| name | pptx-diagram |
| description | Turn a Mermaid diagram into a PowerPoint slide using officecli's native mermaid→shapes synthesizer. Produces real editable PowerPoint shapes and connectors (not a flat image) when the diagram type supports it. Use when the user wants a diagram in a .pptx / PowerPoint deck, wants to export a mermaid diagram to slides, or asks for an architecture/flow/sequence diagram they can edit in PowerPoint. |
Mermaid → PowerPoint diagram
officecli renders Mermaid straight into a slide. Write the Mermaid, run
one command — do not hand-place shapes and connectors.
officecli create deck.pptx
officecli add deck.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Architecture"
officecli add deck.pptx '/slide[1]' --type diagram --prop render=native \
--prop mermaid="flowchart TD; A[Producer] --> B[(Topic)]; B --> C[Consumer]"
Pick the render mode — this is the only real decision
| Want | Use | Constraint |
|---|
| Editable shapes in PowerPoint | render=native | Only flowchart/graph and sequenceDiagram. Other types are rejected with a clear message. |
| Any mermaid type (gantt, pie, class, state, er, …) | render=image | Embeds a PNG via headless Chrome. Not editable; mermaid source is stamped into alt-text so it can be regenerated. |
Default is render=auto, which prefers the browser/PNG path when a browser
exists — so pass render=native explicitly whenever the user wants
editable shapes, otherwise they may silently get a picture.
If a diagram must be editable but isn't a flowchart/sequence, say so and
offer either the image path or a flowchart reshaping of the same content —
don't quietly fall back.
Placing and adjusting
- Default: scaled to fit the slide, centred. Slide size never changes.
- Explicit box:
--prop x=2cm --prop y=2cm --prop width=15cm --prop height=10cm (aspect always preserved).
--prop poster=true grows the slide to the diagram's natural size — use for "export this diagram as a slide", not for a diagram inside a normal deck.--prop src=diagram.mmd loads Mermaid from a file instead of inline.
Add returns one group path, e.g. /slide[1]/group[1]. The whole diagram
stays adjustable as a unit:
officecli set deck.pptx '/slide[1]/group[1]' --prop width=20cm --prop keepAspect=true
officecli remove deck.pptx '/slide[1]/group[1]'
Child font sizes re-bake on resize, so text stays proportional. A lone
width or height changes only that axis — add keepAspect=true, or pass
both for an exact box.
Verify before claiming it worked
officecli get deck.pptx '/slide[1]' --depth 1
officecli view deck.pptx issues
For a visual check: officecli view deck.pptx screenshot -o out.png (or
svg), then read the image.
Shell gotchas
- Quote the whole Mermaid string; use
; between statements for one-liners.
- Newlines inside
--prop text= need \\n, not \n.
- Paths are 1-based and must be quoted:
'/slide[1]'.
Notes
- Unsure whether a Mermaid construct exists or how it's spelled? Query
context7 (
/mermaid-js/mermaid) rather than guessing — it carries versioned
syntax docs, and a mermaid parse error surfaces as a failed add with no
slide. Check its Versions: list against the mermaid your renderer bundles;
newer syntax silently fails on an older parser.
- For a whole deck (multiple slides, layout, theming) rather than a
diagram, load officecli's own deck skill first:
officecli load_skill pptx.
- Mermaid already renders in GitHub, on claude.ai, and in a published
Artifact — but not in the Claude Code terminal, which has no graphics
protocol and prints the fence as literal text. Only reach for this skill
when the target really is PowerPoint; reach for
whiteboard when you
just need to see a diagram to agree on it.
