// Technical reference for writing or editing open-slide pages — file contract, 1920×1080 canvas, type scale, layout, palette/visual direction, and assets. Consult this whenever you are about to write or modify any file under `slides/<id>/`, including from inside the `create-slide` or `apply-comments` workflows, or for any ad-hoc slide edit. Triggers on phrases like "edit slide", "tweak this page", "fix the layout", "change the palette", "investigate the slide framework", "how do slides work here".
Technical reference for writing or editing open-slide pages — file contract, 1920×1080 canvas, type scale, layout, palette/visual direction, and assets. Consult this whenever you are about to write or modify any file under `slides/<id>/`, including from inside the `create-slide` or `apply-comments` workflows, or for any ad-hoc slide edit. Triggers on phrases like "edit slide", "tweak this page", "fix the layout", "change the palette", "investigate the slide framework", "how do slides work here".
Authoring open-slide pages
This skill is the technical reference for everything that happens inside slides/<id>/index.tsx. It does not own a workflow:
create-slide owns "draft a new deck" — it asks the user scoping questions, then delegates the how to this skill.
apply-comments owns "process inspector markers" — it finds markers and applies edits, but the edits themselves follow the rules here.
current-slide resolves deictic references ("this page", "the slide I'm on") to a concrete slideId + pageIndex. Consult it first when the user references the current slide without naming it, then come back here for how to edit it.
Any ad-hoc slide edit (manual tweak, one-off fix) should also consult this skill before touching the file.
When any of those paths reach the point of writing React code for a page, this is the source of truth. Do not duplicate the knowledge below into other skills — link here instead.
Hard rules
Put the slide under slides/<kebab-case-id>/.
Entry is slides/<id>/index.tsx. Images/videos/fonts go under slides/<id>/assets/.
Do not touch package.json, open-slide.config.ts, or other slides.
Do not add dependencies. Only react and standard web APIs are available.
A slide is one index.tsx plus assets/ — nothing else. Do not create sibling .tsx/.ts files (Card.tsx, components/, helpers.ts, etc.); helper components and constants go inside index.tsx. Do not create README.md or other prose files either.
export default is a non-empty array of zero-prop React components, one per page, in order.
meta.title (optional) shows in the slide header. Default is the folder name.
The slide id is the kebab-case folder name. Pick something short and descriptive (q2-roadmap, team-offsite-2026).
meta.theme (optional) marks the slide as built from a theme under themes/. The id must match a <id>.md basename. Surfaces a back-link chip on the slide card and lists the slide on /themes/<id>. Omit if the slide isn't derived from a registered theme.
meta.createdAt is an ISO 8601 string literal (e.g. '2026-05-16T12:00:00Z') set once when the slide is scaffolded. The home page uses it for the default "newest first" sort. Always include it on new slides — immediately before writing the file, run node -e "console.log(new Date().toISOString())" via Bash and paste the exact output as the value. Don't type a timestamp from memory — you will get the date or time wrong. Must be a plain string literal (no new Date(...) or imports in the slide itself) — the framework reads it via a regex at build time, not by evaluating the module.
Editing an existing slide
A finished slide commonly runs 1000–1800 lines. When you only need to touch one page, don't read the whole file — locate the page first, then read just that range:
grep -n ": Page = " slides/<id>/index.tsx
This lists every const Foo: Page = … declaration with its line number. Read the target page with Read using offset + limit (~150 lines is usually enough to capture one page plus its helper components). Read the whole file only when you need cross-page context (palette audit, reordering, design const tweaks).
Canvas
Every page renders into a fixed 1920 × 1080 canvas. The framework scales it; you design as if the viewport is literally 1920×1080.
Use absolute pixel values for font-size, padding, positioning. No rem, no vw/vh, no % for type.
The root element of each page should fill the canvas: width: '100%'; height: '100%'.
Prefer inline style={{ … }}. Any CSS you load is global — scope classnames carefully.
Type scale (start here, adjust to taste)
Element
Size
Hero title
140–200px
Section heading
80–120px
Page heading
56–80px
Body text
32–44px
Caption / label
22–28px
Spacing
Content padding: 100–160px from canvas edges. Never let text touch the edge.
Line-height: 1.2 for headings, 1.5–1.7 for body.
Breathing room between elements: 32–64px.
Vertical budget — content MUST fit 1080px
The canvas does not scroll. Anything below 1080px is silently cropped. Before writing JSX, do the math on paper and confirm the page fits. This is the #1 cause of broken slides — assume you will overflow unless you've checked.
Usable height = 1080 − top_padding − bottom_padding. With 120px padding on each side that's 840px. With 160px each side, 760px. Pick the padding first, then design within that budget.
Element height = font_size × line_height × number_of_lines. A bullet that wraps to 2 lines counts as 2 lines. Add the gap below it (32–64px) before summing the next element.
Worked example — single content page, 120px padding (budget = 840px):
Element
Height
Heading: 80px × 1.2 × 1 line
96px
Gap
64px
Body paragraph: 40px × 1.6 × 3 lines
192px
Gap
48px
5 bullets: 40px × 1.6 × 1 line each
320px (5 × 64px)
4 gaps between bullets: 24px each
96px
Total
816px ✅ fits in 840
Swap the heading to 120px or add a 6th bullet and you're over. Verify every page like this before you write it.
Page-level rules:
One heading + body OR one heading + ≤5 short bullets. Not both blocks of body copy and a long bullet list.
A bullet should fit on one line at the chosen font size. If it wraps, either shorten the copy or move it to its own page.
Hero title pages (140–200px) carry a title + 1 subtitle + maybe an eyebrow — nothing else.
Section headings (80–120px) need almost nothing else on the page.
If you find yourself raising padding, shrinking type below the scale's lower bound, or tightening line-height under 1.4 to make things fit — split into two pages instead. Splitting is always the right answer when the budget is tight.
Never use overflow: auto/scroll, negative margins, or transforms to hide overflow. The canvas is fixed; cropped content is gone.
Visual direction
Pick a coherent look and hold it across every page:
Palette — 1 background, 1 primary text, 1 accent, 1 muted. Define as constants at the top of the file.
Typography — one display font + one body font. System stack unless the user specifies. Heavy weight for headlines (800–900), normal for body (400–500).
Layout grid — pick a single content padding (e.g. 120px) and stick to it. Left-aligned content feels editorial; centered feels ceremonial.
Consult the frontend-design skill for deeper aesthetic guidance if the user wants something bold.
Themes
If themes/<id>.md exists at the project root and the slide is meant to follow it, the theme file overrides the defaults in this skill — its palette, typography, layout padding, and Title/Footer components are authoritative. Read the theme file before applying anything else in this section.
Themes are produced by the create-theme skill and are pure documentation: copy the palette and the paste-ready Title / Footer / Eyebrow components straight into your slide. If the theme's frontmatter has mode: dark or mode: light, treat that as the slide's background mode (e.g. when picking which logo variant to import).
Design system (opt-in, per-slide)
A slide can declare its own typed design tokens at the top of index.tsx:
export it (rather than plain const) so the framework can read the object and inject CSS variables at the canvas root automatically.
The shape is intentionally minimal — it only covers what the Design panel can currently tweak. Anything outside this set (heading sizes, spacing, motion, extra palette colors) belongs as plain hard-coded constants in the slide file.
There are two consumption surfaces, and you should mix them inside the same slide:
var(--osd-X) for visual properties (color, font, font-size, radius) — these get instant updates while the user drags a slider in the Design panel, before any file write.
Available vars: --osd-bg, --osd-text, --osd-accent, --osd-font-display, --osd-font-body, --osd-size-hero, --osd-size-body, --osd-radius.
Direct design.X reads — when you need a JS number for arithmetic or to label something in the UI. These update via HMR after the panel commits the file, not while dragging.
<p>{design.typeScale.hero}px</p>
The dev UI has a Design button in the slide header (next to Inspect). Edits update an in-memory draft and the live-preview overlay; a floating Save / Discard bar at the bottom of the canvas commits or reverts. The const stays the single source of truth — production builds bake the saved values.
Default to using it. Every new slide should declare a design const so it stays tweakable from the panel after generation — this is the expected baseline. Only fall back to the local palette constants pattern (see starter template) for a one-off slide whose palette is intentionally locked and not meant to be re-themed. Both styles can coexist across slides — the panel only operates on the currently viewed slide.
Format constraints (for the panel's AST writer):
Must be [export] const design: DesignSystem = { … } (or as DesignSystem / satisfies DesignSystem) at module top level.
Object initializer must be a literal — no spreads, no helper calls. Plain values only.
DesignSystem must be imported from @open-slide/core (the panel adds the import automatically when creating a fresh block).
Starter template
importtype { DesignSystem, Page, SlideMeta } from'@open-slide/core';
exportconstdesign: DesignSystem = {
palette: { bg: '#0f172a', text: '#f8fafc', accent: '#fbbf24' },
fonts: {
display: 'system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif',
body: 'system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif',
},
typeScale: { hero: 180, body: 40 },
radius: 12,
};
// Extra colors / sizes outside the DesignSystem shape stay as plain consts.const muted = '#94a3b8';
const fill = {
width: '100%',
height: '100%',
fontFamily: 'var(--osd-font-body)',
} asconst;
constCover: Page = () => (
<divstyle={{...fill,
background: 'var(--osd-bg)',
color: 'var(--osd-text)',
display: 'flex',
flexDirection: 'column',
justifyContent: 'center',
padding: '0160px',
}}
><divstyle={{fontSize:28, color: 'var(--osd-accent)', letterSpacing: '0.2em' }}>
CHAPTER 01
</div><h1style={{fontFamily: 'var(--osd-font-display)',
fontSize: 'var(--osd-size-hero)',
fontWeight:900,
margin: '32px0',
lineHeight:1.05,
}}
>
The Big Idea
</h1><pstyle={{fontSize: 'var(--osd-size-body)', color:muted, maxWidth:1200 }}>
A short subtitle that explains what this slide is about.
</p></div>
);
constContent: Page = () => (
<divstyle={{...fill, background: 'var(--osd-bg)', color: 'var(--osd-text)', padding:120 }}><h2style={{fontFamily: 'var(--osd-font-display)', fontSize:80, fontWeight:800, margin:0 }}>
Section heading
</h2><ulstyle={{fontSize: 'var(--osd-size-body)', lineHeight:1.6, marginTop:64, paddingLeft:48 }}><li>One clear point per line</li><li>Keep to 3–5 bullets</li><li>Let the space breathe</li></ul></div>
);
exportconstmeta: SlideMeta = {
title: 'The Big Idea',
createdAt: '2026-05-16T12:00:00Z',
};
exportdefault [Cover, Content] satisfiesPage[];
Assets
Slide-local assets live under slides/<id>/assets/ — anything one-off to a single slide. Import them as ES modules:
Global assets — anything reused across decks or themes (company logos, presenter avatars, recurring icons) — live in the project root assets/ folder. Import them via the @assets alias:
import logo from'@assets/logos/acme.svg';
A themes/*.md file may name an asset path in its prose (e.g. "use @assets/logos/acme.svg in the title slot"); the slide imports it explicitly.
Skip the assets/ folder entirely for pure-text slides.
Image placeholders
When a page genuinely needs a real image the user has to provide — a product screenshot, a team photo, a chart from their data — leave a typed placeholder instead of inventing a stand-in:
The user uploads the real file via the Assets panel, then clicks the placeholder in the inspector and picks "Replace…" — the JSX is rewritten to a real <img> with the import added.
Use a placeholder only when a specific concrete image is required by the deck's topic. Examples that warrant one: a product-intro deck (product screenshot per feature), an offsite recap (team photo), a case study (customer logo, dashboard screenshot).
Do not use a placeholder for decoration, generic "stock photo" filler, hero imagery on a text-heavy slide, or anywhere a typographic / iconographic / illustrative solution would do. If you can carry the page with type, layout, and color — do that. Empty placeholders the user has to fill are friction; only spend that friction when the alternative is worse.
Size the placeholder to the slot it occupies. Pass width/height when the layout has a fixed image box; omit them when the placeholder fills a flex/grid cell. The hint should describe the content the user needs ("Q3 revenue chart") not the role ("hero image").
Page numbers
If a footer shows the current page (03 / 12, Page 3, etc.), read it from useSlidePageNumber() — never hardcoden / TOTAL. Inserting, reordering, or deleting a page would otherwise force you to retouch every footer.
current is 1-indexed (matches what readers see) and total is the slide's page count. The hook works in every render context (main viewer, thumbnails, overview grid, present mode, presenter window, HTML/PDF export) — the same <Footer /> JSX is correct everywhere. Call the hook inside a component that's used per page; don't try to call it at module top level.
Page transitions
The framework can run an enter/exit animation between every slide change. There's no default — pages snap unless you declare a SlideTransition. Snap-swap is a perfectly tasteful default; only opt in when motion adds something.
prefers-reduced-motion: reduce is honored automatically. You don't write a fallback.
Contract
Module-level for the whole deck; per-page to override. The incoming page wins: navigating A → B uses pages[B].transition ?? module.transition. Its exit plays on A, its enter plays on B. Going back B → A uses A's transition.
typeTransitionPhase = {
keyframes: Keyframe[] | PropertyIndexedKeyframes; // WAAPI keyframesduration?: number; // ms (falls back to top-level duration)easing?: string; // CSS easingdelay?: number; // ms — use to overlap exit + enter
};
typeSlideTransition = {
duration: number; // top-level fallbackeasing?: string; // top-level fallbackenter?: TransitionPhase; // runs on incoming pageexit?: TransitionPhase; // runs on outgoing page
};
The framework also exposes --osd-dir (1 forward, -1 backward) and data-osd-dir on the wrapper, so a single keyframe can mirror direction without a JS callback.
Design principles (hold the line)
The single loudest signal of "made in PowerPoint" is six different transitions in one deck. Restraint is the rhythm.
Pick one DNA, hold it across the deck. Same duration band, same easing pair, same out-then-in stagger. Variation lives only in which property gets the small nudge — Y, X, opacity, scale, blur.
Duration: 140–280 ms. Exit 140–180 ms, enter 200–280 ms, enter delayed ~80 ms so they overlap but don't fight. Past 350 ms is video-editor territory; reserve for genuine state changes.
Magnitude ceiling: 12 px or 3% scale. A 6 px Y-rise reads as "next thought." A 1920 px translateX reads as "different document." Premium tools move barely enough to register.
Opacity is always part of it. Pure-transform transitions look stiff; pure-opacity transitions are the safest possible default.
Easing: ease-in for exit, ease-out for enter.cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 1, 1) going out, cubic-bezier(0, 0, 0.2, 1) coming in. Never linear (feels like a slideshow). Reserve symmetric ease-in-out for state-anchored morphs only.
Tasteful family — six members, one DNA
Use this set as a starting point. Pick one as the deck's house transition; optionally reserve a second for hero/cover slides and a third for genuine section breaks. The CSS-calc + --osd-dir trick lets a single definition mirror itself on backward navigation when needed.
All six share the same DNA — they only differ in which property carries the small nudge. The reader perceives variety; the eye still reads one consistent hand.
Direction-aware keyframes (use sparingly)
Most tasteful tools don't mirror on backward navigation. When you genuinely need to — e.g. a horizontal slide that should reverse — use --osd-dir inside calc():
❌ clip-path: inset(…) reveals — After Effects vocabulary; theatrical.
❌ Parallel blur on both layers at once — visual mush; the eye can't fixate.
❌ Duration > 350 ms for a standard slide change — drags.
❌ Translate > 12 px or scale > 3% — reads as rupture, not continuity.
❌ linear easing — feels like a slideshow, not a product.
❌ Declaring a transition on every deck. If you don't have a clear reason, omit it. Snap-swap is fine.
Repeated elements: component, not map
When a page has visually repeated items — cards, logo rows, gallery tiles, list rows, step indicators — define a small component and instantiate it once per item. Do not render the group with array.map over a data array.
Define the component in the same index.tsx, alongside the Page components. Never split it into a sibling file like Card.tsx — a slide is always a single index.tsx plus its assets/.
// ✅ Each card is its own JSX node — inspector edits one at a time.constCard = ({ src, label }: { src: string; label: string }) => (
<divstyle={{display: 'flex', flexDirection: 'column', gap:16 }}><imgsrc={src}style={{width:320, height:320, objectFit: 'cover', borderRadius:12 }} /><pstyle={{fontSize:32 }}>{label}</p></div>
);
<divstyle={{display: 'grid', gridTemplateColumns: 'repeat(3, 1fr)', gap:64 }}><Cardsrc={alpha}label="Alpha" /><Cardsrc={beta}label="Beta" /><Cardsrc={gamma}label="Gamma" /></div>
// ❌ One shared template — replacing the image or text in the inspector// changes every rendered card at once.const items = [
{ src: alpha, label: 'Alpha' },
{ src: beta, label: 'Beta' },
{ src: gamma, label: 'Gamma' },
];
items.map((item) => (
<div><imgsrc={item.src} /><p>{item.label}</p></div>
));
The inspector edits source JSX in place. A map body is one source location shared by every rendered instance, so when the user replaces an image or tweaks a label there, every card mutates together. Explicit instances give each card its own JSX node and its own props — the unit the inspector can target.
The component definition stays the single source of truth for layout/styling (change it once → all cards update). Only the per-instance data — src, label, accent color — lives at the call site.
This applies whenever the visual element repeats, not whenever the data does. Pure-text lists (<ul><li> bullets) are fine: each <li> is already its own JSX node, so plain literal markup is the correct shape — no need to wrap them in a component.
Runtime behavior you get for free
Home page lists every folder under slides/.
Clicking a slide shows a left thumbnail rail, main page, prev/next, page counter.
Arrow keys / PageUp / PageDown navigate. F enters fullscreen play mode.
In play mode: Space/→ next, ← prev, Esc exit.
Hot reload: edit index.tsx and the browser updates live.
Self-review before finishing
slides/<id>/index.tsxexport defaults a non-empty Page[].
Every page's root fills 100% × 100%.
Content lives inside padding (no text kisses the edge).
For every page, sum (font_size × line_height × lines) + gaps + 2×padding ≤ 1080px. If close, split the page. No overflow: auto escape hatches.
No bullet wraps to a second line at the chosen font size.
One coherent visual direction across every page (palette + type scale).
Slide declares a top-level export const design: DesignSystem = { … } and references the values via var(--osd-X) (use design.X only when you need a JS number for arithmetic). Only omit the design const for a one-off slide whose palette is intentionally locked.
One idea per page.
Visually repeated elements (cards, tiles, logo rows) are rendered as explicit <Component /> instances, not via array.map over a data list.
All imported assets exist on disk — slide-local under slides/<id>/assets/, or global under assets/ (imported via @assets/...).
Every <ImagePlaceholder> corresponds to a real image the user must supply — not decorative filler. If it could be replaced by typography or layout, it should be.
If a SlideTransition is declared, every page sits in one family — same duration band (140–280 ms), same easing pair, same out-then-in stagger, magnitude under 12 px / 3%. No six-different-vocabularies decks. When in doubt, omit transitions entirely.
Nothing outside slides/<id>/ was edited.
Anti-patterns
❌ Walls of text. If a page has more than ~40 words, split it.
❌ Using the full canvas for body copy. Respect 100–160px padding.
❌ Overflowing 1080px vertically. Cropped content is invisible — split the page.
❌ overflow: auto / overflow: scroll / overflow: hidden to "hide" too much content. The canvas doesn't scroll; you've just hidden the bug.
❌ Shrinking type below the scale's lower bound, or padding below 100px, to cram more in. Split instead.
❌ Bullets that wrap to a second line — either shorten or move to its own page.
❌ Body type under 28px — unreadable on a projector.
❌ Inconsistent palette across pages.
❌ Installing packages. Only react and standard web APIs are available.
❌ Writing CSS to a shared file. Inline styles or scoped classnames only.
❌ Creating README.md or other prose files inside the slide folder.
❌ Editing package.json, open-slide.config.ts, or other slides.
❌ Sprinkling <ImagePlaceholder> across pages "for visual interest". Placeholders are for content the user owns; they're not stock-photo slots.
❌ Using a placeholder for an icon or decorative shape — those are typography/SVG problems, not asset problems.
❌ Rendering visually repeated elements with array.map(...) over a data array. Define a component and instantiate it explicitly per item (<Card />, <Card />, <Card />) so the inspector can edit each independently — a shared map body mutates every instance at once.
