Google Slides Generator

Turn a text outline into a finished, shareable Google Slides deck in a single prompt. This skill drives the Google Slides API end to end: it creates the presentation, lays out each slide, applies a theme, writes speaker notes, sets slide transitions, and drops in charts—then hands back the shareable link. It's built for people who live in outlines (PMs, founders, sales, devrel) and want a real editable deck, not a screenshot or an exported PDF.

When to use it

• You have a bulleted outline or doc and need a deck for a meeting in 10 minutes.
• You want a weekly/monthly report deck generated from the same structure each time.
• You're embedding live metrics from a Google Sheet and want the chart to stay linked.
• You need consistent branding (fonts, colors, logo) across decks without hand-styling each slide.

How it works

The skill authenticates with OAuth (scopes presentations and drive.file) and calls the Slides REST API. Creation happens through presentations.create, then a single presentations.batchUpdate carries the bulk of the work as ordered requests: createSlide with a predefinedLayout (e.g. TITLE_AND_BODY, SECTION_HEADER), insertText into placeholder shapes, updateSlideProperties for transitions, and createSheetsChart to embed a chart from a linked Google Sheet (LINKED mode so "Update" works in the editor). Speaker notes are written into the notes page's body placeholder. Drive's permissions.create sets sharing, and the returned presentationId becomes the docs.google.com/presentation/d/.../edit link.

Example

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o ~/.claude/skills/google-slides-generator/SKILL.md https://claudeskil.com/skills/google-slides-generator/SKILL.md

> Build a deck titled "Q2 Review" from this outline. Theme: Acme brand.
  Embed the revenue chart from sheet 1aBc... and add speaker notes per slide.

- Intro: where we are
- Revenue: chart from Sheet "MRR" (range A1:B13)
- Wins / Misses
- Q3 priorities

Output: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/<id>/edit — shared with you and ready to present.

Tips & gotchas

• Object IDs you assign in createSlide/createShape must be unique per request; reuse one and the whole batchUpdate fails atomically (nothing is written).
• Charts are embedded by spreadsheetId + chartId—the chart has to already exist in the Sheet. The skill can't draw a chart inside Sheets for you; build it there first.
• drive.file scope only grants access to files this skill creates. To open an existing deck it didn't make, you'll need broader Drive scope.
• Placeholder text only lands if the chosen layout actually has that placeholder. Asking for a subtitle on a BLANK layout silently no-ops.

FAQ

Can it edit an existing deck instead of creating one? Yes, if you pass a presentation URL/ID it can append slides and run batchUpdate against it.

Does it support custom brand themes? It applies your master/theme colors and fonts; the cleanest result comes from pointing it at an existing branded template to copy.

PowerPoint export? Decks export to .pptx or PDF via the Drive files.export endpoint on request.