Canon Slides Draft

---
name: canon-slides-draft
description: Drafts a `.claude/SLIDES.md` source from a topic, picks a layout per slide, then renders it to PowerPoint via `canon slides render`. Use when asked to "draft slides", "make a deck", "build a presentation", "turn this into slides", or "render a SLIDES.md". Holds the deck design rules. Do NOT reimplement render logic. The CLI owns layout and styling. Assumes the `canon` CLI is on PATH.
---

# Slides draft

Author a `SLIDES.md` source, then shell out to `canon slides render`. The CLI owns all layout and styling. This skill owns content and the design choices encoded in the source.

## Read the catalog

Run this first to load the available layouts. Never hardcode layout names. The catalog is the source of truth.

```bash
canon slides list --json 2>/dev/null
```

## Draft the source

Write the deck to `.claude/SLIDES.md` from the project root. Structure:

- Deck frontmatter between `---` delimiters: `title`, optional `subtitle`, `palette`, and `variant` (light or dark).
- One slide per section, separated by a `---` rule. Each slide opens with a `# Title` and a `layout:` line naming a layout from the catalog, followed by its content.

Match content shape to the layout: bullet lists for list layouts, `## Heading` blocks for columns, `- value : caption` pairs for stats and cards, a quote with a `- attribution` line for quotes.

For a deck with chapters, add a `toc` slide near the front and mark each chapter opener with the `section` layout. The render fills the contents links and the per-slide footer automatically from the section slides. Leave the `toc` slide body empty.

## Design rules

The palette and type scale live in the CLI. Own the choices the source controls.

- Pick the variant that fits the topic. Light is a paper background, dark is near black. Both carry the same rust accent.
- Vary the layout across slides. Never repeat title-and-bullets on every slide. Reach for columns, stat callouts, grids, and section dividers.
- The CLI enforces the type scale, so size content to fit rather than overflow. Keep titles short and bullet lines tight.
- Never write centered body text or content that overflows a slide. Let the layouts place the elements.

## Render

Shell out to the CLI. It writes the deck and reports the path.

```bash
canon slides render --source .claude/SLIDES.md --out .canon/review/slides
```

Pass `--variant light` or `--variant dark` to override the source variant for a one-off render. Pass `--open` to open the deck, and `--mirror <dir>` (or set `CANON_SLIDES_MIRROR`) to copy it into a synced folder.

## QA loop

Run this once after the first render, then stop.

1. Convert the deck to images: `soffice --headless --convert-to pdf <deck>.pptx` then `pdftoppm -r 90 -png <deck>.pdf slide`. If `soffice` or `pdftoppm` is missing, skip the image pass and say so. Do not fail the render.
2. Inspect the images with fresh eyes. Spawn a subagent to check every slide for overlap, overflow, low contrast, and empty regions.
3. Fix the reported issues in `SLIDES.md` once, re-render, and stop. Do not loop indefinitely on aesthetics.

## Response

After rendering, report:

- Slide count and the deck path
- The palette and variant used
- Any QA issues found and what changed, or that the deck passed clean