Marp Deck Workflow

Marp Deck Workflow — Presentation Consultant

Purpose

Guide the user through creating a polished MARP deck via 3 consultation rounds (planning, visual design, generation) before each delegation to a sub-skill. This produces higher-quality decks by incorporating user intent at every stage rather than running a silent pipeline.

Inputs

• definition/deck-definition.md — optional (created interactively if missing)
• .marp/references/deck-template.md — required (source of truth for style variants)

Outputs

• definition/deck-definition.md (created or updated with ## Workflow Notes)
• planning/deck-plan.md
• planning/deck-visual-design.md
• diagrams/*.mmd (as needed)
• .marp/assets/*.png (generated from Mermaid/Excalidraw)
• slides/deck.md
• slides/deck-notes.md
• output/<slugified-title>_<date>.pdf (from task pdf)

Interaction Style

Throughout all consultation rounds, follow these principles:

• Opinionated: Lead with recommendations — "Given [context], I recommend X because..." not "Do you want X or Y?"
• Batched: Ask 3–5 related questions per round, not one-at-a-time or 10-at-once
• Adaptive: If the user gives brief answers, choose sensible defaults and confirm. If the user is engaged, go deeper.
• Non-redundant: Never ask what the definition or prior answers already cover
• Consultative: This is a conversation, not a checklist. Frame questions around the specific presentation being built.

Step 1 — Establish the Deck Definition

Two paths:

Path A — Definition exists

1. Read definition/deck-definition.md
2. Summarize your understanding back to the user: title, audience, key topics, constraints
3. Ask the user to confirm alignment or flag corrections
4. Apply any corrections before proceeding

Path B — Definition missing

1. Tell the user no definition was found
2. Ask them to describe the presentation:
   • What is the core message?
   • Who is the audience?
   • What is the context (conference talk, boardroom, internal team meeting)?
   • What are the key topics or sections?
   • Any constraints (slide count, time limit, branding)?
3. Synthesize their answers into definition/deck-definition.md using the format downstream skills expect (title, sections, key messages, constraints)
4. Show the draft to the user for confirmation before saving

Gate: definition/deck-definition.md exists and is user-confirmed.

Step 2 — Planning Consultation (Interactive)

Analyze the confirmed definition and ask 3–6 contextual questions. Only ask questions relevant to THIS specific presentation — skip anything the definition already answers.

For each question, lead with your recommendation and reasoning. Batch related questions together.

Gate: User confirms planning direction.

Step 3 — Delegate to marp-deck-planner

Compile a structured prompt incorporating all planning decisions gathered in Step 2:

Build the deck plan for definition/deck-definition.md with these constraints:
- Section dividers for: [confirmed sections]
- Opening: [intro slide yes/no, executive summary yes/no]
- Target: [N] slides, audience: [X], context: [Y]
- Closing: [CTA / summary / none]
- Tone: [formal/conversational/technical]

Invoke marp-deck-planner via Skill tool with this compiled prompt.

Gate: planning/deck-plan.md exists and contains at least one section divider.

After the gate passes, summarize the plan to the user (section count, slide count, flow) before proceeding.

Step 4 — Visual Design Consultation (Interactive)

Read planning/deck-plan.md, identify slides with ## Image sections, and ask 3–5 contextual questions focused only on visuals the plan actually calls for.

If only 2 slides have images, ask about those 2 specifically. If 10 slides have images, ask about patterns and categories. Lead with recommendations.

Gate: User confirms visual direction.

Step 5 — Delegate to marp-deck-visual-designer

Compile a visual design prompt incorporating all decisions from Step 4:

Design visuals for planning/deck-plan.md with:
- Diagram style: [Mermaid/Excalidraw/blend]
- Visual tone: [minimal/data-heavy/storytelling]
- Specific guidance for slide [X]: [user preference]
- Brand colors: [if specified]

Invoke marp-deck-visual-designer via Skill tool with this compiled prompt.

Gate:

• planning/deck-visual-design.md exists
• Slide count and order match planning/deck-plan.md
• Every ## Image reference in the visual design points to an existing file in .marp/assets/

If any gate fails, stop and report the exact mismatch.

Step 6 — Generation Consultation (Interactive)

Read planning/deck-visual-design.md and .marp/references/deck-template.md.

The template is the source of truth for available style variants. Parse it to discover:

• Which cover variants exist (names and CSS classes)
• Which section variants exist (names and CSS classes)

Then ask the user:

1. Cover variant — list the discovered options from the template, recommend one based on presentation context and audience
2. Section variant — list the discovered options from the template, recommend one based on content structure
3. Final adjustments — any last notes before generation (emphasis areas, tone tweaks, specific slide concerns)

If style preferences already exist in deck-definition.md, confirm briefly rather than re-asking from scratch.

After confirmation, update definition/deck-definition.md with the confirmed style line:

Style preferences: cover=cover-<n>, section=section-<n>

Also append the ## Workflow Notes section to definition/deck-definition.md capturing all decisions from the consultation rounds:

## Workflow Notes

### Planning Decisions
- Audience: [X], Context: [Y]
- Slide count target: [N], Sections: [list]
- Opening: [intro/exec summary], Closing: [CTA/summary/none]
- Tone: [formal/conversational/technical]

### Visual Decisions
- Diagram style: [Mermaid/Excalidraw/blend]
- Visual tone: [X]
- Specific guidance: [any per-slide notes]

### Style Preferences
Style preferences: cover=cover-<n>, section=section-<n>

Gate: User confirms ready for generation.

Step 7 — Delegate to marp-deck-gen + Visual QA Loop

Compile a generation prompt with style preferences, visual decisions, and any final notes from Step 6.

Invoke marp-deck-gen via Skill tool.

Gate: slides/deck.md and slides/deck-notes.md exist.

Visual QA Loop

1. Run task pdf, then invoke marp-deck-checker via Skill tool
2. PASS → pipeline complete
3. FLAWS FOUND → checker invokes marp-deck-gen with a targeted fix prompt (layout/structure fixes only; content shortened only as a last resort for unresolvable overflow)

Feedback loop:

• If marp-deck-gen was re-invoked: re-run task pdf, then re-invoke marp-deck-checker
• Repeat until PASS

Hard gate: Do not claim pipeline completion until the checker reports PASS.

Non-goals

• No checklist-style questioning — maintain consultative conversation
• No proceeding without user confirmation at each gate
• No modifying artifacts produced by delegated skills (only deck-definition.md is workflow-editable)
• No background execution
• No partial guessing when artifacts disagree
• No diagram generation unless visual design calls for it
• No aesthetic changes not justified by template rules

Error Handling

At any gate failure:

1. Report exactly what is missing or mismatched
2. Do not guess or proceed past the gate
3. Ask the user how to resolve (re-run the sub-skill, adjust inputs, or abort)