slidesage

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)

1. Understand content before style. Run the storyboard steps first; apply visual style last.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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   # education mode: no concept taught before its prerequisite

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            # first run only
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