Make Slides

Make Slides

Turn an accepted (or nearly-done) paper into a conference talk deck — Beamer .tex or Marp markdown — built around a problem-first story, one claim per slide, the paper's own figures, and a slide count the slot can actually afford. The deck is the deliverable; the timed word-by-word script and Q&A drill are separate skills (write-talk-script, rehearse-qa).

When to use

• The paper got accepted and a talk slot is coming: build the deck.
• The user has a slot length ("12 minutes plus 3 Q&A", "5-minute

lightning") and needs a deck that fits it.

• An existing deck is overlong, text-heavy, or paper-shaped and needs to

be cut down to a talk.

Related skills: write-talk-script (timed speaker script for the deck), rehearse-qa (hostile/curious Q&A drill), make-poster (poster + 2-min/5-min pitches), study-exemplars (how strong papers at the venue frame contributions), verify-citations (gate for any reference that appears on a slide).

Inputs

• The paper's main .tex file (preferred — figures are harvested from

source) or the PDF plus the figure files.

• The slot length and Q&A split, from the venue's **presenter

instructions or acceptance email**. This is the one fact the skill cannot look up: venue profiles do not encode talk slots (they change year to year and per track). If the user does not know it, stop and ask — see [references/venue-timing.md](references/venue-timing.md).

• Optional: venues/conferences/.yml for venue context (name, track,

live URLs). Re-verify anything taken from a profile against the live cfp_url / venue site before the user relies on it.

• Output format choice: Beamer (LaTeX toolchain, vector figures reused

as-is) or Marp (markdown, fast iteration, figures must be PNG/SVG). Decision guide: [references/deck-formats.md](references/deck-formats.md).

Process

1. Pin down the slot, then budget the deck

Confirm slot minutes and Q&A minutes with the user (ask; never assert a slot length from memory or from a venue profile — typical shapes and the verification checklist are in [references/venue-timing.md](references/venue-timing.md)). Then run, from the repo root:

python3 skills/make-slides/scripts/slide_budget.py --minutes  --qa  \
    [--format auto|full|lightning] [--venue-profile venues/conferences/.yml] [--json]

It prints the content-slide target (~1 slide per speaking minute, hard max 1.25x) and a problem-first section allocation (minutes + slides per section) in the full-talk shape (12-20 min) or the lightning shape ( [--strict] [--json]

Deterministic checks: pacing vs the slot, overfull slides (>100 words is
a document, not a slide), bullet overload, generic non-claim titles,
missing image files, Marp-unrenderable PDF images, tiny Beamer fonts.
Fix every RISK and re-run until RISK-free; resolve pacing by cutting or
merging slides, never by planning to talk faster.

### 6. Verify it builds, then hand off

Compile the deck if the toolchain is available (`latexmk -pdf` for
Beamer, `marp` CLI for Marp — commands in
[references/deck-formats.md](references/deck-formats.md)); otherwise say
explicitly that it was not compiled. Deliver the deck, the figure
inventory, and the lint report, and point the user at `write-talk-script`
to time the narration and `rehearse-qa` before the session. Remind them
to re-check slot length, room aspect ratio, and any pre-recording
requirement against the venue's presenter instructions.

## Output

- `talk/slides.md` (Marp) or `talk/slides.tex` (Beamer) — RISK-free under
  `deck_lint.py` for the stated speaking time, with speaker-note stubs
  and backup slides.
- `talk/assets/` — the paper figures the deck uses, harvested by
  `extract_figures.py` (converted for Marp).
- The slide budget and figure inventory as the paper trail for what was
  cut and why.

## Guardrails

- Never invent results, numbers, or comparisons for a slide; every figure
  and number traces to the paper or the user. Pending results get an
  explicit `[RESULT]` placeholder, flagged in the handoff.
- Never fabricate citations on slides; anything cited goes through
  `verify-citations`.
- Never assert slot lengths, room formats, or recording rules from memory
  or from a venue profile — presenter instructions and the acceptance
  email are ground truth; label anything unconfirmed as UNVERIFIED.
- Never bundle or paste another paper's slides or text as a template;
  exemplar study happens transiently via `study-exemplars`.
- Never upload or submit the deck anywhere on the user's behalf.

## Source & license

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

- **Author:** [ShaishavMaisuria](https://github.com/ShaishavMaisuria)
- **Source:** [ShaishavMaisuria/research-paper-lifecycle-skills](https://github.com/ShaishavMaisuria/research-paper-lifecycle-skills)
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Homepage:** https://shaishavmaisuria.github.io/research-paper-lifecycle-skills/

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