| name | presenterm-presentation |
| description | Create/review/update Presenterm or Markdown slide decks, talk outlines, speaker notes, themes, exports, and presentation flow/readability. Use when authoring or reviewing a slide deck or talk; not for prose documents or non-slide markdown. |
| compatibility | {"tools":"read, write, bash","dependencies":["presenterm","weasyprint (optional, for PDF export)","mermaid-cli (optional, for Mermaid rendering)"]} |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
Presenterm Presentation
Use this skill to create or modify slide decks for Presenterm, a terminal-based presentation tool that uses Markdown as the source format.
When to use
- User asks to create, review, or update a Presenterm or Markdown-based slide deck.
- User asks for "slides" in a terminal/markdown context, even without naming Presenterm.
- Task touches themes, Mermaid diagrams, speaker notes, exports (HTML/PDF), layouts, alignment, or comment commands.
- User wants an existing deck simplified, restructured, or made presentation-ready.
Default house style
Unless the user explicitly asks for something else, apply these defaults to every new or refactored deck:
- Front matter always has
title, sub_title, author, and options.list_item_newlines: 2.
- No duplicate title slide — the title slide comes from the front matter.
- Slide titles use Setext
--- headings, not ======.
<!-- alignment: center --> on every slide unless a different layout is needed.
<!-- jump_to_middle --> only on divider/transition/sparse slides (at most 1-3 short lines).
- Keep slides very clean and very small; prefer more slides over denser ones.
- Default to speaker notes for live talks so slides stay light.
- Treat these as defaults, not laws — adapt deliberately when clarity, story flow, or audience needs call for it.
If title/sub_title/author are missing, derive concise defaults from context and state that briefly.
What this skill should produce
- A primary deck file (
deck.md or <topic>.md).
- Optional supporting files only when needed: theme YAML, local images/assets, included Markdown partials.
- Clear run/export commands for the user.
- References to further documentation.
Before you start
Capture what the user already gave, filling gaps with sensible stated defaults: presentation goal/audience, delivery mode (live talk, workshop, demo, recorded, async readout), expected length, output path/filename, front-matter values, desired deliverable (source only / runnable / exported HTML-PDF / speaker notes / custom theme), whether demos or discussion prompts fit, and whether assets already exist locally.
Core workflow
- Define the deliverable and presentation mode (live talk, workshop, demo-heavy, async); create a single Markdown deck first, add extra files only if needed.
- Shape a light narrative arc before writing slides: hook, orientation, 2-4 main sections, optional demo/interaction, takeaways, close/Q&A.
- Structure the deck with house-style front matter, one Markdown file as source of truth, slides separated by
<!-- end_slide -->.
- Apply the default slide pattern: centered alignment,
--- slide titles, jump_to_middle only for sparse divider slides, short/sparse bodies.
- Write for speaking, not reading: one idea per slide, concise bullets/short code/visuals, nuance pushed into speaker notes.
- Use Presenterm-native comment commands (
pause, incremental_lists, column_layout/column/reset_layout, speaker_note) instead of ad-hoc HTML.
- Add delivery support for live talks: speaker notes by default,
pause/incremental_lists only where genuinely useful, interaction/demos when they help.
- Make the deck runnable (
presenterm <file>.md while drafting, presenterm --present <file>.md to present).
- If export is requested: HTML via
presenterm --export-html <file>.md, PDF via presenterm --export-pdf <file>.md (needs weasyprint).
- Run a presentation-quality self-check (clear audience/outcome, one job per slide, explicit transitions/takeaways, readable density, purposeful demos/interaction).
- End with references to official docs/examples and the deliverables/run/present/export commands.
Full reference
Read references/presenterm-reference.md for: exact Presenterm syntax and comment commands, install commands, the canonical deck template, the full light-presentation-arc guidance, detailed authoring guidance (front matter, slide titles, sizing, alignment, layouts, images, Mermaid orientation, speaker notes, themes, exporting), the full best-practices checklist, the output-format template, and additional model notes. Read it whenever you need exact syntax, are unsure whether a feature is supported, or need a full worked example.