Create Slides

Create Slides

Critical rules

• No libraries, CDNs, frameworks, or build steps in the deck itself. It must open directly from a local index.html.
• Never rebuild core/slides.js. Navigation, key handling and the data-enter/data-exit contract are fixed. Extend by layering on SlidesRuntime.controller, the way core/morph.js does.
• Never edit core/slides.css per deck. It owns structure, archetype layout and the reveal presets. Override in theme.css, or in deck.css.
• Fonts must be inlined as data URIs (tools/fonts.mjs). @font-face files are blocked over file://, so a deck opened by double-click loses them.
• Never invent facts, statistics, quotes, images, or licenses. Research current claims with the web-research skill, cite sources, and record where every asset came from.
• Derive tokens and content from the subject; derive the look from a template. Do not invent a new layout system mid-pass.
• Write semantic HTML: real headings, lists, figures, one <section class="slide"> per slide in DOM order.
• "Use the space" ≠ stretching boxes to fill the viewport. It means stable hierarchy, content-sized modules, comfortable gaps, and intentional margin.
• Verify before reporting done. npm run qa for the deck, npm run audit after any recording. Never call a deck or an export finished on the strength of having looked at it.
• User-owned copy is sacred. After the user edits text, change layout and CSS only — never rewrite their wording unless asked.
• State every assumption explicitly in the final report.

Workflow

1. Inspect everything supplied — content, data, brand, delivery mode, and any script or captions the deck must back.
2. Ask one grouped question covering only the real gaps. Always include the look unless the user named a template or gave brand direction that settles it. Defaults in brackets if you must proceed on assumptions:
   • Look: dark-marker (courses, tutorials) | light-editorial (talks, reports) | midnight-tech (developer content) | bold-keynote (pitches) | minimal-mono (research talks) — one line each, and say which you'd pick
   • Delivery: live talk | recorded video/tutorial | self-paced send
   • Reveal model: multi-step | one-step staggered | none
   • Density: sparse keynote | tutorial-comfortable
3. Research unknown or current facts before writing any slide body.
4. Read references/design.md. Outline the deck as titles only and check that sequence carries the message before writing any body copy.
5. Scaffold the deck:
   • assets/core/ → core/, assets/skeleton.html → index.html
   • the chosen assets/templates/<name>/ → theme.css, fonts.json
   • assets/tools/ → tools/, assets/starter/* → deck root (gitignore → .gitignore)
   • create an empty deck.css
   • npm install && node tools/fonts.mjs
   • npm run dev renders every archetype the template offers — read it before writing slides.
6. Adapt tokens only to the subject, then write the slides. Read references/web-slides.md for the DOM, composition and archetype contract, and references/motion.md before setting any reveal or preset.
7. Verify: npm run qa, and fix everything it reports.
8. Export if asked — references/export.md: npm run pdf, npm run record / record:2k / record:4k, then npm run audit. When the deck backs a recorded voiceover, time the reveals from the caption file: a sidecar timings/<video>.json per video, validated with node tools/record.mjs --timing <file> --plan. Timings never go in the markup — the deck only gains a data-slide handle per timed slide.
9. Report the files, how to open them, the controls, the template used, every assumption, and sources for any researched claim or asset.

Resources

Assets and provenance

• Logos: take the vendor's own site icon first. Aggregators go stale — building one deck, a major product had no entry at all, another name resolved to an unrelated company, and a third offered only a retired one-colour mark.
• Verify the mark is current, record every source in a CREDITS.md beside the files, and never draw an approximation of a real logo.
• Light-on-dark app icons need a full-bleed tile (.tool__tile--dark), not a white one.

Constraints

• Do not add presenter consoles, autoplay, URL routing, or touch gestures unless asked. When URL routing is asked for, copy assets/optional/router.js rather than writing one — the jump-without-replaying-a-morph handling is the hard part.
• Do not fork the runtime contract in references/web-slides.md without an explicit request; mirror any real runtime change in scripts/slides-runtime.test.mjs.
• Decks stay self-contained: no network requests at presentation time, no telemetry, no remote fonts.