Deckpipe

Agent-first slide deck rendering engine. Agents author each slide as HTML/CSS/JS; Deckpipe renders it inside a sandboxed 1920×1080 shadow root, themes it via deck-level CSS variables, gives every deck a shareable viewer URL, and supports threaded commenting from collaborators.

• Hosted: deckpipe.dev
• Remote MCP: https://deckpipe.dev/mcp (Streamable HTTP)
• Stdio MCP: npx deckpipe-mcp

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How it works

An agent calls create_deck with HTML, CSS, and (optionally) JS for each slide:

{
  "title": "Q2 Launch",
  "heading_font": "Fraunces",
  "stylesheet": ".hero { font-family: var(--dp-font-heading); font-size: 96px; color: #0f172a; }",
  "slides": [
    {
      "layout": "canvas",
      "content": {
        "html": "<h1 class=\"hero\" data-dp-anchor=\"title\">Q2 launch</h1>",
        "js": "slide.querySelector('h1').animate([{opacity:0},{opacity:1}], 600);"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Each slide mounts in an open shadow root, so CSS is auto-scoped — no BEM, no class prefixes. Deck-level stylesheet is adopted by every slide, so a design system written once shows up everywhere. CSS custom properties (--dp-font-heading, --dp-font-body) are forwarded into every slide so font choices stay consistent.

Reviewers open the viewer URL and can comment on any DOM element (auto-anchored via data-dp-anchor for stability across edits). The agent reads those comments via MCP, edits the deck, and replies — full collaborative loop without humans touching JSON.

The hosted instance at deckpipe.dev is free and unauthenticated — decks are addressed by unguessable IDs. You can also self-host the whole stack.

Use it

From Claude.ai / Claude Desktop / any Streamable HTTP MCP client

Add https://deckpipe.dev/mcp as a custom remote MCP server. No auth.

From Claude Code (local stdio)

claude mcp add deckpipe -- npx deckpipe-mcp

Manual MCP config

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "deckpipe": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "deckpipe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Then ask the agent to "build a deck about X". The agent gets back a viewer URL you can open and comment on.

Self-host

git clone https://github.com/bjoern2000/deckpipe
cd deckpipe
npm install

cp .env.example .env       # set DATABASE_URL, PORT, IMAGE_STORAGE_PATH, etc.
npm run db:migrate         # apply SQL migrations (local Postgres)

npm run dev                # API on :3010, viewer on :5173
npm run build              # production builds for all packages

Point your MCP client at http://localhost:3010/mcp, or run the stdio shim with DECKPIPE_API_URL=http://localhost:3010 npx deckpipe-mcp.

Architecture

This is a single Node.js / TypeScript monorepo (npm workspaces). Five packages:

Package	What
packages/shared	Zod schemas, types, ID generators. Source of truth for the data model.
packages/mcp-core	MCP tool definitions (registerTools, INSTRUCTIONS). Imported by both MCP transports — single source of truth.
packages/api	Express REST API on /v1/* plus the remote MCP transport at /mcp. PostgreSQL with JSONB.
packages/viewer	Lit web components. Renders canvas slides into shadow roots, handles edit mode, comment overlay, presenter/print modes.
packages/mcp	Standalone npm package deckpipe-mcp — stdio + HTTP transports for local agents. Pure transport plumbing, calls into mcp-core.

Tools (MCP):

Tool	Description
create_deck	Create a new deck, get a shareable viewer URL.
get_deck	Read deck state including open comments.
update_deck	Edit slide content, restructure slides, change theme.
delete_deck	Permanently delete a deck.
upload_image	Upload base64 PNG/JPG/WebP, get a hosted URL.
search_images	Unsplash search with automatic attribution + download tracking.
preview_slide	Render a transient slide (no persistence) and return a screenshot + render report.
get_slide_screenshot	Render a specific slide of an existing deck. Cached on updated_at.
list_layouts	Describe the canvas layout and deck-level theming options.
list_comments	List comments on a deck (filter by status, slide, since-timestamp).
reply_to_comment	Reply to a comment thread.
resolve_comment	Mark a comment as resolved.

A note on layouts: Deckpipe 0.2 had 25 templated layouts (title_and_bullets, stats, swot, etc.). They're now deprecated for new content — canvas is the only layout the MCP advertises. Existing decks using templated layouts still render unchanged, and the schema still accepts them. See CLAUDE.md → "Resurrecting deprecated layouts" for the steps to re-enable them on the MCP surface.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome. Before sending substantial changes, please open an issue to discuss the approach.

This project will eventually require a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) so contributions can be relicensed alongside the auto-conversion to Apache 2.0 in 2030. For now, every PR is reviewed by hand and small contributions are accepted under the file's existing license.

License

FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0 — Functional Source License, Version 1.1, Apache 2.0 Future License.

Free for: self-hosting, internal use, education, research, and any non-competing use. Prohibited until 2030-05-11: offering Deckpipe (or a substantially-similar service) as a commercial hosted product to third parties. After the change date the entire repository auto-converts to Apache 2.0.

"Deckpipe" is a trademark held separately. Forks must rename.

Copyright © 2026 Björn Schefzyk.