create-slides

Files (5)

• Makefile
• SKILL.md
• rhetoric.md
• template.tex
• tikz-snippets.tex

SKILL.md (first lines)

# create-slides — LaTeX Beamer Scaffold & Design Guide

This skill does two things:
1. **Scaffold** a new slide deck from the standard template (Steps 1–5).
2. **Guide** the design, rhetoric, compile workflow, and quality review of any
   Beamer deck — whether freshly scaffolded or brought in from existing content.

## Usage

```
/create-slides [path]
```

`path` is the directory where the slides folder should be created.
If omitted, use `documents/slides/` relative to the current working directory.
If the target directory already exists and contains files, ask the user before overwriting.

If the user brings **existing content** (a paper, notes, a prior deck, or a
short research description), treat this as a redesign/generation task: scaffold
the template, then populate it with restructured content following the rhetoric
and design principles in this skill.

---

## Step 1 — Gather inputs

Ask the user for the following. Accept anything they provide and use sensible
defaults for anything left blank.

| Field | Prompt | Default |
|-------|--------|---------|
| `TITLE` | Full presentation title | `Untitled` |
| `SHORT_TITLE` | Short title for footer | *(first 4 words of title)* |
| `SUBTITLE` | Subtitle (optional) | *(omit subtitle line)* |
| `AUTHORS` | Author name(s), comma-separated | `Author` |
| `SHORT_AUTHORS` | Short author(s) for footer | *(last name(s) of authors)* |
| `INSTITUTIONS` | Institution per author (optional) | *(omit \inst{} lines)* |
| `VENUE` | Conference or seminar name | `[Venue]` |
| `DATE` | Presentation date | `\today` |
| `PRIMARY_COLOR` | Primary brand color as RGB hex (e.g. `#405C7E`) | `#405C7E` (steel blue) |
| `SECTIONS` | Top-level section names beyond the defaults (optional) | *(none)* |
| `MACROS` | Project-specific LaTeX macros (optional) | *(none)* |
| `AUDIENCE` | Who is this for? (e.g., "PhD seminar", "conference", "undergrads") | *(general academic)* |
| `SOURCE` | Existing content to restructure: paper, notes, prior deck (optional) | *(none)* |
| `CODE_LANG` | Code language for figures: R, Python, Stata (optional) | *(none)* |

If the user invokes the skill with a short description (e.g.
`/create-slides "DML and negative weights in DiD"`), treat that string as the
title and infer a draft subtitle and audience from it — tell the user what you assumed.

---

## Step 2 — Create the directory

```bash
mkdir -p <path>/figures
mkdir -p <path>/scripts
mkdir -p <path>/tables
```

Copy the Makefile template:

```bash
cp ~/.claude/skills/create-slides/Makefile <path>/Makefile
```

Standard output structure:

```
<path>/
├── slides.tex        # Main Beamer file
├── slides.pdf        # Compiled deck (after Step 4)
├── Makefile          # Build automation (make / make watch / make open / make clean)
├── figures/          # PNG/PDF figures — referenced as figures/FILENAME
├── scripts/          # Standalone R/Python/Stata scripts that generate figures
└── tables/           # .tex table fragments
```

---

## Step 3 — Copy and fill `slides.tex`

The canonical template lives at `~/.claude/skills/create-slides/template.tex`.
Copy it to `<path>/slides.tex`:

```bash
cp ~/.claude/skills/create-slides/template.tex <path>/slides.tex
```

Then edit the file in place:

**Placeholders** — every `\ph{NAME}` call renders as bold `[NAME]` in the PDF
(easy to spot during drafting). Replace them using the user's inputs:

| Placeholder | Replace with |
|-------------|-------------|
| `\ph{Full title}` | `TITLE` |
| `\ph{Short title}` | `SHORT_TITLE` |
| `\ph{Subtitle}` | `SUBTITLE` (or remove the `\subtitle{…}` line if omitted) |
| `\ph{Author One}`, `\ph{Author Two}`, … | Author names; add/remove `\and` blocks to match |
| `\ph{Short author(s)}` | `SHORT_AUTHORS` |
| `\ph{Institution One}`, `\ph{Institution Two}` | `INSTITUTIONS`; add/remove `\inst{}` lines to match, or remove all `\inst{}` markup if only one institution |
| `\ph{Venue}` | `VENUE` |
| `\ph{Full date, e.g. April 8, 2026}` | `DATE` |
| `\ph{Short date}` | short form of `DATE` (e.g. `April 2026`) |

**Colors** — convert the user's `PRIMARY_COLOR` hex to two RGB-in-[0,1] triples
and substitute them on the two `\definecolor` lines marked `% COLOR`:

```latex
\definecolor{PRIMARY}{rgb}{R, G, B}          % primary brand color
\definecolor{PRIMARY-light}{rgb}{R, G, B}    % lighter accent (~30% tint)
```

For the light accent, blend the primary color with white at roughly 35 %
(i.e. `light = primary × 0.65 + 1 × 0.35` per channel).

**Extra sections** — if the user requested additional sections, insert them
before `\section{Next Steps}`, each with a section-title card frame and at

From pascalamiet/ai-setup, MIT.

More from pascalamiet/ai-setup