@mdgate/pptx

Convert PowerPoint to Markdown in TypeScript.

@mdgate/pptx reads .pptx, .pptm, .ppsx, .ppsm, .potx, and .potm files directly in JavaScript and converts slides into GitHub-Flavored Markdown, without Python, native addons, WASM, or PowerPoint.

Works in Node.js, Cloudflare Workers, Edge runtimes, and browsers.

npm install @mdgate/pptx

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/pptx';

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

bytes is a Uint8Array, so the deck can come from a file upload, object storage, an HTTP request, a browser file picker, or anywhere else your application gets bytes.

Why @mdgate/pptx

Slide decks are a common way people store the actual argument: titles, bullets, tables, speaker notes.

@mdgate/pptx is a PresentationML reader written for the same runtime as your application:

• Pure TypeScript
• PPTX → Markdown locally
• No Python runtime
• No native addons
• No WASM runtime
• Zero third-party runtime dependencies
• Works with raw Uint8Array input
• Detects OOXML presentations from their contents, not only the filename

Use it when an agent needs the contents of a deck, not a screenshot pipeline.

What it extracts

@mdgate/pptx walks slides in package order and applies the text cascade: slide, then layout, then master, then presentation defaults.

The converter handles PowerPoint-specific concerns including:

• slide titles and body text
• lists
• tables
• speaker notes, rendered as a block quote after each slide
• charts and diagrams as readable blocks when present
• images that can be handed to a reader composed with @mdgate/core

The output is Markdown that can be searched, indexed, chunked, cached, or passed directly to an AI agent.

Legacy binary .ppt files are a different format. Use @mdgate/ppt for those.

Node.js

import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/pptx';

const bytes = new Uint8Array(await readFile('deck.pptx'));
const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

console.log(markdown);

Browser

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/pptx';

const file = input.files![0];
const bytes = new Uint8Array(await file.arrayBuffer());

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

Cloudflare Workers and Edge runtimes

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/pptx';

export default {
  async fetch(request: Request) {
    const bytes = new Uint8Array(await request.arrayBuffer());
    const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

    return new Response(markdown, {
      headers: {
        'content-type': 'text/markdown; charset=utf-8',
      },
    });
  },
};

upload PPTX
↓
Cloudflare Worker
↓
@mdgate/pptx
↓
Markdown
↓
agent / search / index / storage

Format detection

You do not need to trust the file extension.

@mdgate/pptx recognizes PowerPoint OOXML packages from ZIP package metadata.

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes);

A path can still be supplied as a format hint when @mdgate/pptx is used through @mdgate/converters or a reader composed with @mdgate/core, but the path is never used to read a file from disk.

Compose it with other file readers

@mdgate/pptx implements the converter interface from @mdgate/core.

import { create } from '@mdgate/core';
import { pptx } from '@mdgate/pptx';
import { pdf } from '@mdgate/pdf';
import { docx } from '@mdgate/docx';

const read = create([
  pptx(),
  pdf(),
  docx(),
]);

The application still uses one reading interface while each format remains independently installable.

Need more than PowerPoint?

If your application needs to read many different file types, use the complete converter set:

npm install @mdgate/converters

import { toMarkdown } from '@mdgate/converters';

const markdown = await toMarkdown(bytes, {
  path: filename,
});

@mdgate/pptx is one of the single-format packages in the open-source mdgate/converters project.

For AI agents, the same converter architecture can be used to extend read_file from text files to real-world document formats.

License

MIT