PowerPoint Decks
Create, read and edit .pptx and .potx presentation files.
Install
npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill pptx -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- anthropics/skills186k
- Category
- Documents
- Updated
- 7d ago
- License
- See repository
- Context cost
- Mediumabout 3,000 tokens
- Runs scripts
- Yes, review before use
What it does
Use this skill any time a .pptx or .potx file is involved in any way, as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx or .potx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates (.potx), layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions \"deck,\" \"slides,\" \"presentation,\" or references a .pptx or .potx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx or .potx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.
PPTX creation, editing, and analysis
A .pptx is a ZIP archive of XML files. Choose your approach by task:
| Task | Approach |
|---|---|
| Create a new deck | Write a pptxgenjs script, see gotchas below |
| Edit an existing deck, or build from a template | unzip → edit ppt/slides/slideN.xml → zip |
| Read content | markitdown deck.pptx (one block per slide under <!-- Slide number: N --> markers); visual grid: python scripts/thumbnail.py deck.pptx |
Scripts
Paths are relative to this skill's directory. Everything else is plain Python, node, or shell.
| Script | What it does |
|---|---|
scripts/thumbnail.py deck.pptx [prefix] | Labeled grid of every slide, for picking template layouts. .pptx only. Pass prefix, it defaults to thumbnails, which overwrites the grids of any other deck done in the same directory |
scripts/add_slide.py unpacked/ slide2.xml [--after slideN.xml] | Duplicate a slide (or a slideLayoutN.xml) with all the package bookkeeping. Also takes a .pptx directly with -o out.pptx |
scripts/clean.py unpacked/ | Delete slides, media, and rels no longer referenced. Run after <p:sldIdLst> is final |
scripts/office/validate.py deck.pptx [--original src.pptx] | Schema, relationship, content-type, chart and slide checks; each failure names its fix. Pass --original for any template-derived deck, it baselines the schema checks against the template, so the template's own XSD errors don't read as yours |
scripts/office/soffice.py --headless --convert-to pdf deck.pptx | LibreOffice wrapper, bare soffice hangs in this sandbox |
Creating with pptxgenjs, gotchas
pptxgenjs is preinstalled, do not run npm install first; write the script and require('pptxgenjs') directly. Only if that require fails: npm install pptxgenjs. The model knows the API; these are the footguns:
