| name | md-slides |
| description | Converts a markdown deck (slides separated by `---` HR boundaries or by `# ` H1 headings, with optional `<!-- notes: ... -->` presenter notes blocks) into a single-file HTML presentation with arrow-key / space / PgDn / PgUp / Home / End / P / Esc keyboard navigation. |
| version | 2.10.3 |
| author | Alireza Rezvani |
| license | MIT |
| tags | ["markdown","html","slides","deck","presenter-mode","keyboard-nav","print-to-pdf","single-file","design-system"] |
| compatible_tools | ["claude-code","codex-cli","cursor","antigravity","opencode","gemini-cli"] |
md-slides — Markdown deck → single-file HTML presentation
The slide-deck converter. Reads a markdown deck (HR or H1 boundaries, optional presenter notes), emits a single-file HTML presentation that runs in any browser with keyboard navigation, presenter mode, and print-to-PDF.
Three stdlib tools pipeline together:
slide_splitter.py → presenter_notes_parser.py → deck_html_renderer.py
(md → ordered (extract <!-- notes: (slides + design-system
slides with --> blocks, attach tokens → single-file
titles) per slide) HTML with keyboard nav)
When to invoke
| Symptom | Action |
|---|
markdown-html-orchestrator routes input as SLIDES | Invoke this skill |
User runs /cs:md-slides <path>.md directly | Invoke this skill |
Input has 3+ --- HR lines OR 5+ H1 headings with short bodies | Invoke this skill |
| Input is a long-form spec | Route to md-document instead |
| Input is a code review | Route to md-review instead |
| Input has no clear slide boundaries | Refuse, route to md-document |
| Input would produce 1 slide | Refuse (it's a poster) |
Pipeline
python3 markdown-html/skills/md-slides/scripts/slide_splitter.py \
--input <path>.md --output /tmp/slides.json
python3 markdown-html/skills/md-slides/scripts/presenter_notes_parser.py \
--slides /tmp/slides.json --output /tmp/deck.json
python3 markdown-html/skills/md-slides/scripts/deck_html_renderer.py \
--slides /tmp/deck.json --title "My Talk" --output deck.html
What ships in the HTML
- All slides as
<section class="slide"> — one visible at a time, controlled by JS
- Keyboard nav —
→ / Space / PgDn advance; ← / PgUp previous; Home/End jump; P presenter mode; Esc exits presenter
- URL-hash deep linking —
#3 jumps to slide 3; browser back/forward walks slides; share deck.html#5 to send someone directly there
- Progress bar — 3px at top showing position through the deck
- Slide counter — bottom-right ("3 / 12")
- Presenter mode (P key) — splits the window: current slide on left (60% width), panel on right with clock + speaker notes + next-slide preview
- Print stylesheet —
Cmd+P produces a PDF with one slide per page
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) honored- 12 brand CSS custom properties from design-system; design_style affects layout density
- Reuses md-document's markdown parser — slide bodies render with consistent paragraph/list/code/table/callout handling
Hard rules
- Refuses input with no clear slide boundaries. Auto mode needs ≥ 3 HR lines or ≥ 5 H1 headings. Otherwise exit 6 — route to md-document.
- Refuses 1-slide decks. That's a poster, not a deck. Exit 5.
- Refuses input < 100 lines. Same Shihipar threshold as all converters.
- Refuses without onboarding. Same gate as every converter.
--strict-notes refuses < 50% notes coverage. A deck where most slides have no notes isn't set up for presenter mode. Exit 7.- Soft-warns slides > 40 source lines. Signal-to-noise; renders anyway but surfaces the count.
- Single-file output. All CSS + JS inline. Only external is Google Fonts CSS. Prism.js is opt-in via
--syntax.
- No JS framework runtime. Vanilla JS + keyboard event handlers, no React/Vue/Svelte.
Forcing-question library (Matt Pocock grill discipline)
- Is this actually a deck, or a long document? Recommended: if you can't draw clear slide boundaries, it's not a deck. Canon: Tufte Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.
- HR (
---) or H1 boundaries? Recommended: HR for typical decks; H1 for outline-driven decks. Canon: Marp / reveal.js / pandoc convergence.
- Will it be presented live or distributed for self-paced reading? Recommended: live → need presenter notes; self-paced → notes optional. Canon: Weinschenk 100 Things Every Presenter Needs to Know.
- Is there any slide over 40 source lines? Recommended: split it. Canon: NN/g — audience attention drops past ~6 bullets / 200 words.
- Is
--syntax needed? Recommended: only for decks with substantial code blocks. Default off. Canon: single-file shareability discipline.
Distinct from
md-document — that's one continuous document. This is N discrete slides.md-review — that renders diff hunks + annotations. This renders prose slides.marketing/landing/ — that's a landing page, not a deck.- Keynote / PowerPoint — those are graphic-design tools. This is for markdown-authored decks projected from a browser.
Output artifact
{default_output_dir}/deck-{slug}.html (path resolved by orchestrator's output_path_resolver.py; collision suffix -2, -3, … by default).
References
- Shihipar — Claude Code HTML output (Medium, 2026), Tier 3 use case "Slide Decks"
- Reynolds — Presentation Zen (less is more discipline)
- Atkinson — Beyond Bullet Points (the bullet-heavy failure mode)
- Tufte — The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint (the polemic)
- reveal.js / Big / Marp — convergent markdown-to-deck conventions
- See
references/ for full citations (presentation_ux, keyboard_nav_patterns, single_file_deck_conventions)
Activation Triggers
presenter mode (split view with current slide + speaker notes + clock + next-slide preview), URL-hash deep linking, and @media print page-per-slide for PDF export. Triggers when the markdown-html-orchestrator classifies an input as SLIDES, or when invoked directly via /cs:md-slides. Reuses md-document's markdown parser for slide-body rendering and reads design-system tokens via config_loader.py. Refuses if input has no clear slide boundaries, produces a 1-slide deck, or --strict-notes is on with < 50% notes coverage. Use after orchestrator routing.
