create_presentation_from_file
Create a complete PowerPoint presentation from JSON or markdown file
LABSCO SUMMARY
Content in, formatting handled — including the images you forgot.
The placeholder-and-crop behaviour is the practical detail: a deck generated from Markdown normally breaks the moment an image path is wrong, and here it degrades into a placeholder instead of failing. The remap command is separately useful — it fixes language and font on decks that already exist. Note the maintainer's own warning about production readiness, and that the supported layout library is described as progressive rather than complete.
What it is
A Python library, CLI and MCP server that generates PowerPoint presentations from structured content. You write the content as Markdown with frontmatter or as JSON; it picks the layout, applies the template, and handles the formatting.
What you get
- A complete presentation generated from JSON or Markdown with YAML frontmatter in a single command
- Rich text formatting — bold, italic, underline and bold-italic — plus tables with themes, colors and precise column widths, row heights and table sizing
- Layout recommendations chosen from the content, with a pattern-based architecture you can point at your own templates
- Image handling that fills gaps: missing images become professional placeholders, with face detection and intelligent composition for cropping, and business-appropriate filters
- A hierarchical CLI —
deckbuilder template(analyze, validate, document, enhance, list),deckbuilder config,deckbuilder image(generate, crop), anddeckbuilder remapto change language and font in existing PowerPoint files - 20 proofing languages, addressable by locale code or full name
Requirements
Python 3.11+. Install with pip install deckbuilder, then run deckbuilder init once to create the default template and its mapping JSON. For MCP, the client command is deckbuilder-server with environment set: DECK_TEMPLATE_FOLDER, DECK_TEMPLATE_NAME, DECK_OUTPUT_FOLDER, DECK_PROOFING_LANGUAGE (defaults to Australian English) and DECK_DEFAULT_FONT. The package is deckbuilder 1.5.2. The README opens with a notice that the project is under active development and should not be considered production ready.
Setup effort
One command — pip install deckbuilder
USE CASES
01
Turning a written outline into slides
Write the content as Markdown with a layout named in frontmatter and generate the deck in one command.
02
Generating decks from data rather than prose
Feed the JSON structure directly, so a pipeline can produce a presentation without a human editing slides.
03
Fixing spell-check language on a deck you inherited
Remap the existing PowerPoint file's proofing language and font without rebuilding it.
04
Checking a corporate template before relying on it
Analyze and validate the template through the CLI and read the validation detail it reports.
6 tools
Listed in project code.
create_presentation_from_markdown
Create presentation from formatted markdown with frontmatter
list_available_templates
List all available presentation templates with metadata for intelligent selection
get_template_layouts
Get detailed layout information for a specific template
recommend_template_for_content
Analyze content description and recommend optimal templates with reasoning
validate_presentation_file
Validate markdown presentation file structure before generation
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
6 tools registered in the project's code.
Requires
- deckbuilder-server on PATH
- Python 3.11+
Where it runs
The documented client runs the server on your machine.
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
pip install deckbuilderMCP Clients
Claude Desktop
CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"deckbuilder": {
"command": "deckbuilder-server",
"env": {
"DECK_TEMPLATE_FOLDER": "/Users/<YOUR_USERNAME>/Documents/Deckbuilder/Templates",
"DECK_TEMPLATE_NAME": "default",
"DECK_OUTPUT_FOLDER": "/Users/<YOUR_USERNAME>/Documents/Deckbuilder",
"DECK_PROOFING_LANGUAGE": "en-AU",
"DECK_DEFAULT_FONT": "Calibri"
}
}
}
}
