google-slides

name

google-slides

description

Use this skill any time the user wants to create a Google Slides deck from a template, mentions "Google Slides" with a template in mind, provides a Google Slides URL plus a content brief, or asks to "make slides", "build a deck", "generate a presentation", or "fill this template" in a Google Workspace context. Requires the Studio Google Slides + Google Drive MCP connectors. Do NOT use for PowerPoint (.pptx) creation (use the pptx skill), for editing without a template, or for authoring a new template (template authoring has its own skill).

Google Slides (Template-Driven Deck Editor)

Generate a Google Slides deck by picking pattern slides from a template deck, duplicating them, filling content via style-preserving text replacement, and hiding the originals. Every visible slide is a copy of a pre-styled pattern, so the template's fonts, colors, layouts, and theme survive without any explicit styling work from the agent.

Why this shape? The Google Slides API lets you edit text and structure but gives you no judgment about typography or layout. Treating each template slide as one finished pattern (not a parts catalog) keeps the agent out of styling decisions. replaceAllText edits text runs in place, so run-level styling — font, size, weight, color — is preserved automatically.

Prerequisites

Both connectors must be connected in Treasure Studio → Settings → Connected Services:

Connector	Purpose
Google Drive	Copying the template deck (files.copy)
Google Slides	Inspecting and editing the working deck

Confirm both are connected before proceeding. If either is missing, stop and ask the user to connect it.

Template Requirements (Author Contract)

The template deck must follow the complete-slide pattern convention:

• Each slide is one reusable layout, ready to be used whole
• No "parts catalog" slides that group multiple tables, CTAs, or boxes for users to extract pieces from — the Slides API cannot move elements between slides without losing fidelity
• Placeholder text uses recognizable tokens like [Title], [Body], [Metric Name], [CTA] — the agent replaces them by exact string match
• Slide titles, when present, follow Pattern: <layout description> (e.g., Pattern: Stat Callout (3 columns)) so the agent can pick from the catalog confidently

If the template violates these rules, explain the constraint and ask the user to update the template — working around it silently produces decks that do not match the template's design language.

Tools You Will Use

All tools are in the Studio MCP server (mcp__tdx-studio__*). Full tool schemas live in the tdx repo at studio/electron/services/google-tools.ts under createGoogleSlidesTools.

Tool	Role
google_drive_copy	Copy the template into a new working deck
google_slides_list_slides	Discovery — lightweight list of slides (id, title, skipped flag, element count)
google_slides_get_slide	Per-slide full detail — untruncated text, placeholder types, element geometry
google_slides_get	Full deck structure (heavier; prefer list_slides + get_slide on large decks)
google_slides_get_thumbnail	Renders a slide to a temp file path; pair with the built-in Read tool to actually load the image into the conversation for visual inspection
google_slides_duplicate_slide	Copy a pattern slide (optional insertion_index to pre-place the copy)
google_slides_replace_text	Fill placeholder text (style-preserving)
google_slides_hide_slides	Mark pattern originals as isSkipped (array — one call for all at once)
google_slides_batch_update	Table rows/columns, element transforms, image replacement, text styling, multi-request batches

google_slides_replace_text and google_slides_batch_update take YAML-encoded lists — see references/batch-update-recipes.yaml for the recipe library. Copy a recipe, fill in object IDs, pass the YAML string straight through as requests_yaml or replacements_yaml.

Workflow

The full step-by-step workflow lives in references/workflow.md. Read it before planning a deck — it explains what to verify at each step and how to recover from common mistakes. Short version:

1. Confirm both connectors, collect template URL + brief
2. Copy template deck        (google_drive_copy)
3. List slides               (google_slides_list_slides)
4. Plan deck                 (propose slide plan, get user sign-off)
5. Inspect chosen patterns   (google_slides_get_slide per plan entry;
                               inventory text, table cells, empty placeholders,
                               AND images — template stock images are replaceable content)
6. Duplicate into final position (google_slides_duplicate_slide with insertion_index —
                                  either reverse-iterate at index 0, or forward-iterate
                                  with growing index; see workflow.md Step 6)
7. Fill content              (google_slides_replace_text for text, google_slides_batch_update insertText for empty
                               placeholders, google_slides_batch_update replaceImage for images. Agent-
                               generated images go through generate_image → google_drive_upload
                               → google_drive_share → replaceImage)
8. Hide all used originals   (one google_slides_hide_slides call with the full array)
9. QA                        (load google-slides-review skill — independent
                               sub-agent review; loop until 0 findings)
10. Return the working deck URL plus a summary of patterns used

Prefer hiding a pattern slide (step 8) over deleting it: hiding is reversible, keeps the template readable as a reference, and lets you recover the pattern if QA surfaces a problem.

Pattern Selection

How to read thumbnails, match a brief to patterns, and avoid misclassification is covered in references/pattern-selection.md. Read it when building the slide plan in step 4.

QA

Step 9 hands off to the google-slides-review skill — see that skill's Inputs and Loop contract for how to invoke and when to stop. The leak sub-agent needs the per-element text snapshot captured during Step 5; do not skip that capture.

Failure Modes and Recovery

Non-obvious failures the agent is prone to. Generic issues (rate limits, YAML syntax errors) are not listed — the agent handles those from its own reading of error messages.

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
"Click to add text" / "Click to add subtitle" visible in the final deck	Empty placeholder shape was targeted with google_slides_replace_text — Google's UI hint is not a real text run	Use google_slides_batch_update insertText on the shape's objectId. get_slide flags these with isEmptyPlaceholder: true
Landscape / picture icon showing where an image should be	Empty placeholder: "PICTURE" shape was never filled	google_slides_batch_update createImage reusing the placeholder's size + transform, then deleteObject on the placeholder
Template stock photos / icons still visible	Agent treated type: "image" elements as template decoration	Inventory images in Step 5; swap via replaceImage using a user-supplied URL or the generate → upload → share → replaceImage pipeline
google_slides_batch_update fails when Google fetches an image URL	Drive file not shared publicly, or /view URL used instead of /uc?id=…	Call google_drive_share with role: reader, type: anyone; use the uc?id= form
Table cell reads "011" / "<new>Item One"	insertText was used on a non-empty cell — it prepends, not replaces	Use google_slides_replace_text with the cell's existing fullText as find. get_slide returns cells[].fullText
Stale rows like "5 Item Five" visible	Unused template table rows were left	google_slides_batch_update deleteTableRow per unused row, iterating from the bottom
All content lands in column 1 of a multi-column pattern	Column order not determined	Sort shapes sharing a placeholder role by transform.translateX before binding content
Japanese line breaks on wrong characters (） at start, （ at end, English words split)	Manual \n was injected; Slides API does not auto-apply kinsoku shori	Compose paragraphs as free-flowing text, break only at semantic boundaries. See references/filling-content.md kinsoku rules
Partial replacement inside one string	Template split the phrase across runs; replaceAllText matches within one run only	Fix the template; do not patch with updateTextStyle