How to use the Slide Planner agent skill (setup and examples)

What the Slide Planner skill makes the agent do

Without the skill, an agent may jump straight into creating slides. This skill changes the order of work. The agent first asks three questions if they are unclear: who the audience is, what you want them to do after the talk, and the duration or slide budget.

It then proposes a slide-by-slide outline in the chat, with one line per slide in the form 'slide title - the one message this slide must land'. The outline follows a narrative skeleton of current situation, problem, solution, evidence and call to action. The agent waits for you to confirm or edit it.

• Asks for audience, desired action and duration before planning
• Proposes one key message per slide
• Builds the PowerPoint deck one slide at a time after you confirm
• Puts a speaker script into the notes of each slide
• Keeps to at most 4 bullets per slide, each about eight words or fewer
• Reviews every slide for text overflow, too many bullets and inconsistent styling before delivering

Install the skill from the ZIP file

Download the ZIP file for the skill from this page. The skill is distributed as a folder containing a SKILL.md file. Unzip it so that the skill folder sits inside a skills directory that your agent reads.

For a personal setup, place it in ~/.claude/skills/. For a single project, place it in the project's .claude/skills/ folder. Either way, the SKILL.md file should end up inside the skill's own folder.

If you use the Claude apps instead of a local folder, you can upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

• Personal: ~/.claude/skills/
• Project only: .claude/skills/ inside your project folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload

Check that your runtime can create slides

The skill itself does not create slides. It tells the agent to use the slide-creation tools available in your environment. The SKILL.md refers to 'the slide tools available here' but does not name specific tools, so you need a runtime that actually provides them.

If the agent cannot create PowerPoint files, the skill can still produce an outline in chat, which you can then use yourself.

How to trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Describe the presentation you want and mention what it is for. The skill's own quick prompts show the style that works: 'Turn this material into a 10-slide report deck' or 'Design a pitch outline for this topic'.

Give the agent the source material, the audience and the length if you know them. If you leave them out, expect the agent to ask.

• Turn this material into a 10-slide report deck
• Design a pitch outline for this topic
• Plan a 15-minute training deck for new support staff, with speaker notes

Review and confirm the outline

The outline is the most important checkpoint. Read each line and ask whether the message is the one you want the audience to remember. Edit, add or remove slides in the chat, then confirm.

Only after confirmation does the agent build the deck. This is the step that makes the skill slower than a direct request, and it is deliberate.

• Check that each slide has one clear message
• Check that the narrative moves from situation to call to action
• Confirm the slide count matches your time budget

Review the finished deck

After building, the agent reviews slides for overflow, too many bullets and styling inconsistencies. Read the speaker notes as well, since they are the script you will deliver from.

The skill asks the agent to point out one or two places you are most likely to adjust, such as splitting a slide or adding a data slide. Start with those.

• Look for text running off slides
• Check that bullets stay short
• Read speaker notes aloud once to test timing