@presentation-md/render

Turns a deck JSON spec into a polished, self-contained HTML slide deck — no build step, no external assets beyond Google Fonts. Exported HTML includes Present chrome (blackout/whiteout, laser/ink, overview grid, filmstrip peek F, inline edit E + ⌘/Ctrl+S save, speaker notes + visual up-next, elapsed timer, pace, nav dots/progress, #N deep-links) so agents can hand off a presentable file without Studio.

Install

npm install @presentation-md/render
# or
pnpm add @presentation-md/render

CLI

# Render a file
presentation-md-render deck.json -o slides.html

# Override theme
presentation-md-render deck.json --theme default-tech -o slides.html

# Pipe from stdin
cat deck.json | presentation-md-render -o slides.html

# Validate only (no output file)
presentation-md-render deck.json --validate

# Craft loop (MCP scaffold_deck / audit_deck / apply_theme parity — no MCP required)
presentation-md-render --list-scaffold-purposes
presentation-md-render --scaffold pitch -o deck.json --theme default-tech
presentation-md-render deck.json --audit
presentation-md-render deck.json --audit --fix -o deck.json

# Structural design judge t0/t1/t2 (MCP judge_deck parity; t3 panel stays on MCP)
presentation-md-render deck.json --judge
presentation-md-render deck.json --judge --judge-tier t0
presentation-md-render deck.json --judge --judge-tier t2 --judge-skip-screenshots
presentation-md-render deck.json --judge --judge-tier t2 --judge-shots-dir ./shots
presentation-md-render deck.json --apply-theme aurora-glass -o deck.json
presentation-md-render deck.json --apply-theme signal --no-repair -o deck.json

# Structural density remorph (non-LLM — MCP audit_deck remorph_density parity)
presentation-md-render deck.json --remorph-density speaker -o deck.json
presentation-md-render deck.json --remorph-density reading -o deck.json

# Studio share link (MCP share_deck_link parity)
presentation-md-render deck.json --share-link

# Deploy HTML / deck dir (wraps core deploy.sh — dry-run unless --confirm-deploy)
presentation-md-render deck.html --deploy
presentation-md-render deck.html --deploy --confirm-deploy
presentation-md-render ./deck-dir --deploy --confirm-deploy --deploy-prod
# Confirmed deploys have a 300s process deadline; override for slow providers
PRESENTATION_MD_DEPLOY_TIMEOUT_MS=600000 presentation-md-render deck.html --deploy --confirm-deploy

# One-shot craft prompt (MCP generate_deck_prompt parity)
presentation-md-render --generate-prompt --theme aurora-glass --prompt-density speaker -o craft-prompt.json
presentation-md-render --generate-prompt --prompt-intent "Board pack" --prompt-density reading -o craft-prompt.json

# List available themes
presentation-md-render --list-themes
presentation-md-render --list-themes --browse popular
presentation-md-render --list-themes --browse popular --json
presentation-md-render --list-browse-filters
presentation-md-render --list-shortlists

# Pick-3 theme compare (multi-layout craft previews — beats title-only skim)
presentation-md-render --preview-compare aurora-glass,signal,claude
presentation-md-render --preview-compare default-tech,claude --preview-dir ./tmp/previews --preview-mode layouts
presentation-md-render --preview-compare claude --no-preview-shots

# Restyle YOUR deck across themes (Studio/MCP My deck parity)
presentation-md-render --preview-compare aurora-glass,signal,claude --preview-deck ./deck.json --preview-slide 1

# Import a PowerPoint file to deck JSON
presentation-md-render --from-pptx board-deck.pptx -o deck.json --theme claude

# Same import, but write extracted images to disk (relative paths in deck JSON)
presentation-md-render --from-pptx board-deck.pptx -o deck.json --assets-dir ./assets

# Import Marp / md-slides Markdown to deck JSON
presentation-md-render --from-md outline.md -o deck.json --theme signal

# Export to native, editable PowerPoint
presentation-md-render deck.json --format pptx -o deck.pptx

# Export to vector PDF (180s process deadline by default)
presentation-md-render deck.json --format pdf -o deck.pdf
# Override the deadline when first-run browser installation needs longer
PRESENTATION_MD_PDF_TIMEOUT_MS=300000 presentation-md-render deck.json --format pdf -o deck.pdf

# Speaker-notes handouts (Studio / MCP notes_txt · notes_vtt parity)
presentation-md-render deck.json --format notes_txt -o notes.txt
presentation-md-render deck.json --format notes_vtt -o notes.vtt

Deck JSON and Markdown text inputs are capped at 10 MiB to keep agent and shell invocations memory-safe. PDF export subprocesses are terminated after 180 seconds by default so a stuck browser or installer cannot hang CLI/MCP indefinitely. Captured PDF/deploy subprocess output is capped at 1 MiB across stdout and stderr; set PRESENTATION_MD_CHILD_OUTPUT_MAX_BYTES to override it. Screenshot Chrome subprocesses are terminated as a process tree after 25 seconds by default; set PRESENTATION_MD_SCREENSHOT_TIMEOUT_MS for a different deadline or PRESENTATION_MD_CHROME_PATH to select a specific executable.

Programmatic API

import { renderDeck, renderDeckPptx } from "@presentation-md/render";
import { readFile, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";

const deckJson = await readFile("deck.json", "utf-8");
const html = await renderDeck(deckJson, {
  extraCss: ".slide { font-size: 18px; }",
});
await writeFile("output.html", html);

const pptx = await renderDeckPptx(deckJson);
await writeFile("output.pptx", pptx);

renderDeck(deckJson, opts?): Promise<string>

| Option | Type | Description | |--------|------|-------------| | themesDir | string | Override bundled themes directory | | extraCss | string | Additional CSS appended after base styles |

Throws if the deck JSON is invalid (schema errors included in message).

getBundledThemesDir(): string

Returns the absolute path to the bundled themes directory from @presentation-md/core.

See also

• Main README
• Deck schema reference
• Theme reference