PPTX presentations

Use four stages as a reasoning framework, not a fixed tool pipeline:

1. Understand the request and source materials.
2. Build or edit the presentation using the approach best suited to the task.
3. Review the actual result with evidence proportionate to the risk.
4. Deliver the chosen candidate safely.

The user's explicit requirements are the primary acceptance criteria. Adapt the implementation and review depth to the task rather than optimizing for a template, style rule, or tool verdict from this skill.

Understand

Determine the audience, purpose, intended takeaway, authoritative sources, expected form, and what must remain unchanged. Distinguish factual sources from templates and visual references.

• Preserve source files unless replacement is explicitly requested.
• Do not invent unsupported facts, quotations, dates, names, values, or citations.
• When editing, preserve content, structure, formatting, notes, and package features the user did not ask to change.
• Inspect only the material and package features relevant to the requested outcome. Use direct Python, python-pptx, ZIP/XML inspection, LibreOffice, or another suitable approach as useful.

Resolve the mechanical CLI only when one of its commands helps:

SKILL_ROOT={{SKILL_ROOT_SHELL}}
PPTX="$SKILL_ROOT/scripts/pptx.sh"
WORKSPACE="${PILOTDECK_WORK_DIR:?PILOTDECK_WORK_DIR is required}/pptx"
mkdir -p "$WORKSPACE/tmp" "$WORKSPACE/review"

Build

Use the approach best suited to the task. python-pptx, PptxGenJS, direct OOXML editing, LibreOffice, other libraries, or a combination are all valid. Do not switch languages or adopt a wrapper merely to use this skill.

Keep task scripts, candidates, extracted media, reports, renders, and debugging output under PILOTDECK_WORK_DIR. Put only the requested final deliverable in the project workspace.