Build and edit PowerPoint presentations with AI. A Claude Code plugin that generates .pptx and .pdf files through a guided workflow — separating story, structure, design, and slide generation into distinct phases for better results.
When you ask AI to generate a presentation in one shot, you get generic slides with surface-level content. The AI has to guess your audience, pick a structure, decide on visuals, and write content all at once — and it cuts corners on all of them.
deckwright fixes this by breaking the problem into phases that build on each other:
- Narrative first — figure out what to say before touching slides. Who's the audience? What should they do afterward? What's the one thing they should remember? This alone transforms the output.
- Structure before layout — organize your key messages, evidence, and emphasis levels into sections. Decide what matters most before deciding how many slides it gets.
- Research-driven design — the design phase reads visual design principles and searches the web for relevant inspiration before proposing colors, fonts, and layouts. No generic templates.
- Validated generation — every slide is checked against a visual quality checklist (whitespace, contrast, anti-patterns) and regenerated until it passes.
Each phase produces a document you review and approve before moving on. You catch problems early — a weak narrative gets fixed at the narrative stage, not after 30 slides have been generated. And because each phase's output is a readable document, you can edit at any level: rethink the story without touching the design, or redesign the visuals without rewriting the content.
Already have a deck? Use import to reverse-engineer it into the pipeline and improve it through any phase.
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.
Add the marketplace and install:
claude plugin marketplace add michaelengland/claude-plugins
claude plugin install deckwrightStart 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.
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.
Turns your content outline into a complete slide design. This skill:
- Researches visual design excellence — reads bundled design principles and searches the web for inspiration relevant to your topic
- Plans how content sections become slides — decides slide count, layouts, and rhythm based on emphasis levels
- Proposes the visual direction (color palette, typography, style) for approval
Output: A slide design document saved to the deck folder.
Executes your slide design to produce the final .pptx and .pdf:
- Generates slides using PptxGenJS
- Exports to PDF
- Validates every slide against a visual checklist (whitespace, contrast, anti-patterns)
- Fixes and regenerates until all slides pass
- Delivers both files
Already have a deck you want to improve? This skill takes a .pptx file and reverse-engineers it into an editable PptxGenJS generation script:
- Parses all slides — text, shapes, images, tables, charts, speaker notes
- Creates a deck folder with a generation script and extracted images
- 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.
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
/deckwright:narrative → /deckwright:craft → /deckwright:design → /deckwright:present
(story) (content) (design) (slides)
Each phase produces a document you can review and revise before moving to the next.
/deckwright:import → choose your starting point → /deckwright:present
├─ /deckwright:narrative (rethink the story)
├─ /deckwright:craft (restructure content)
├─ /deckwright: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.
MIT