OfficeCLI Morph-PPT Skill
A skill for AI agents to craft PowerPoint decks with buttery-smooth Morph transitions — continuous motion across slides, no Office installation needed.
Evidence: Skill lacks explicit user confirmation workflow, but commands execute locally generating pptx files, no data exfiltration. Provides install scripts but security not audited, depends on external services (d.officecli.ai) which may be untrusted. Minor file operations (e.g., clean-accumulation deletes shapes) but explicit user intent. No user confirmation or data flow transparency. Deduction: install script source unverified, dependencies not pinned, data handling and rollback unclear.
Evidence: Detailed help-first rules and verification commands, but no test cases or CI. Python and Shell implementations differ, potential inconsistency. Error handling present but relies on external command return codes, not fully covered. Deduction: No automated tests, key paths not reproduced, failure feedback partially relies on user self-check.
Evidence: Clear trigger conditions (morph, smooth transition etc.) and non-fit scenarios (e.g., generic decks). Detailed use cases and boundaries. Environment: emphasizes Chinese support, but no mention of mainland network accessibility. Deduction: Lacks explicit statement about mainland network reachability, but core function does not depend on overseas services.
Evidence: Well-structured docs with layered explanations (SKILL.md, reference files). Install/dependency notes provided. Naming conventions (three-prefix system) clear. Known limitations (renderer compatibility) disclosed. License Apache-2.0. Deduction: No version number or changelog, maintenance responsibility unclear.
Evidence: Provides multiple concrete recipes and full examples, output pptx file expected directly usable. But no execution validation, correctness unconfirmed. Deduction: No runtime evidence, output correctness unverified.
Evidence: Provides command examples and verification greps, but no test suite or third-party validation. Depends on external CLI, no reproducible tests. Deduction: No independent evidence, only documentation assertions.
- Install scripts from external domain (d.officecli.ai), audit security before use
- No automated tests provided, recommend pilot testing before full deployment
- Rendering depends on PowerPoint 365/Keynote/WPS; LibreOffice and some web viewers only show fade transitions
- Some documented features (e.g., morph-helpers.sh) may be inconsistent with Python version, rely on official help
What does this skill do, and when should you use it?
This skill is a specialized layer on top of OfficeCLI's pptx base skill, focused on creating PowerPoint presentations with Morph transitions — the smooth cross-slide animation where shapes grow, move, and rotate as slides advance. It inherits all the hard design rules from the base pptx skill (such as visual floor, grid math, palettes, and delivery gates) and adds Morph-specific disciplines: a three-prefix naming system for shape pairing, ghost positioning for exit animations, a mandatory pre-code planning table, and extended verification gates. It drives the OfficeCLI binary through a command-line interface, so no Microsoft Office is required. It's meant for decks that need Keynote-style continuous motion, not for generic pitches or board reviews.
The skill instructs an AI agent to use the officecli CLI to build .pptx files with Morph transitions. Concretely, it: adds slides and sets transition=morph; adds and positions shapes, using !! or # name prefixes to enable cross-slide pairing; moves shapes off-canvas (e.g., x=36cm) to create exit animations; uses batch heredocs for multi-step operations; and runs validation (officecli validate) and an HTML preview audit (officecli view <file> html) before delivery. It also provides helper scripts (reference/morph-helpers.py and .sh) for cloning slides, ghosting shapes, and final structural checks. The output is a single .pptx file.
- A presentation designer needs to create a slide sequence with continuous visual motion, such as a hero title that shrinks and moves to a corner while the next slide's content takes center stage.
- A business analyst is building a dense 8-10 slide deck and wants 3-5 Morph moments to emphasize narrative beats without overwhelming the audience.
- A product manager needs an 18+ slide, three-act story where long Morph transitions at section dividers create deliberate chapter punctuation.
- An educator wants to show how a concept evolves step-by-step, e.g., a bar chart where bars grow progressively by morphing manual rectangles.
- A developer wants to automate generation of visually engaging presentations in a CI/CD or Docker environment, without requiring Office on the server.
What are this skill's strengths and limitations?
- No Microsoft Office installation required; purely CLI-driven, ideal for AI agent automation.
- Provides detailed naming conventions and planning templates to avoid common Morph failure modes.
- Enforces mandatory delivery gates (Gate 1-5b) to ensure the generated deck meets visual and structural quality standards.
- Comes with multiple ready-to-use recipes and helper scripts that simplify common patterns like multi-slide animations.
- Includes a 52-style visual library for design inspiration while avoiding the pitfall of copying rigid coordinates.
- Morph transitions only render in PowerPoint 365, Keynote, and WPS; LibreOffice and many web viewers degrade to plain fades.
- The skill assumes familiarity with the base pptx skill; skipping that prerequisite can lead to missing critical rules.
- Ghost accumulation is a real risk; the skill requires careful per-slide maintenance, which can be error-prone if not followed diligently.
- No built-in test suite; verification relies on manual/scripted gates that may not catch every visual issue.
- The skill is optimized for animated presentations; it won't automatically fall back to the base skill for static decks — you must explicitly choose the right skill.
How do you install this skill?
First install the OfficeCLI binary. On macOS/Linux, run curl -fsSL https://d.officecli.ai/install.sh | bash. On Windows PowerShell, run irm https://d.officecli.ai/install.ps1 | iex. Verify with officecli --version. This skill exists in the OfficeCLI monorepo at skills/morph-ppt/SKILL.md. To use it, place the SKILL.md in an Agent Skills-compatible directory, e.g., for Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/morph-ppt/SKILL.md. Ensure officecli is on your PATH and jq is available for JSON processing.
How do you use this skill?
Trigger the skill by asking for Morph transitions or continuous animation, e.g., 'Create a presentation with smooth cross-slide animations.' The skill requires planning morph pairs in a brief.md before coding, then building slides with officecli commands. Example: create a deck: FILE="deck.pptx"; officecli create "$FILE"; add a slide with morph: officecli add "$FILE" / --type slide --prop transition=morph; add shapes with names: officecli add "$FILE" "/slide[2]" --type shape --prop 'name=!!actor-ring' .... Remember to ghost old content to x=36cm on each slide. Finally run officecli validate "$FILE" and open the HTML preview for visual review.
How does this skill compare with similar options?
Compared to libraries like python-pptx, OfficeCLI offers a single-command interface that needs no coding, plus a built-in rendering engine for visual feedback. Compared to Microsoft PowerPoint's native Morph, this skill makes Morph reliable for AI agents by enforcing shape-naming rules and verification gates.