---
title: "Claude PowerPoint Skill: Build Decks from Scratch or a Template"
url: "https://mcpshelf.co/skills/pptx"
description: "Anthropic's pptx skill has Claude build PowerPoint decks or fill your template, then render every slide and fix overlaps before handing it over."
updated: "2026-11-01"
site: "MCP Shelf"
---

# PowerPoint (pptx) skill for Claude

Reviewed by Sophie Filer · Updated 1 Nov 2026

> Builds PowerPoint decks from scratch or from your template, then checks every slide for problems.

This is the skill behind slide decks on claude.ai. New decks are written with pptxgenjs, a JavaScript library, while existing decks and company templates are edited at the XML level so their layouts survive.

It brings firm views on design (a palette chosen for the topic, one dominant colour, no walls of bullets) and a required quality pass: Claude reads the text back out of the deck, renders the slides as images and fixes overlaps or overflow before it calls the work done.

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Made by | Anthropic |
| Folder name | `pptx` |
| Ships in | `document-skills` |
| Licence | Source-available (free to use in Claude, not to redistribute) |
| GitHub | https://github.com/anthropics/skills/tree/main/skills/pptx |

## When Claude reaches for it

- Making a pitch deck, report deck or training slides
- Filling in or extending a company template
- Reading the text and speaker notes out of a .pptx file
- Combining or reordering slides from several decks

## What is in the pod

- Guidance on when to build from scratch and when to work from a template
- A list of pptxgenjs pitfalls that quietly corrupt files, such as colour formats and shadow offsets
- Scripts to make a thumbnail grid of every slide, duplicate slides, clear out unused media and validate the file
- Design ideas and a quality checklist to run before the deck goes back to you

## Planting it

### Claude Code

1. Add the Anthropic skills marketplace. You only do this once. It registers the anthropics/skills repo as a plugin source.
2. Install the document-skills plugin. pptx ships inside it. You can also pick it from the /plugin menu under Browse and install plugins.
3. Start a new session and ask. Claude loads the skill on its own when a task matches. To be sure, name it: "Use the PowerPoint (pptx) skill to ..."

```
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills
```

### Claude apps

1. Turn on code execution. Open Settings, then Capabilities, and switch on Code execution and file creation (called Create and edit files in the newer layout). Skills need it to run.
2. Open Customize, then Skills. pptx is one of Anthropic's own skills, so it is already in the list.
3. Switch on pptx. Team and Enterprise members may need an owner to allow skills first, under Organization settings, Plugins & skills. Skills you switch on also sync to Claude Code when you sign in with the same account.

## What it needs

- Node.js with the pptxgenjs package
- Python 3 with markitdown, Pillow, defusedxml and lxml
- LibreOffice and Poppler, to render slides as images

## Notes from the pea patch

- If you have a template, hand it over first. The skill makes a thumbnail grid of its layouts and builds from those instead of inventing its own.
- Ask for speaker notes if you want them. The skill puts them in the notes field, where presenters expect them, not on the slide.

## Pea-fect partners on the shelf

- [Tavily MCP](https://mcpshelf.co/servers/tavily): Gathers sources and figures from the web before Claude starts on the slides.
- [draw.io MCP](https://mcpshelf.co/servers/drawio): Draws a diagram you can keep editing, ready to export and place on a slide.

---

From [MCP Shelf](https://mcpshelf.co/): A short shelf of MCP servers that are worth installing. Index for agents: https://mcpshelf.co/llms.txt