Slides

A markdown-based presentation editor with AI-powered content and theme generation. Built as an Nx monorepo with Angular, Express, and PostgreSQL.

Features

• Markdown editor with live slide preview (powered by Monaco Editor)
• Slide thumbnails with theme-aware rendering
• Resizable editor panes
• Mermaid diagram support with theme-aware styling
• Multiple built-in themes (Default, Dark, Minimal, Corporate, Creative)
• Custom theme creation (manual color picker + AI generation)
• AI assistant for generating slide content and styles (supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini)
• MCP server for AI tool integration (Claude Code, etc.)
• Presentation mode
• Auto-save

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v20+)
• npm

For web version:

• Docker (for PostgreSQL) or a local PostgreSQL instance

For desktop version:

• Rust (latest stable)

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/BenjaminDobler/slides.git
cd slides

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Start PostgreSQL

Using Docker (recommended):

docker compose up -d

This starts a PostgreSQL 16 instance on port 5432 with user postgres, password postgres, and database slides.

Or use your own PostgreSQL instance.

4. Configure environment variables

Create a .env file in the project root:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/slides?schema=public
JWT_SECRET=your-secret-key
ENCRYPTION_KEY=a-32-character-encryption-key!!

• DATABASE_URL — PostgreSQL connection string
• JWT_SECRET — Secret for signing JWT auth tokens
• ENCRYPTION_KEY — Used to encrypt stored AI provider API keys (must be 32 characters)

5. Run database migrations

npx prisma migrate deploy

6. Seed the database

This creates the built-in themes:

npx prisma db seed

7. Start the application

In two terminals (or use &):

# Terminal 1 — Backend (port 3333)
npx nx serve backend

# Terminal 2 — Frontend (port 4200)
npx nx serve frontend

Open http://localhost:4200 in your browser.

Desktop App (Tauri)

The desktop version runs without authentication and uses a local SQLite database. No PostgreSQL or Docker required.

Development

npm run desktop

This starts the frontend dev server and launches the Tauri app. Hot reload is enabled for the frontend.

Build for Distribution

npm run desktop:build

Built packages are in apps/desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/:

• macOS: dmg/Slides_*.dmg
• Windows: msi/*.msi and nsis/*.exe
• Linux: deb/*.deb and appimage/*.AppImage

macOS Unsigned App Note

If you see "app is damaged" error on macOS, run:

xattr -cr /Applications/Slides.app

Project Structure

slides/
  apps/
    backend/       # Express API server (web version)
    frontend/      # Angular application
    desktop/       # Tauri desktop app
      src-tauri/   # Rust backend for desktop
  libs/
    markdown-parser/  # Shared markdown-to-slides parser
    shared-types/     # Shared TypeScript interfaces
  prisma/
    schema.prisma  # Database schema (web version)
    seed.ts        # Theme seed data
    migrations/    # Prisma migrations

MCP Server

Slides includes a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI tools like Claude Code to create and manage presentations.

Desktop App

The MCP server is built into the desktop app and runs automatically on http://localhost:3332/mcp/sse.

Add to your Claude Code config (~/.claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slides": {
      "url": "http://localhost:3332/mcp/sse"
    }
  }
}

No authentication required — the MCP server runs locally with the desktop app.

Web Version

For the web version, use the published MCP server package:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "slides": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "slides-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "SLIDES_AUTH_TOKEN": "<your-token>",
        "SLIDES_BACKEND_URL": "http://localhost:3332"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your auth token from Settings in the web app.

Tech Stack

• Frontend: Angular 21, Monaco Editor, Mermaid.js
• Backend (Web): Express, Prisma 7, PostgreSQL
• Backend (Desktop): Rust, Axum, SQLite
• Desktop: Tauri 2
• AI: Anthropic, OpenAI, and Gemini provider support
• Tooling: Nx monorepo, TypeScript