pptx

name: pptx description: Use this skill any time the user wants to create a new PowerPoint presentation, slide deck, pitch deck, or .pptx file from scratch. Covers creating business presentations, quarterly reports, project proposals, product roadmaps, training materials, and any multi-slide document destined for PowerPoint. Works by generating HTML/CSS slides (which LLMs excel at), rendering them in agent-browser for pixel-accurate DOM position extraction, and assembling the final PPTX with native PowerPoint charts, tables, and images via PptxGenJS. Includes bundled scripts for validation, DOM extraction, and PPTX assembly. Do NOT use this skill for editing existing PPTX files, converting other formats to PPTX, or extracting content from PPTX files.

HTML-to-PPTX Presentation Generator

Generate professional PowerPoint files by writing HTML/CSS slides and converting them to PPTX with pixel-accurate positioning.

Why HTML? LLMs excel at HTML/CSS. Instead of wrestling with PptxGenJS's coordinate system directly, write HTML slides and let the browser compute exact element positions via getBoundingClientRect().

When to Use

• User asks to create a presentation, slide deck, or .pptx file
• User needs slides for a report, proposal, roadmap, or pitch
• User wants charts, tables, or images in PowerPoint format

Do NOT use for: editing existing .pptx, converting formats, or reading/extracting from .pptx.

Prerequisites

npm install -g agent-browser
agent-browser install
npm install pptxgenjs sharp

Important: Always run agent-browser via Bash CLI, not MCP tools. Even if agent-browser MCP Connector is available, this skill requires --stdin piping and shell variable expansion that MCP tools cannot handle.

Pipeline Overview

1. Generate HTML slides (720pt x 405pt, strict element rules)
2. Validate and render via agent-browser (screenshot for visual review)
3. Extract DOM positions via agent-browser eval (getBoundingClientRect)
4. Build config.json, render placeholders, preview with `open` command
5. Assemble PPTX with PptxGenJS using extracted coordinates

Workflow

Step 1: Generate HTML Slides

Write HTML following the rules in references/html-rules.md. Use templates from references/slide-templates.md.

Key constraints:

• Body: width: 720pt; height: 405pt; margin: 0; padding: 0
• Text MUST be in <p>, <h1>-<h6>, <ul>/<ol> (text in <div> won't convert)
• No <br> tags, no manual bullet symbols
• Web-safe fonts only (Arial recommended)
• Bottom margin: keep 36pt+ from bottom edge
• Placeholders: <div class="placeholder" id="chart1" style="width:300pt;height:200pt;">

Save each slide as a separate HTML file under a presentation-specific directory:

# Use a URL-safe slug of the presentation title (e.g., "q4-results", "product-roadmap")
mkdir -p ./tmp/slides/{title}
# Write slide-0.html, slide-1.html, etc. into that directory

Step 2: Validate with agent-browser

CRITICAL: Set viewport to match slide dimensions before any operation.

# Set viewport to exactly 960x540 (720pt x 405pt at 96dpi)
agent-browser set viewport 960 540

agent-browser open "file://$(pwd)/tmp/slides/{title}/slide-0.html"
cat $SKILL_DIR/scripts/validate.js | agent-browser eval --stdin --json

Returns { "valid": true/false, "errors": [...] }. Fix any errors before proceeding.

Take a screenshot for visual review:

agent-browser screenshot ./tmp/slides/{title}/slide-0.png --json

Step 3: Extract DOM Positions

Use the bundled extraction script to get all element positions, styles, and placeholder coordinates:

cat $SKILL_DIR/scripts/extract-dom.js | agent-browser eval --stdin --json

The data.result field contains JSON: { background, elements, placeholders, errors }. Save each slide's extracted data to a JSON file for the build step.

For gradient backgrounds, rasterize only the background (hide content to avoid double-rendering text):

# Hide all content, screenshot background only, then restore
agent-browser eval "document.querySelectorAll('body > *').forEach(e => e.style.visibility='hidden')"
agent-browser screenshot ./tmp/slides/{title}/slide-0-bg.png --json
agent-browser eval "document.querySelectorAll('body > *').forEach(e => e.style.visibility='')"

Step 4: Build config.json and Preview

Create a config.json that references each slide's extracted data and placeholder definitions. See references/pptxgenjs.md for config.json format.

Then render placeholders for visual preview before final PPTX assembly:

# For each slide with placeholders: render preview
agent-browser open "file://$(pwd)/tmp/slides/{title}/slide-0.html"
agent-browser set viewport 960 540

# Set placeholder data and inject Chart.js
agent-browser eval "window.__PLACEHOLDERS__ = $(jq '.slides[0].placeholders' tmp/slides/{title}/config.json)"
agent-browser eval "var s=document.createElement('script');s.src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js@4.4.1/dist/chart.umd.min.js';document.head.appendChild(s)"
agent-browser wait 2000

# Render placeholders and screenshot for review
cat $SKILL_DIR/scripts/render-placeholders.js | agent-browser eval --stdin --json
agent-browser wait 1000
agent-browser screenshot ./tmp/slides/{title}/slide-0-preview.png --json

# IMPORTANT: Always open the preview image so the user can review it
open ./tmp/slides/{title}/slide-0-preview.png

You MUST run open after each screenshot to display the preview to the user. Do not skip this step — the user needs to visually confirm each slide before proceeding to PPTX assembly.

Step 5: Assemble PPTX

Once all slides are reviewed, run the bundled build script:

node $SKILL_DIR/scripts/build-pptx.js tmp/slides/{title}/config.json ./output/{title}.pptx

Placeholder System

Placeholders reserve space in HTML for native PowerPoint content (charts, tables, images). The <div> defines position/size; PptxGenJS fills the content.

<div class="placeholder" id="chart1" style="width: 300pt; height: 200pt;"></div>

Three types supported: chart (bar, line, pie, doughnut, scatter), table, and image. See references/pptxgenjs.md for complete placeholder JSON formats.

Design Consistency

The title slide (slide 0) establishes the visual language. Apply consistently:

Scripts

All scripts are in this skill's scripts/ directory. Find the skill path and use it:

SKILL_DIR="$(dirname "$(find ~/.claude -path '*/document-skills/pptx/SKILL.md' 2>/dev/null | head -1)")"

Troubleshooting

Reference Files

• HTML Rules - Complete HTML generation constraints
• Slide Templates - Templates for each slide type
• PptxGenJS Conversion - Config format, placeholder JSON, and conversion details