Developer Tom Dörr released an open-source tool on July 1, 2026 that takes academic paper PDFs as input and automatically generates structured PowerPoint slides through four sequential agents. Implemented as a skill for Claude Code, it is offered free under the MIT license.
Open Source · MIT License · Claude Code Skill
Four Agents That Turn Paper PDFs Into Ready-to-Present Slide Decks
A new Claude Code skill runs a four-stage pipeline that reads academic PDFs and outputs a polished .pptx plus speaker notes — with strict academic constraints to avoid the usual AI-slide pitfalls.
4
sequential specialized agents
15–18
slides per generated deck
≤70
words per slide (excl. notes)
15–20
min academic talk target
The Pipeline · verifiable artifact at each stage
AGENT 1 · pdf
Extract figures
→ assets/figures/ + index
→
AGENT 2 · curate
Build claims DB
→ source map + data tables
→
AGENT 3 · ppt-creator
Design per-slide spec
→ ~15–18 slide layout
→
AGENT 4 · pptx
Output deck
→ final.pptx + notes.md
Because each stage leaves a verifiable artifact, only the problematic stage is re-run when something goes wrong.
Guardrails Against Bad AI Slides
Strict constraints tuned for academic talks — targeting garish palettes, empty headers, inconsistent citations and missing timing cues.
100% from paper
no fabrication or over-extrapolation
Fixed palette
Ocean Gradient only
Assertion headlines
full statements, not topic labels
Citations in notes
[Paper X, Page N], off the slide body
45–60 sec / slide
speaker notes sized for timing
In scope
Course presentations
Group meetings
Conference oral talks
Review-paper visualization
Out of scope
Pitch decks
Product launches
Non-academic content
Short single-paper talks
Early days. The release is new — no benchmarks or real-world evaluations yet, and GitHub stars still number only in the dozens. Whether these constraints meaningfully cut talk-prep effort remains to be seen in real use.
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