| name | office-pptx |
| description | Native .pptx generation by authoring one SVG per slide and converting with the bundled offline svg_to_pptx tool — every shape stays natively editable in PowerPoint / Keynote / WPS. Also reads and parses existing decks with python-pptx. Use this for any presentation, pitch deck, slides, or .pptx request, and for reading or modifying an existing .pptx. |
office-pptx — native PPTX from SVG
You build an editable native .pptx by hand-authoring one SVG per slide and converting the deck with the bundled, offline svg_to_pptx converter. No LibreOffice, no LLM-rendered image slides — every shape stays natively editable in PowerPoint / Keynote / WPS.
Reading / editing an existing deck
To read or modify a deck the user already has, use python-pptx directly — you do not need the SVG authoring flow below (reserve that for building a new deck from scratch). python-pptx is pinned in this skill's pyproject.toml, so set up the working project (see below) and run through uv run:
uv run python -c "from pptx import Presentation; import sys; prs=Presentation(sys.argv[1]); \
[print(shape.text) for slide in prs.slides for shape in slide.shapes if shape.has_text_frame]" input.pptx
Presentation(path) opens the file; iterate prs.slides then each slide.shapes to extract text, tables, or images, edit them in place, and prs.save('out.pptx'). Use this for requests like "pull the text out of this deck" or "change the title on slide 3".
Runtime contract
uv must be on PATH. This skill runs all Python through uv run; the runtime injects the package-mirror environment variables so uv resolves python-pptx from the internal mirror. You do not configure the mirror yourself.- If
uv is missing, stop and report exactly: office-pptx requires 'uv' on PATH, but 'uv --version' failed. This is an environment problem — uv should be provisioned by the PawWork runtime. Do not fall back to system pip; report the missing uv instead. Do not attempt pip install, brew install, or any other fallback.
- The skill directory ships read-only inside the app bundle. Never write into it. Do all work in a fresh working directory (e.g.
./office-pptx-work/).
Below, SKILL_DIR means the skill's base directory as a plain filesystem path — copy the line labeled "Base directory as a plain filesystem path" from the skill-load output. Do not use the file:// URL form; if only a file:// URL is available, strip the file:// prefix first. Set it once:
SKILL_DIR="<plain filesystem path from the skill-load output, no file:// prefix>"
uv --version || { echo "office-pptx requires 'uv' on PATH (see Runtime contract)"; exit 1; }
Setup the working project
mkdir -p work/deck/svg_output work/deck/notes work/artifacts
cp "$SKILL_DIR/pyproject.toml" work/pyproject.toml
Run every uv run command from work/ (the directory that holds pyproject.toml).
Authoring rules (hard floor — do not relax)
- Canvas: every SVG must use
viewBox="0 0 1280 720" (16:9). Keep all shapes inside that box.
- One SVG per slide in
deck/svg_output/, named with zero-padded order prefixes (01_title.svg, 02_chart.svg, ...); files convert in filename order.
- Font sizes are SVG px, exported at 0.75pt per px. Set an explicit
font-size on every <text>: titles at least 60 px (= 45pt), body at least 24 px (= 18pt), and titles at least 2× the body px. Write one <text> per visual line, not positional <tspan>.
- SVG
<text> does not wrap — a long line renders straight off the slide edge. Budget characters before writing: a Latin line takes about 0.55 × font-size px per character (CJK about 1.0 × font-size). Keep chars × 0.55 × font-size ≤ 1220 − x for every line. Example: a 60px title starting at x=80 fits at most ~34 Latin characters. Split or shorten longer lines. (The text-budget gate below enforces this.)
- Conclusion titles, not topic labels. Every slide needs a real visual object (native chart, image, or a structured system of 3+ shapes). Vary layout across the deck.
- Speaker notes: for each content slide add
deck/notes/<same-stem>.md (e.g. 02_chart.md for 02_chart.svg); its Markdown becomes that slide's notes. Cover at least slides 2..N.
- Native editable chart (required whenever the slide presents data): wrap the chart region in
<g data-pptx-native="chart" data-pptx-x="80" data-pptx-y="210" data-pptx-width="1120" data-pptx-height="450"> and put the data in a child
<metadata type="application/json">{"type":"column","categories":["Q1","Q2"],"series":[{"name":"2025","values":[10,20]}]}</metadata>.
Each series values length must equal categories length. type may be column, bar, line, pie, doughnut, or area. Keep a plain fallback shape inside the group. This becomes a real ppt/charts/chart*.xml (editable chart), not a picture.
- Image: use
<image x=".." y=".." width=".." height=".." xlink:href="pic.png"/> and place pic.png next to the SVGs in deck/svg_output/. Base64 data: hrefs also work. Images are embedded into ppt/media/.
Gate 1 — text budget (before converting)
Run the budget check and fix every reported line (shorten the copy or split it into more <text> lines) until it prints OK:
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/check_text_budget.py" deck/svg_output
Do not convert while this reports FAIL.
Convert
Run from work/ (holds pyproject.toml):
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/svg_to_pptx.py" deck --only native --no-compat --native-objects -o artifacts/<name>.pptx
--only native skips the legacy image-based pptx; --no-compat skips the PNG fallback (no cairosvg needed); --native-objects turns the data-pptx-native chart markers into real ppt/charts/chart*.xml.
Gate 2 — package assets (before delivering)
Finish in this order:
- Write
artifacts/artifact-summary.json. It must at least contain the keys renderer (string) and slides (non-empty array, one entry per slide with its title and layout); also record visual rules applied and limitations.
- Run the package gate as the last step and fix every reported gap by rebuilding the deck source — never hand-edit the zip — until it prints
OK (run from work/, same as every other command — all Python goes through uv run, never a bare python3):
uv run python "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/check_pptx_assets.py" artifacts/<name>.pptx --slides <N> [--require-chart] [--require-media]
Pass --require-chart for data-backed decks and --require-media when the deck must embed an image. The gate also requires artifact-summary.json to already exist next to the artifact, and checks the slide count and speaker-note coverage.
The deck is not done until Gate 1 and Gate 2 both print OK. Machine checks decide completion, not your own judgement.
Provenance
The svg_to_pptx converter under scripts/ is vendored from an upstream MIT project. See VENDORED.md for the exact source (repo, tag, commit) and the omitted/optional-dependency notes, and LICENSE for the upstream MIT license. Both must ship with this skill; do not remove them.
