| name | slidesage |
| description | Generate beautiful, static .pptx presentations whose structure is driven by storytelling and instructional design — no animation, but a deliberate narrative sequence with section "transition" beats. Use when the user wants a slide deck, presentation, PowerPoint, .pptx, pitch, keynote, business review, report-out, lecture, course, or workshop. Defaults to a persuasive BUSINESS narrative; switch to EDUCATION mode for Bloom's-aligned, learning-science decks. Produces a storyboard, then renders a designed deck in one of six visual styles. Works with any LLM agent that supports the open Skill format. |
| license | MIT |
SlideSage
Turn a topic into a static but stunning .pptx whose order and content are driven by a
storytelling + instructional-design engine. You (the agent) reason out a storyboard; a deterministic
Node renderer turns it into a designed deck. No motion — the sequence of slides and the section-divider
"transition" beats carry the narrative.
Two modes:
business (default, priority) — persuasive, executive-ready decks: pitches, keynotes, QBRs,
strategy, reports. Narrative arc = Pyramid Principle / Situation→Complication→Resolution.education (toggle) — teaching decks with Bloom's-aligned objectives, prerequisite sequencing, and
learning-science beats (retrieval practice, spacing, worked examples).
When to use this skill
Trigger when the user asks to create a presentation, slide deck, PowerPoint, .pptx, pitch, keynote, business
review, report-out, lecture, course, or workshop. If the user explicitly wants animated or web/HTML slides,
this skill is the wrong tool (it is static .pptx by design) — say so and stop.
Operating principles (read before generating)
- Understand content before style. Run the storyboard steps first; apply visual style last.
- One message per slide, written as an action title — a full-sentence takeaway, never a topic label.
Reading the titles top-to-bottom must tell the whole story on its own.
- Lead with the answer (business) / lead with the objective (education). In
business mode use the
Pyramid Principle: state the recommendation first, then support it. In education mode, objectives drive
what appears and in what order.
- Separation of concerns. Your job is the storyboard (
storyboard.json); the script does the
rendering. Never hand-write PPTX XML.
Workflow
Step 1 — Brief
Fill templates/brief.template.md with the user: topic, audience, the single goal (the decision you want, or
the thing learners can do after), mode (business default / education), time budget, hard constraints, and
a style preference. Ask only what you can't reasonably infer.
Step 2 — Build the storyboard spine
- business: Read
references/narrative-frameworks.md. Identify the governing thought (the one-line
recommendation), then the supporting pillars (MECE), then evidence. Map to
Situation→Complication→Question→Resolution→Ask.
- education: Additionally read
references/instructional-design.md and references/learning-science.md.
Write learning objectives with Bloom's 2001 verbs, list concepts + prerequisites, and place
pedagogy beats (worked examples, retrieval checks, spaced recaps).
Step 3 — Storyboard + narrative transitions
Read references/deck-architecture.md. Produce storyboard.json conforming to
schemas/storyboard.schema.json. Insert section-divider slides ("where we've been → where we're going")
at each act boundary — these are the narrative transitions. Validate:
node scripts/validate-storyboard.mjs storyboard.json
node scripts/check-dag.mjs storyboard.json
Step 4 — Pick a visual style
Read references/style-systems/README.md and choose ONE of:
futuristic-tech (dark) · corporate-bright (light) · japanese-editorial · soft-clay-3d ·
minimalist-luxury · modern-illustration · hand-drawn-editorial. Tokens live in
assets/style-tokens/<style>.json.
Step 5 — Render
npm install
node scripts/generate.mjs --in storyboard.json --style corporate-bright --out deck.pptx
Add a brand logo pinned to the top-right of every slide with --logo path/to/logo.png (or set meta.logo
in the storyboard). Titles automatically reserve space so they never run under the logo. If the logo has a
white/light wordmark, recolor it for light backgrounds first.
Step 6 — (Optional) motion — OFF by default
Only if the user asks for motion. Two independent, stackable injectors:
Slide transitions (between slides). Pass the storyboard so section dividers turn like a chapter (push) and
the rest fade:
node scripts/inject-transitions.mjs --in deck.pptx --storyboard storyboard.json
Click builds (within a slide): the title appears on the first click, then each body topic appears one-by-one
on subsequent clicks. Run this AFTER transitions:
node scripts/inject-builds.mjs --in deck.pptx
Builds target the shapes the renderer tags sage-title / sage-body, so they apply automatically to content,
data, summary, two-column, comparison, and call-to-action slides. These are intricate OOXML animations —
confirm playback in PowerPoint before presenting.
Step 7 — QA gate (always)
node scripts/qa-report.mjs --storyboard storyboard.json --deck deck.pptx
Fix every FAIL before delivering. Checklist source: references/qa-checklist.md (one message/slide, action
titles, contrast, MECE pillars, DAG order satisfied in education mode, citations present where claims are made).
The storyboard contract
The single artifact you author. See schemas/storyboard.schema.json and templates/storyboard.example.json.
Each slide carries an archetype, an actionTitle, what it covers/teaches, a visual spec, a
narrativeRole, and speaker notes. Keep it declarative — describe intent, not PPTX primitives.
Requirements
- Node.js ≥ 18 and
npm install in the skill root (PptxGenJS + a zip lib for the optional fade).
- No network needed at render time; fonts are embedded or substituted per style token.
Provider portability
This skill is plain text + Node scripts following the open Skill convention. Any LLM agent that can read
SKILL.md, write a JSON file, and run a shell command can use it. The storytelling/pedagogy reasoning is
model-agnostic; only the renderer is fixed, so output is consistent across providers.
Reference index (load on demand)
| File | Use it for |
|---|
references/narrative-frameworks.md | Pyramid Principle, S-C-R, action titles, transition beats |
references/deck-architecture.md | slide archetypes + deck skeletons (business & education) |
references/instructional-design.md | Bloom's, backward design, objectives (education) |
references/learning-science.md | retrieval, spacing, interleaving, cognitive load (education) |
references/concept-sequencing.md | building/validating the prerequisite graph (education) |
references/slide-patterns.md | per-archetype layout recipes |
references/chart-design.md | data-visualisation styling |
references/style-systems/* | the six visual systems + how to choose |
references/qa-checklist.md | the pre-delivery gate |
