How to use the Course Slides Builder agent skill

What is an agent skill and what does this one do?

An agent skill is a folder of instructions (a SKILL.md file) that an AI agent loads when a task matches it. This skill, named course-slides, tells the agent to act as a courseware specialist.

The agent first proposes a slide-by-slide outline and waits for your approval. After you confirm, it builds the full PowerPoint deck with short key points on each slide and a spoken-style teaching script in the speaker notes, timed to the session length. Before delivering, it reviews the deck for text overflow, too many bullets and inconsistent styling.

• Asks for the audience, session length, slide budget (default one slide per 2-3 minutes) and whether interactive slides are wanted.
• Reuses the stages and time allocation of an existing lesson plan.
• Structures the course as cover, objectives, lead-in, knowledge blocks, recap, homework and closing slide.
• Puts each script in the speaker notes at 60-150 words, ending with the expected time.

Install the course-slides skill

Download the ZIP for the skill from the course-slides page on this directory. The download contains SKILL.md. Unzip it so the course-slides folder lands in one of these locations:

• Personal: ~/.claude/skills/ (available across your projects).
• Project: a .claude/skills/ folder inside your project (available only to that project).
• Claude apps: upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

Check what you need before you start

The skill needs a runtime where the agent has slide-creation tools available. The SKILL.md refers to PowerPoint slide tools, so without them the agent can produce an outline but cannot build the deck. The skill does not run scripts and does not use the network itself.

Have your source material ready: a handout, a lesson plan or a list of knowledge points, plus your audience and session length.

• A runtime with PowerPoint slide tools available to the agent.
• Your source handout or lesson plan as text or a file the agent can read.
• Audience, session length and whether you want interactive slides.

How to trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Describe the material and the output you want. The skill's own quick prompts show the style that works well.

• Turn this lesson plan into a deck of about 20 slides.
• Build a training deck with a speaker script from this handout.
• Make courseware slides with speaker notes from these topics, 45-minute session for beginners.

Work through the outline and the build

Expect two stages. In the first, the agent answers with a numbered outline, one line per slide, showing the key sentence and slide type (bullets, diagram, worked example or interactive). Edit it freely: merge, split or reorder slides. Nothing is built until you confirm.

In the second, the agent builds the deck one slide at a time and writes the speaker notes. Worked examples are split into a problem slide and a solution slide, and interactive slides show the question without the answer.

• Confirm or edit the outline, then approve it explicitly.
• Check that the objectives and recap slides list the same number of items.
• Review the speaker notes against your source before presenting.

Safety notes: content, scripts and network

The skill runs no scripts and uses no network. However, your source material is processed by the agent, and any tools the agent connects to in your runtime may also receive it. Do not use confidential material unless you are comfortable with that.

The agent may misstate facts from the source handout. Treat the output as a first draft and check every claim, number and example before students see it.

• Do not use confidential source material unless your runtime's data handling allows it.
• Review all facts, especially numbers and definitions, against the original.