Slide Builder (Pitchsmith)

AI-powered presentation builder for Claude Code

Slide Builder transforms VS Code into a full presentation authoring environment. Plan narrative-driven decks with AI assistance, build slides from templates using Claude Code, preview and present directly in your editor, and export to PNG or PDF — all without leaving your workflow.

Features

Core

• Plan Decks with Narrative Structure — Use AI-powered adaptive discovery to plan presentations with sections, key points, and speaker notes
• Build Slides from Plans — Generate HTML slides from plans using Claude Code with template matching and brand theming
• Live Viewer with Thumbnails — Preview slides in a dedicated VS Code panel with thumbnail sidebar, keyboard navigation, and slide counter
• Presentation Mode — Present decks in a full-screen browser view served over a local HTTP server

Editing

• Visual Plan Editor — Edit presentation plans with a drag-and-drop interface and two-way YAML synchronization
• Edit with AI — Modify slides using natural language prompts routed through Claude Code
• Drag-and-Drop Slide Reordering — Rearrange slides within and across sections by dragging thumbnails
• Speaker Notes — Add per-slide speaker notes that are excluded from exports and presenter view
• Skip Slides — Toggle slides to be skipped during presentation and export without deleting them

Export

• Export to PNG — Export individual slides or batch-export entire decks as PNG images
• Export to PDF — Generate multi-page PDF documents from your deck

Management

• Brand Theming — Set up brand colors, typography, and component styles via a visual Theme Editor
• Template Catalog — Browse, search, and manage slide and deck templates in grid or list view
• Cross-Deck Slide Copy — Copy slides between decks with a modal picker and file synchronization
• Build Progress Tracking — Monitor slide build progress with real-time status indicators
• Deck Catalog — Organize decks into folders with search, filtering, and bulk operations

Prerequisites

Before using Slide Builder, ensure the following are installed:

• VS Code ^1.105.0 or later — Download VS Code
• Claude Code extension — Required for AI-powered slide building and editing. Install Claude Code
• Node.js >=18 — Required for export features (PNG, PDF). Download Node.js

After installing Claude Code, install the Pitchsmith plugin from the marketplace:

# Inside a Claude Code session:
/plugin marketplace add pitchsmith/pitchsmith-marketplace
/plugin install pitchsmith@pitchsmith-marketplace

Quick Start

1. Install the extension

code --install-extension slide-builder-0.1.6.vsix

2. Install the Pitchsmith plugin in Claude Code

# Inside a Claude Code session:
/plugin marketplace add pitchsmith/pitchsmith-marketplace
/plugin install pitchsmith@pitchsmith-marketplace

3. Open a workspace in VS Code

Open any folder in VS Code. Slide Builder will automatically scaffold the .slide-builder/ directory with default themes, templates, and brand assets on first run.

4. Initialize with Claude Code

Open Claude Code and run the setup command:

/sb

This initializes your workspace and guides you through brand setup if needed.

5. Create your first deck

Use the Slide Builder icon in the Activity Bar to open the Catalog sidebar, then click New Deck to create a presentation. Alternatively, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and run Slide Builder: New Deck.

Commands

All commands are available via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) under the Slide Builder category:

Links

• GitHub Repository
• Issue Tracker
• Homepage
• Claude Code Extension

Release Flow

Releases are automated via GitHub Actions. To create a new release:

# From the slide-builder/ directory:
cd slide-builder

# Bump version (creates commit + git tag)
npm version patch   # 0.1.0 → 0.1.1
npm version minor   # 0.1.0 → 0.2.0
npm version major   # 0.1.0 → 1.0.0

# Push the commit and tag to trigger the release workflow
git push origin main --tags

This triggers the release pipeline which:

1. Runs CI checks (lint, test, build)
2. Packages the .vsix extension
3. Creates a GitHub Release with the VSIX attached
4. Syncs the plugin and marketplace distribution repos

Branch protection on main requires all CI checks to pass via PR before merging. Direct pushes to main are blocked.

License

See LICENSE for details. Licensed under the Elastic License v2 (ELv2).