Paper2slides

paper2slides

Turn an academic paper PDF into a presentation-ready .pptx. This is a conductor skill: you make the editorial and design judgments, while the mechanical steps are handled by this skill's own self-contained scripts — PDF parsing via the MinerU cloud API (scripts/parse_pdf.py) and .pptx rendering via a PptxGenJS bridge (scripts/render_pptx.py). It orchestrates a "paper → outline → spec → render → QA" pipeline and depends on no other skill.

Quick Reference

See references/pipeline.md for the detailed per-stage protocol.

Invocation Contract

Invocation form:

/paper2slides <paper.pdf> [output.pptx] [--from-stage <name>] [--force]

• output.pptx omitted → <paper-dir>/<paper-stem>_slides/<paper-stem>.pptx; on a name collision the directory auto-appends _v2 _v3
• Intermediate artifacts land in <paper-dir>/.paper2anything/slides/<paper-stem>/; when the paper directory is read-only, fall back to ~/.cache/paper2anything/slides/

Python environment: all scripts run in the paper2anything conda environment. Command prefix conda run -n paper2anything --no-capture-output python -m scripts.<name> ... (the prefix can be omitted once conda activate paper2anything is in effect). Every -m scripts.<name> must be run from this skill's directory (the parent of scripts/), otherwise you get No module named 'scripts'; the prefix-omission convention is in references/pipeline.md §General Conventions.

The first step is always to resolve the workspace:

conda run -n paper2anything --no-capture-output python -m scripts.workdir resolve \
    <paper.pdf> [--output <out.pptx>] --ensure

The returned JSON contains all the named paths (paper_meta_path, slide_outline_path, slide_spec_path, figures_dir, ...) and each stage's completion status. Every later stage references the paths in this JSON — do not assemble paths yourself; the rules are centralized in scripts/workdir.py.

Re-run semantics:

<name> ∈ {configure, extract, outline, spec, render, qa}. To go through the three pre-flight questions again, use --from-stage configure (overwrites the old config.json).

Pipeline

Execute in the order below. Each stage has a "completion test" — once its output file appears the stage counts as done, and is auto-skipped on re-run. Each stage in this section writes only three things: (a) the minimal action to do (including the command to type), (b) the single most error-prone pitfall, and (c) a pointer to the corresponding Stage in references/pipeline.md. The full protocol, prerequisites, common errors, and edge cases all live in pipeline.md; this section does not restate them.

Stage 0.5 — Configure (you, AskUserQuestion to confirm three items)

After Stage 0 resolves the workspace and before Stage 1, use [AskUserQuestion] to confirm three items with the user, and Write the answers to the Stage 0 JSON's config_path (<workdir>/config.json):

1. deck_length: concise / standard / detailed / auto (no page-count target, recommended)
2. visual_qa: true (default, adds the soffice→jpg→subagent visual loop) / false (run only the cheap content QA)
3. color_scheme: auto (default, Stage 3 matches a palette to the paper's character) / custom (the user describes a preference in one line, stored in config and parsed by Stage 3)

• Reuse = skip: when config.json already exists and neither --from-stage configure nor --force is given, don't ask again — reuse the last configuration.
• When the user's initial request already states a preference, set the corresponding item as the AskUserQuestion default (still show it for confirmation).
• The full option table, the deck_length page-count band mapping, and the prefill / downstream-consumption details are in references/pipeline.md §Stage 0.5; the config.json schema is in references/schemas.md.

Stage 1 — Extract (script)

Use the MinerU cloud API (requires MINERU_API_TOKEN, configured uniformly in the paper2anything package-root .env; with no token it errors out immediately):

set -a; source <paper2anything package root>/.env; set +a   # export the unified .env (includes MINERU_API_TOKEN)
conda run -n paper2anything --no-capture-output python -m scripts.parse_pdf <paper.pdf>

Produces paper_meta.json + figures_index.json + pages/ + hi-res crops in one shot (the structured metadata comes directly from MinerU).

For --dpi tuning (default 300) and the known imperfections of MinerU parsing (e.g. the bbox sometimes pins the y start onto a subfigure caption), see references/pipeline.md §Stage 1.

Pitfall: before entering Stage 2 you must run the 4 checks at the end of references/schemas.md (title/authors/same-kind merge/missing key kind) to verify paper_meta.json; the check results are not written back to paper_meta.json, but are reflected directly in the Stage 2 outline.

Stage 2 — Outline (you)

Input paper_meta.json + figures_index.json + config.json → output slide_outline.json (schema in references/schemas.md). Per references/outline-heuristics.md, set roles and order, and write each slide's title/bullets/figure_ref/speaker_notes. Pitfall: read config.json/deck_length first — auto does not constrain the slide count; a non-auto value is a soft target for outline granularity, and you must not cut core narrative roles just to hit a number (details in outline-heuristics.md).

After writing, validate that the JSON is well-formed with Python:

conda run -n paper2anything --no-capture-output python -c \
    "import json,sys; json.load(open(sys.argv[1])); print('ok')" \
    <workdir>/slide_outline.json

For the full protocol and common errors, see references/pipeline.md §Stage 2.

Stage 3 — Spec (you)

Input slide_outline.json + figures_index.json + figures/ + pages/ → output slide_spec.json. Per references/design-style.md, choose palette/fonts/layout_kind (avoiding consecutive repeats), and translate the content into elements. Pitfall: every number and term must have a source in paper_meta / figures_index — do not fabricate.

When you need an icon use kind:"icon"; for naming see the "Icons" section of references/pptxgenjs.md, and for the schema see the icon element in references/schemas.md.

When you need to crop a region from a full paper page:

conda run -n paper2anything --no-capture-output python -m scripts.page_screenshot \
    <workdir> <page> <x> <y> <w> <h>

bbox uses relative ratios 0..1; fill the output relative path into the corresponding image element's path. Hard gate for cropping: the first call's bbox must be value-for-value equal to figures_index.json/captions[i].bbox, and you may not eyeball the full page before cropping the first version — for the full baseline and the QA re-crop loop see references/design-style.md §3 (skipping the first cut and going straight to eyeballing = violating §3). The Stage 3 key constraints (coordinates ≤ canvas / margin:0 etc.) are in references/pipeline.md §Stage 3.

Stage 4 — Render (script)

conda run -n paper2anything --no-capture-output python -m scripts.render_pptx \
    <workdir>/slide_spec.json <workdir>/output.pptx

The output is <workdir>/output.pptx; after a successful render, copy it to the final output_path given by Stage 0 (first mkdir -p its parent directory <paper-stem>_slides/). Pitfall: it depends on node+pptxgenjs (installed globally); if node is not on PATH the script errors. On failure, first --dry-run to generate only render/build.js and locate the spec problem. For prerequisites and common errors see references/pipeline.md §Stage 4.

Stage 5 — QA

Execute per the QA section below: content QA always runs, and visual QA is gated by config.json/visual_qa.

Defaults & Errors

Default behavior

Error-Recovery Quick Reference

Only the few classes that need your judgment / routing are listed (all technical recovery is in pipeline.md):

For the full error recovery (Stage 1/4 technical, annotation green box, dpi, figure_ref, etc.) see the "Error-Recovery Quick Reference" section of references/pipeline.md.

QA

Apply the QA loop in references/qa.md (the self-contained "Verification Loop" — content QA

• visual subagent review). Read config.json/visual_qa first; the key points:

• content QA always runs: markitdown checks placeholders / number consistency / bullets not lifted from the abstract / no leftover placeholder in the title.
• visual QA runs only when config.json/visual_qa == true: soffice→pdf→jpg→dispatch a single subagent to batch-review.
• After fixing issues, edit slide_spec.json then --from-stage render to fully re-render before QA; the recheck rounds narrow per the Verification Loop — round 1 covers the full deck, from round 2 on look only at the pages flagged last round ∪ the pages changed this round, with a final full pass over the whole deck before convergence.
• The final report must state whether visual QA was run; when skipped, note "visual QA was skipped per config; to change config use --from-stage configure then --from-stage qa".
• Whitespace / unbalanced columns / misaligned leader markers are not soft, they are hard issues that must be fixed — this is where this skill most often misjudges; don't wave them off as "soft" when reviewing the subagent's report.

For the verification loop and the base visual-subagent prompt template, see references/qa.md; for the full A/B protocol and the qa_log.json structure, see references/pipeline.md §Stage 5; for the visual subagent prompt's two added paragraphs, the three-lever fix model, and the recheck-narrowing details, see the "Visual Subagent Prompt for QA" + "Principles for Fixing QA Issues" sections of references/design-style.md.

Where to Look When Stuck

This skill is self-contained — everything you need is under references/ in this directory: