmap of all 7 courses as a numbered path or timeline. Show course progression from fundamentals to advanced.

5-6. Course spotlight slides — Two slides, each covering 3-4 courses with: course number, title, what you'll learn (2-3 bullets), plugins covered. Courses 1-3 on one slide, 4-7 on the next.

7. What you'll build — Showcase the deliverables learners create during exercises (memos, narratives, trend reports, portfolios, presentations).

8. Getting started — How to begin: open Claude Cowork, type /teach 1, and follow along. Include the /courses command to check progress.

2. Course Introduction (<course-number>)

A course-level deck introducing a specific course. Use when the organizer wants to set expectations before learners dive into a particular course.

Slides to generate (~6-8 slides):

1. Title slide — Course number and title. Subtitle with duration (45 min) and module count.

2. What you'll learn — 4-5 learning objectives pulled from the course content. Use checkmark icons with chartreuse accent.

3. Module overview — All 5 modules listed with brief description of each. Visual timeline or numbered cards layout.

4. Prerequisites — What the learner needs before starting: prior courses, plugins that must be installed, any workspace setup.

5. Key concepts preview — 3-4 core concepts from the course with one-line explanations. Gives learners mental hooks before they start.

6. What you'll build — The hands-on deliverable(s) from the exercises. Concrete output they'll walk away with.

7. Ready to start — CTA slide: "Open Claude Cowork and type /teach <N> to begin. Your AI mentor will guide you through each module."

Content Source

Pull all course content from the reference files in this plugin:

• references/courses/01-cowork-fundamentals.md
• references/courses/02-workspace-obsidian.md
• references/courses/03-basic-tools.md
• references/courses/04-tips-scouting.md
• references/courses/05-tips-reporting.md
• references/courses/06-portfolio.md
• references/courses/07-visual.md

Read only the course file(s) needed for the requested deck. For curriculum overview, skim all 7 files for titles, objectives, and module names — don't load full content.

Course Mapping

Map user input to course files:

Visual Design: cogni-work Theme

Apply the cogni-work theme. The authoritative theme file lives at: /Users/stephandehaas/GitHub/dev/cogni-workspace/themes/cogni-work/theme.md

Read it for the full specification. Key rules:

Colors:

• Primary/headers: 111111 (near-black) — structural anchors, dark slide backgrounds
• Secondary: 333333 (dark charcoal) — subheaders, supporting text
• Accent: C8E62E (chartreuse/lime) — CTAs, highlights, key data points, links
• Accent muted: A8C424 (olive lime) — hover states, secondary highlights
• Background: FAFAF8 (warm white) — content slide canvas
• Surface: F2F2EE (light warm gray) — cards, panels, elevated containers
• Surface dark: 111111 (near-black) — title/closing slides, hero areas
• Text: 111111 (near-black) — body text on light backgrounds
• Text light: FFFFFF (white) — text on dark backgrounds
• Text muted: 6B7280 (cool gray) — captions, metadata
• Border: E0E0DC (warm light gray) — card outlines, separators

Typography:

• Headers: DM Sans Bold (fallback: Inter Bold, Calibri Bold)
• Body: DM Sans Regular (fallback: Inter, Calibri)
• Mono: JetBrains Mono (fallback: Fira Code, Consolas)

Design principles (Vitruvius triad):

• Dark-light sandwich: Title and closing slides use dark backgrounds (111111); content slides use warm white (FAFAF8). This creates visual rhythm and narrative structure.
• Chartreuse is the signature: C8E62E is bold and loud — use it for CTAs, key metrics, highlights, and energy moments. Never as body text, never overdone.
• Restrained boldness: The lime is loud, so everything else stays quiet. No competing colors. Let the accent do the talking.
• High contrast always: Chartreuse on black, black on white — maximum readability.
• Modern confidence: Clean lines, generous spacing, no ornamentation.
• No plain bullet dumps: every slide needs a visual element (shapes, icons, layout variety)

PPTX color format: Do NOT prefix hex colors with # — PptxGenJS corrupts files when you do. Use bare hex: C8E62E, not #C8E62E.

Building the PPTX

Use PptxGenJS (Node.js) to generate the presentation. Install if needed: npm install -g pptxgenjs

Key technical notes:

• Slide size: 16:9 (10" x 5.625")
• Use bullet: true for bullets (never unicode characters)
• Use breakLine: true for line breaks in text arrays
• Set margin: 0 when aligning text with shapes
• Don't reuse option objects across calls (PptxGenJS mutates them)
• Don't use ROUNDED_RECTANGLE for accent borders

Vary the layouts across slides — mix full-width content, multi-column, card grids, and icon+text combinations. A deck where every slide looks the same is boring.

Output

Save the generated PPTX to the user's working directory with a descriptive filename:

• Curriculum: cogni-works-training-program.pptx
• Course intro: course-<N>-<name>-intro.pptx (e.g., course-3-basic-tools-intro.pptx)

After generating, tell the user where the file is saved and suggest they review it.