Archforge Pptx Lint

Archforge: PPTX quality gate for agents

Archforge is a CLI linter for built .pptx files. It inspects the file itself (no PowerPoint needed), so it works in any headless environment. The most damaging pptx defects are silent: fonts fall back to an OS default without any error (the classic case is CJK text on a Latin-only font, where the coverage knowledge runs deepest), tracking quietly wrecks character spacing, autofit shrinks text past readability. This linter is how you catch them before a human does.

When to run

Run it EVERY time, not just when something looks wrong:

1. After every build of a .pptx you generated or modified.
2. Before telling the user a deck is done. ERROR count must be 0.
3. After every fix round (fixes routinely introduce new collisions).

Install and run

pip install archforge            # from PyPI
pip install -e        # or from the repo, for development
archforge deck.pptx --profile full --fail-incomplete --json   # THE agent command
                                            # need the AI-tell rules (default is core)
archforge deck.pptx              # objective defects only (core, the 0.4.0 default)
archforge deck.pptx --fail-incomplete   # incomplete checks (W18) fail: use this in CI
archforge deck.pptx --fail-on-warning   # WARNs fail too
archforge deck.pptx --e2-no-exemptions  # E2 numeric exemptions off (full profile)
archforge deck.pptx --strict     # union of the three flags above (compatibility alias)
archforge deck.pptx --ghost      # per-page title list (horizontal-logic review)
archforge deck.pptx --render pages/   # + on-image contrast check (W7); needs p01.png/p02.png-named PNGs
archforge deck.pptx --skip W14,W6     # suppress specific WARNs (WARN-only; recorded in JSON)
archforge deck.pptx --lang en         # report language (codes are language-independent)
archforge deck.pptx --sarif out.sarif # SARIF 2.1.0 for GitHub code scanning
archforge deck.pptx --junit out.xml   # JUnit XML for Jenkins/GitLab test reports
archforge deck.pptx --write-baseline bl.json / --baseline bl.json   # adopt existing decks (beta)
archforge baseline inspect bl.json    # what a baseline suppresses, under which conditions
archforge fix deck.pptx -o fixed.pptx # deterministic auto-fix for E1/E2/E4 only; re-lint after
archforge deck.pptx --html report.html # annotated visual report (wireframe + finding boxes)
archforge deck.pptx --no-config       # ignore config files (untrusted decks)
archforge deck.pptx --w6-sim 0.95 --w6-cluster 5   # loosen W6 for template-driven houses
archforge deck.pptx --hard-min 5 --body-min 9 --small-min 7.5   # size gate thresholds (pt)
archforge scan decks/ --profile full --json   # many files/dirs/globs at once; exit 1 if any fails
archforge demo                   # build broken.pptx + fixed.pptx and lint both (sanity tour)
archforge skill --install        # install this skill pack into ./.claude/skills

This skill pack ships inside the wheel: after pip install archforge, run archforge skill to print it or archforge skill --install [DIR] to install it. No repo clone needed.

--json output shape:

{"schema_version": "1.0",
 "tool": {"name": "archforge", "version": "x.y.z"},
 "target_renderer": "powerpoint-windows",
 "file": "...",
 "lang": "en",
 "errors":   [{"page": 3, "code": "E1", "message": "...", "detail": "..."}],
 "warnings": [{"page": 5, "code": "W15", "message": "...", "detail": "..."}],
 "ghost":    [{"page": 1, "title": "..."}],
 "summary":  {"error_count": 0, "warn_count": 2, "pass": true,
              "incomplete": false, "profile": "full", "skipped_codes": []}}

Messages follow the report language (--lang > ARCHFORGE_LANG > OS locale); codes are stable language-independent identifiers. Key on codes, not message text.

Findings carry a location payload when resolvable - use it as the auto-fix target instead of searching by text: shape_id/shape_name, bbox [x,y,w,h] in inches (absolute; group transforms applied), paragraph/run indexes into the shape's text frame, table cell as [row, col], field: true when the text lives in an a:fld auto field (slide number/date; no run index there), part (the slide XML part), and for pair findings (W15 overlap, W17 straddle) a related counterpart with the same keys. --schema 2 switches to schema 2.0: a single findings[] array with severity and a structured data object per item (numbers, not a parsed sentence), plus a capabilities map and a structured abstentions[]. Schema 1.0 (the default above) is unchanged. archforge scan --json wraps one per-file document per deck plus an aggregate summary (summary.file_count, failed_files, error_files, pass, incomplete). A broken or misconfigured file becomes a per-file status: "error" entry and the scan continues; --baseline under scan requires exactly one matched file (fingerprints carry no file identity, so a shared baseline would suppress findings across unrelated decks).

ghost lists the largest (>=18pt) title on each page that has one, in any language, so you can read the titles top-to-bottom and check the horizontal logic. Pages with no title-sized text are omitted, so an empty ghost means the deck has no clear titles.

Code table and how to fix

ERROR = ship-blockers. Fix, rebuild, re-lint. Never deliver with ERROR > 0.

| Code | Meaning | Fix | |------|---------|-----| | E1 | The font that will actually render Hangul text is Latin-only (no Hangul glyphs), so Hangul silently falls back to Malgun. Effective font follows the measured PowerPoint model: run a:ea > paragraph pPr/defRPr > lstStyle inheritance chain (shape > layout ph > master ph > master txStyles > defaultTextStyle) > theme ea (majorFont for title placeholders, minorFont otherwise; non-empty theme ea beats run a:latin) > run a:latin only when the theme ea slot is empty > OS fallback. Hangul-scoped: kana/hanzi-only runs are never judged with Hangul coverage knowledge | Give Korean runs a CJK-capable font. Setting only font.name (= a:latin) with a Korean font works when the theme ea slot is empty, but setting a:ea explicitly is the robust fix. Keep mono/Latin display fonts for ASCII-only labels | | E2 | A dash-family character used as sentence punctuation: em dash U+2014, en dash U+2013, figure dash U+2012, horizontal bar U+2015, 2/3-em dashes U+2E3A/U+2E3B, math minus U+2212, fullwidth hyphen U+FF0D, box-drawing line U+2500. Range-function en dashes pass by default: both neighbor tokens numeric-ish (2020, Q1, 5%, FY24; spaces allowed), or one numeric-ish neighbor with the dash attached. Spaced one-sided dashes (the AI parenthetical pattern) and word-to-word joins are blocked. Minus before a digit passes. Context is the full paragraph, so ranges split across runs don't false-positive | For prose dashes, use a colon, comma, parentheses, or line break. Ranges and negative numbers are fine by default; under --strict, use ~ for ranges and ASCII hyphen for minus | | E3 | Effective font size below 5pt (autofit scale, paragraph AND placeholder/layout/master/defaultTextStyle inheritance included): unreadable | Redesign, don't just bump the number: fewer items, one representative element bigger | | E4 | Positive letter-spacing (tracking) on a run containing Hangul (Hanja counts when mixed with Hangul): letter-spacing damage. Kana-containing runs and Hanja-only runs are exempt (tracked kana and tracked hanzi are normal JP/CN practice) | Set tracking to 0 on Hangul/Hanja runs. Track ASCII-only labels only |

WARN = advisory. Read each one; confirm on a rendered page image when the message says so. Most are approximation-based, calibrated against rendered output (see docs/CALIBRATION.md in the repo for thresholds and method).

| Code | Meaning | Typical action | |------|---------|----------------| | W1 | Body-class frame below 9pt | Ignore for sources/captions; raise otherwise | | W5 | Font size not found anywhere in the inheritance chain (run, paragraph, placeholder, master, defaultTextStyle) | Set sizes explicitly so gates can measure | | W6 | Same layout skeleton repeated on 4+ pages (tunable via --w6-sim/--w6-cluster) | Vary the grid per page; if the repetition is an intentional template system, tune or --skip W6 | | W7 | Text over image with contrast 45% | Check the rendered page; move/shrink one. Drop caps and echo typography are auto-excluded | | W16 | Text glyphs or picture ink extend past the canvas edge | Pull content inside; decorative shape bleed is auto-excluded | | W17 | Text straddles a picture's ink edge (25-75% inside) | Move the caption fully on or off the image; captions on solid cards are auto-excluded | | W18 | Some spans (page-level, page N) or deck-level checks (page 0) could not run: malformed/atypical attributes, vertical text, or RTL/complex scripts whose geometry cannot be estimated. Results may be incomplete | Treat the scope as unverified: inspect stderr for what was skipped, fix the malformed source, re-lint. Under --strict this fails the build |

Agent workflow

build deck.pptx
loop:
    result = archforge deck.pptx --profile full --fail-incomplete --json
    if result.summary.pass: break   # pass reflects the active policy (summary.policy)
    fix the listed defects (smallest page number first);
    if incomplete, fix the malformed spans W18 points at
    rebuild
for each WARN: decide fix vs. accept, based on the rendered page
render all pages once and eyeball them   # gates catch the mechanical class;
                                          # composition quality is still on you

Run with --fail-incomplete and gate on summary.pass == true. The active failure policy travels in summary.policy, so pass always means "passed under the policy you asked for"; a result with incomplete=true means part of the deck was never actually checked, which --fail-incomplete turns into a failure for you.

Two rules of thumb learned the hard way:

• A passing lint is not a finished deck. The linter covers the mechanical defect

class; page composition, narrative, and taste still need a human-style review of the rendered pages.

• When a fix round adds or moves elements, re-run the linter. Collisions appear

in fix rounds more often than in first builds.

Notes on internals (for debugging surprising results)

• The E1 font-resolution model is not guessed from the spec; it was measured by

rendering probe decks in PowerPoint via COM (2026-07-10) and pinned as fixtures. Theme a:ea is resolved per slide through its layout's master relationship, so multi-master decks are judged against the theme they actually use. Fonts missing from run rPr resolve through the lstStyle inheritance chain (measured: a master placeholder lstStyle a:ea really does render), and title placeholders resolve theme tokens against majorFont. Target renderer: PowerPoint for Windows.

• Script detection is per text run via Unicode code points (deterministic). Hangul

runs get the Korean font/tracking gates; other scripts are never falsely flagged by Korean coverage knowledge. Language-independent gates (sizes, layout, effects, geometry) run for every script.

• Effective sizes resolve the full inheritance chain: run > paragraph > shape

lstStyle > layout placeholder lstStyle > master placeholder / txStyles > presentation defaultTextStyle. W5 only fires when the entire chain is silent. Sizes inherited from defaultTextStyle don't qualify text as a "title" for ghost/W14 (that would flood them on decks with no explicit sizes).

• Text geometry is estimated per paragraph from per-run font sizes, real line

spacing, autofit (fontScale including percent-string form, lnSpcReduction), wrap mode (wrap="none" frames are measured as one long line, which is what python-pptx add_textbox produces by default), group transforms (off/chOff), and alignment. Rotated text frames are skipped.

• Picture "ink" boxes are alpha-trimmed (transparent chart margins don't count),

crop- and flip-aware, and palette+tRNS transparent PNGs are handled.

• One malformed attribute never kills the whole report: guards are per-run (a

corrupt run cannot swallow a sibling run's real violation) and per-slide, and anything a guard skips is surfaced as a W18 warning plus a machine-readable summary.incomplete flag. Gate on pass AND incomplete together (or run --fail-incomplete, which turns W18 into a failure); summary.pass reflects the active failure policy recorded in summary.policy.

• E2's numeric-context exemptions are evaluated against the full paragraph text,

so ranges split across run boundaries (PowerPoint does this via spellcheck and formatting seams) don't false-positive. Theme font tokens ("+mn-lt" etc.) in run properties are resolved to the actual theme fonts before E1 judgment.

• Auto fields (a:fld: slide numbers, dates) are gated like regular runs (E1/E3/E4);

they are excluded from ghost/W14 title collection. Line breaks (a:br) count as line breaks in E2's paragraph context.

• Geometry accounts for text-frame insets (lIns/tIns/rIns/bIns), explicit line breaks

(a:br), field text (a:fld), real table column widths, and merged cells (the origin cell spans its merged region; continuation cells are not double-counted). Rotated text frames are out of scope for geometry by design and do not mark the result incomplete.

• Known limit: placeholders inheriting alignment from a layout's list style are

measured as left-aligned. If W15/W16 flags look wrong on template placeholders, verify on the render before acting.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Love-Ash
• Source: Love-Ash/archforge
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.