Preview
What it is.
For a marketing team this is how you get a board deck, a QBR or a sales narrative out of a document without rebuilding it slide by slide. It picks its approach by task: a script for a new deck, unzip and edit the XML when you are working from a template.
The part worth knowing about is the template path. A thumbnail script writes a labeled grid of every slide in a template so layouts get chosen deliberately, and the skill warns you to vary them instead of putting every section on the same title-and-bullets slide.
There is also a validator. It checks schema, relationships, charts and slide XML, names the correction for each failure, and can baseline against the original template so the template's own faults are not read as yours.
What you get.
- A new deck from a script, or a template-derived deck built on the client's own layouts
- A labeled thumbnail grid of any template, for choosing layouts before writing content
- Native PowerPoint charts and not pasted images, so the numbers stay editable
- A validator that names the fault and the correction
- Speaker notes handled properly, in the notes field instead of a text box
How to set it up.
Add the marketplace with /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills, then /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills.
Set the layout before adding slides. The default canvas is 10 by 5.625 inches, and the wide layout is 13.3 by 7.5, so coordinates written for the wrong one land off the slide with no error.
For a template, run the thumbnail script with a second argument named after the deck. It defaults to a shared filename, so two templates thumbnailed in one folder overwrite each other.
Do all structural work first: add, delete and reorder slides before editing any content.
Write hex colors without a hash and without alpha. Both forms corrupt the file, and transparency has its own option.
Use native charts and set the frame yourself. Defaults render with no title, no data labels and a dated palette.
Pricing Plans
Free to use. Source-available license, not open source.
Included in Anthropic's document-skills plugin. Checked against the repo in July 2026.
Use cases
QBR onto the client's template
The quarterly review exists as a document and the client has a .potx. Hand over both and run the thumbnail script to see every layout labeled, and the content gets mapped onto the client's own slides.
Board deck with living charts
Someone always wants an axis changed in the review. Build the charts as native PowerPoint objects, and the edit takes a minute in the meeting.
A deck that won't open
PowerPoint refuses a generated file. Run the validator and it names the fault and the correction, baselining against the original template so its pre-existing quirks aren't blamed on you.
Escaping title-and-bullets
Every section of the draft deck sits on the same layout. The thumbnail grid puts all of the template's layouts in front of you, and the skill's warning is to vary them deliberately.
Best for
A deck from an existing document
Content mapped onto your own template's layouts, which is the step that makes a generated deck look like it came from your company.
Client-branded decks at volume
Working from a .potx means the brand comes from the template instead of from a description of it.
Charts that stay editable
Native charts survive the review meeting where somebody wants the axis changed.