DeckCraft MCP: slides your agent can build

Get the CLI

The 0.5.0 release ships deckcraft-cli for macOS as deckcraft-cli-0.5.0-macos-universal.zip, signed and notarized. On Windows, Linux and FreeBSD, build it from source with Rust:

git clone https://github.com/storytold/deckcraft
cd deckcraft
cargo build --release -p deckcraft-cli

Two ways to connect

• Headless: deckcraft-cli mcp runs its own engine with no window. Add --sample to start with the sample deck. Good for building decks from data in a script or an agent session.
• Alongside you: start the desktop app with deckcraft --control 7990, then run deckcraft-cli mcp --connect 7990. The agent drives the open app, so you watch the slides change and can keep editing the same deck.

Set up with Claude Code

claude mcp add deckcraft -- /path/to/deckcraft-cli mcp

Or add it to your agent’s MCP configuration (.mcp.json in a project for Claude Code), here in connected mode:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deckcraft": {
      "command": "deckcraft-cli",
      "args": ["mcp", "--connect", "7990"]
    }
  }
}

What the agent gets

• Any command: list_commands, run_command and batch reach all 200+ commands, the same ones behind the ribbon, with undo.
• Files: new_presentation, open_presentation, save_presentation (.deckcraft or .pptx) and export (PDF slides, notes pages or handouts, PNG/JPEG, outline).
• Inspection: inspect_document, inspect_slide and render_slide, which returns a slide as an image.
• Building blocks: add_slide, go_to_slide, add_shape, add_text_box, set_text, insert_picture, insert_table, insert_chart.
• The interface itself (connected mode): select, pointer, select_tool, key, type_text, screenshot and call_app for any control-protocol method.

Commands that come up often when building decks: slide.new with a layout, title and body; shape.insert with a preset and text; shape.connect; design.theme; transition.set; animation.set; and the chart.* and table.* families. Coordinates are slide points (1/72 inch); a 16:9 slide is 960 × 540.

Prompts to try

• “Make a 6-slide deck from q3-results.csv: a title slide, a column chart of revenue by month, a table of the top five accounts, and a closing slide. Use a fade transition and save it as q3.pptx.”
• “Open pitch.pptx, render every slide and tell me which ones have too much text.”
• “Export training.deckcraft as handouts with 3 slides per page.”

Without MCP: the CLI on its own

deckcraft-cli info deck.pptx                         # structure as JSON
deckcraft-cli render deck.pptx --all out/            # every slide as PNG
deckcraft-cli convert deck.pptx deck.pdf             # change format
deckcraft-cli commands format.                       # list commands
deckcraft-cli describe slide.new                     # one command's parameters
deckcraft-cli run --sample --cmd 'slide.new={"layout":"titleOnly","title":"Hello"}' --save hello.deckcraft

FAQ

Source: the DeckCraft README, MCP server docs and control protocol. Flags and tools can change between releases; check deckcraft-cli with no arguments for its usage.