Marp Presentation

MARP Presentation Skill

Build polished MARP slide decks with HubSpot styling and AI-generated illustrations.

Overview

This skill helps you create Markdown-based presentations using MARP. It includes:

• Two HubSpot-branded CSS themes — pick the one that matches your audience:
  • assets/trellis-theme.md — HubSpot product-UI palette (dark navy + magenta + cyan, Trellis design tokens). Good for internal engineering / product-context decks.
  • assets/hubspot-theme.md — HubSpot brand-identity palette (cream + orange + dark teal + maroon, Lexend Deca + Caveat). Good for executive, external, or brand-aligned decks.
• An image generation script using HubSpot's LiteLLM proxy (Gemini/Nano Banana)
• Integration with slidegauge for slide quality linting

Setup

MARP CLI

MARP converts Markdown to slides. It runs via npx (no global install needed):

# Test it works
npx @marp-team/marp-cli --version

If npx is not available, install Node.js first. Alternatively, install marp-cli globally:

npm install -g @marp-team/marp-cli

uv (for image generation)

The image generation script uses uv to manage Python dependencies inline. Install uv if not present:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

slidegauge (for linting)

Install globally via uv:

uv tool install "slidegauge @ git+ssh://git@github.com/HubSpotEngineering/slidegauge"
slidegauge --help

Quick Start

1. Pick a theme and copy its frontmatter block to the top of your new slides.md:
   • assets/trellis-theme.md — product-UI palette (Trellis: dark navy + magenta + cyan). For internal engineering / product-context decks.
   • assets/hubspot-theme.md — brand-identity palette (cream + orange + dark teal + maroon, Lexend Deca). For executive / external / brand-aligned decks.
2. Start the MARP dev server: npx @marp-team/marp-cli --server <directory>
3. Write slides using the theme classes documented below (both themes support the same lead / section-divider / agenda slide classes; the HubSpot brand theme adds a dark class)
4. Generate images: uv run scripts/generate-image.py -o images/my-image.png "a friendly robot"
5. Lint slides: slidegauge slides.md

Slide Authoring Guidelines

Style principles

• Minimal text on slides — aim for ~5 words visible per slide
• One point per slide — never put multiple ideas on one slide
• Details go in speaker notes — use <!-- ... --> HTML comments for talk track
• Code blocks should be short — max 10 lines, scale down font if needed

Theme classes

Use MARP's <!-- _class: classname --> directive. Both themes support the shared classes; the HubSpot brand theme adds dark.

Shared (both themes):

• lead — Title/intro slides, centered heading.
• section-divider — Section breaks. Magenta (Trellis) or maroon (HubSpot brand), white text.
• agenda — Agenda slide with styled ordered list.

HubSpot brand theme only:

• dark — High-contrast accent slide. Dark teal background, cream text, orange headings. Good for climax / turn moments.

See each theme file for exact colors and per-class CSS.

Adding images to slides

![bg left:35%](images/my-image.png)    <!-- Left side, 35% width -->
![bg right:30% contain](images/x.png)  <!-- Right side, contained -->

For section divider slides, use bg left:35% so the image fills the left and text stays right.

Speaker notes

Always include speaker notes with your talk track:

# Slide Title.

Visible text here.

<!--
This is the speaker note. Include your full talk track here — everything you plan to say.
Keep slide text minimal, put the detail in notes.
-->

Per-slide style overrides

For slides that need custom sizing (e.g., large code samples):

<style scoped>pre code { font-size: 0.43em; line-height: 1.1; }</style>

# My code slide.

Image Generation

Use scripts/generate-image.py to create illustrations via HubSpot's LiteLLM proxy (Gemini).

# Text-only prompt
uv run scripts/generate-image.py -o images/output.png "a friendly cartoon robot"

# With reference image(s) for style matching
uv run scripts/generate-image.py -o images/output.png -i reference.png "redraw this character waving"

# Specify aspect ratio (default 1:1)
uv run scripts/generate-image.py -o images/output.png -a 9:16 "tall portrait illustration"
uv run scripts/generate-image.py -o images/output.png -a 16:9 "wide landscape scene"

# Use the pro model for higher quality
uv run scripts/generate-image.py -o images/output.png --pro "detailed illustration"

Image tips

• Use 9:16 aspect ratio for images that will be bg left:35% on section dividers
• Use 16:9 for images that will be bg right:40% contain on content slides
• Use 1:1 for character portraits or icons
• Include reference images with -i to maintain consistent art style across a deck
• Uses hs-py-auth for authentication (auto-managed by uv inline deps)

Diagrams

When creating diagrams for slides, follow this two-step process:

Step 1: Draft in ASCII

First draft the diagram as ASCII art in a markdown code block. This lets you iterate on structure and content quickly without waiting for image generation. Use box-drawing characters (┌─┐│└─┘├┤), arrows (→ ↓ ←), and clear labels.

Step 2: Convert to image via Nano Banana

Once the ASCII diagram is approved, convert it to a clean generated image using the image generation script:

uv run scripts/generate-image.py -a 16:9 -o images/<name>.png "Create a clean, professional infographic diagram on a white background with monospace font. [DESCRIBE THE DIAGRAM STRUCTURE]. Clean lines, minimal, dark text on white. Professional technical diagram style, not cartoon. Use subtle color coding: blue for user/input elements, gray for processing/thinking, orange for actions/tools, green for output/success, red for errors/failures. No decorations or illustrations."

Diagram prompting rules

• Always specify "white background with monospace font"
• Always say "professional technical diagram style, not cartoon"
• Always say "clean lines, minimal, dark text on white"
• Use the color palette: blue=input, gray=processing, orange=actions, green=success, red=failure
• Describe layout explicitly: "three boxes at the top", "arrow pointing down to", "diamond decision box"
• For flowcharts, describe entry point and exit point explicitly
• For conversations, specify color coding per role: "blue for USER, gray for ASSISTANT, orange for TOOL_CALL, green for TOOL"
• Use -a 16:9 for full-width diagrams, -a 9:16 for sidebar images
• If including reference images with -i, add "matching the clean style, not the cartoon style"

Embedding diagrams in slides

Replace the ASCII code block with:

![center w:900](images/<name>.png)

Adjust w: value based on slide layout (900 for full-width, 500-550 for slides with sidebar images).

Linting

Run slidegauge to check slide quality:

slidegauge slides.md

Parse results for quick summary:

slidegauge slides.md 2>/dev/null | \
  python3 -c "
import json, sys
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
s = data['summary']
print(f'Score: {s[\"avg_score\"]:.0f}/100 | {s[\"total_slides\"]} slides | {s[\"passing\"]}/{s[\"total_slides\"]} passing')
for sl in data['slides']:
    if sl['score'] < 70:
        print(f'  FAIL: \"{sl[\"title\"]}\" ({sl[\"score\"]})')
        for d in sl['diagnostics']:
            print(f'    {d[\"message\"]}')
"

Key thresholds

• Score ≥ 70 = passing
• Adjusted content ≤ 350 chars (slide body text only, speaker notes excluded)
• Code blocks ≤ 10 lines
• Slide titles ≤ 35 characters
• Total lines per slide ≤ 15

Dev Server

Start the MARP preview server for live reload:

npx @marp-team/marp-cli --server <directory-containing-slides>

This serves at http://localhost:8080/ and auto-reloads on file changes.

Important: The server only serves static files — it does not auto-convert .md → .html on request. You must render HTML first (see Claude review loop below).

Claude review loop (fast iteration)

When you're iterating on styling and want Claude to verify a single slide visually, use this loop instead of re-rendering all PNGs on every change:

One-time setup

cd <deck-directory>
npx --yes --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/ @marp-team/marp-cli@latest --server . &   # dev server
node ~/.claude/skills/browser-automation/resources/browser-start.js --headless              # headless Chrome

Per-iteration (< 5s total)

1. Edit the deck .md or theme asset.

2. Render HTML only (fast — ~2s, skips image/PDF):

   npx --yes --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/ @marp-team/marp-cli@latest deck-marp.md --html --allow-local-files -o deck-marp.html
   

3. Navigate (hard-load the page so new styles pick up):

   node ~/.claude/skills/browser-automation/resources/browser-navigate.js "http://localhost:8080/deck-marp.html"
   

4. Advance to slide N by dispatching N-1 right-arrow keystrokes (hash-routing doesn't trigger bespoke's listeners after a page load):

   node ~/.claude/skills/browser-automation/resources/browser-eval.js \
     'for(let i=0;i<13;i++){document.body.dispatchEvent(new KeyboardEvent("keydown",{key:"ArrowRight",code:"ArrowRight",keyCode:39,which:39,bubbles:true}))} new Promise(r=>setTimeout(()=>r(document.querySelector("svg.bespoke-marp-active").querySelector("section").id), 400))'
   

   (13 ArrowRight presses lands on slide 14 — adjust the loop count.)

5. Screenshot just the active slide element:

   node ~/.claude/skills/browser-automation/resources/browser-screenshot.js \
     --output=slide-N.png --element="svg.bespoke-marp-active"
   

6. Read the PNG in the Claude conversation and verify.

Teardown

node ~/.claude/skills/browser-automation/resources/browser-close.js
# then kill the marp --server background job

Why arrow-key navigation instead of #/N hash

Marp bespoke's slide router attaches its hashchange listener after the initial goto. Setting location.hash = "#/14" after page load fires a hashchange but bespoke's handler often doesn't wire up in time. Dispatching ArrowRight keydown events on document.body is the most reliable way to drive bespoke's internal state.

Why render HTML-only (not PDF/PNG)

Rendering all 23 slides to PNG takes 30+ seconds. Rendering the same deck to a single .html file takes ~2s. The browser-driven screenshot gives you a single-slide visual in the same time you'd otherwise wait for one re-render.

Color Reference

Trellis theme (product-UI palette)

See assets/trellis-theme.md for the full theme. Key colors:

HubSpot brand-identity theme

See assets/hubspot-theme.md for the full theme. Key colors:

Fonts: Lexend Deca (300 Light for headings, 400 for body), Caveat (hand-drawn accents).