174-line mental schema + Claude Code: an agent workflow that builds entire slide decks
tianshi_li · x · 2026-11-01
The author shares the full workflow behind their NVIDIA talk slides: write a 174-line Markdown "mental schema" detailing every slide's text placement and click-by-click animations, then use Quarto + Claude Code (Opus) with a custom schema-to-design translation skill to generate the deck.
Key lessons:
- Don't let the agent freestyle; constrain content via a detailed text schema so the agent only handles translation to design
- Build a custom design system to escape the default "AI look"; let the agent retrieve online resources and handle visual quirks
- Balances delegation and direct manipulation: precise control over content while abstracting away the tedious details that used to eat most slide-making time
- The author finds the schema itself communicates their thinking even more clearly than the slides
Related event: 174-line mental script powers automated slide generation with Claude Code(2 posts)→
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