Generate — Slides

/generate slides turns wiki pages into a shareable presentation deck. Marp is the default renderer; pass --format reveal for Reveal.js HTML.

flowchart TB
    Start([/generate slides topic]) --> Resolve
    Resolve["Resolve topic<br/>tag / folder / file / all"] --> Hash
    Hash["Compute source-hash<br/>(shared helper)"] --> Template
    Template["Load Marp template<br/>handler default or<br/>&lt;vault&gt;/.templates/slides/"] --> Build
    Build["Build .marp.md<br/>strip frontmatter,<br/>resolve wikilinks,<br/>insert slide breaks"] --> Render
    Render{"--format?"}
    Render -- marp --> Marp["marp-cli → HTML + PDF"]
    Render -- reveal --> Reveal["pandoc -t revealjs → HTML"]
    Marp --> Sidecar
    Reveal --> Sidecar
    Sidecar[".meta.yaml<br/>sidecar"] --> Done([Slides ready])

    classDef engine fill:#5bbcd6,stroke:#2e6c7c,color:#0b0f14
    classDef output fill:#7dcea0,stroke:#2d6a4f,color:#0b0f14
    class Resolve,Hash,Template,Build,Render,Marp,Reveal engine
    class Sidecar,Done output

Usage

/generate slides <topic> [--vault <name>] [--format marp|reveal] [--template <name>]

Same <topic> forms as the other handlers — tag, folder path, single file, or all.

Example

/generate slides transformers --vault llm-wiki-research

Output:

✅ Slides generated
   Topic:       transformers
   Format:      marp
   Pages in:    8 (sorted)
   Source hash: 2dd9ed4a003f
   Markdown:    vaults/llm-wiki-research/artifacts/slides/transformers-2026-04-18.marp.md
   HTML:        vaults/llm-wiki-research/artifacts/slides/transformers-2026-04-18.html
   PDF:         vaults/llm-wiki-research/artifacts/slides/transformers-2026-04-18.pdf
   Sidecar:     vaults/llm-wiki-research/artifacts/slides/transformers-2026-04-18.meta.yaml

The .marp.md is kept alongside the rendered outputs — it’s both an artifact and a re-renderable source.

Dependencies

Lazy-installed on first run:

Tool	Install	Purpose
`marp-cli`	`pnpm add -g @marp-team/marp-cli` (or `npm i -g`)	Marp → HTML + PDF
`pandoc`	inherited from Phase 2A	Reveal.js rendering

If marp-cli can’t be installed, the handler falls back to npx @marp-team/marp-cli for the single invocation.

Formats

Marp (default)

Emits a Marp-annotated markdown file + HTML preview + printable PDF. Fast, paginated, works offline.

Reveal.js (`--format reveal`)

Emits Reveal.js HTML only — PDF is intentionally omitted because browser-print-to-PDF is brittle. Good when you want HTML-native features (fragments, speaker notes, animations).

Customisation

Vault-local template override

Drop a replacement template at <vault>/.templates/slides/default.md to ship house style per-vault. The handler prefers vault-local templates over the shipped default.

Placeholders the template can use:

{{title}} — topic as title case
{{author}} — vault owner (from vault CLAUDE.md or git config)
{{date}} — generation date
{{source_count}} — number of pages included
{{body}} — rendered page bodies, separated by slide breaks

Explicit template

/generate slides transformers --template compact

Resolution order: --template flag → vault-local .templates/slides/<name>.md → shipped templates/<name>.md → shipped default.md.

Slide Sizing Rules

Marp does not auto-paginate — a slide with too much content overflows silently. The handler applies a soft rule:

≤ 12 lines of markdown per slide.
Slides over the limit are split on the nearest heading or bullet, continuation slides titled <Title> (cont.).

Pure <text> SVG elements don’t wrap either — if you embed SVG in a slide, use <foreignObject> with HTML inside.

Known Limitations (Phase 2B)

Mermaid blocks are not rendered to PNG yet — same limitation as book/pdf in Phase 2A. Phase 2E ships a mermaid-cli → PNG pre-pass.
Reveal.js PDF is deliberately omitted; use browser print or Decktape manually.
Wikilinks render as italic inline text (shared limitation with the other handlers).
--- slide separator collides with YAML frontmatter — safe because frontmatter only has one leading pair, but keep an eye out when authoring templates.