Pptx diagram

Mermaid → PowerPoint diagram

officecli renders Mermaid straight into a slide. Write the Mermaid, run one command — do not hand-place shapes and connectors.

officecli create deck.pptx                       # only if it doesn't exist
officecli add deck.pptx / --type slide --prop title="Architecture"
officecli add deck.pptx '/slide[1]' --type diagram --prop render=native \
  --prop mermaid="flowchart TD; A[Producer] --> B[(Topic)]; B --> C[Consumer]"

Pick the render mode — this is the only real decision

Want	Use	Constraint
Editable shapes in PowerPoint	render=native	Only flowchart/graph and sequenceDiagram. Other types are rejected with a clear message.
Any mermaid type (gantt, pie, class, state, er, …)	render=image	Embeds a PNG via headless Chrome. Not editable; mermaid source is stamped into alt-text so it can be regenerated.

Default is render=auto, which prefers the browser/PNG path when a browser exists — so pass render=native explicitly whenever the user wants editable shapes, otherwise they may silently get a picture.

If a diagram must be editable but isn't a flowchart/sequence, say so and offer either the image path or a flowchart reshaping of the same content — don't quietly fall back.

Placing and adjusting

• Default: scaled to fit the slide, centred. Slide size never changes.
• Explicit box: --prop x=2cm --prop y=2cm --prop width=15cm --prop height=10cm (aspect always preserved).
• --prop poster=true grows the slide to the diagram's natural size — use for "export this diagram as a slide", not for a diagram inside a normal deck.
• --prop src=diagram.mmd loads Mermaid from a file instead of inline.

Add returns one group path, e.g. /slide[1]/group[1]. The whole diagram stays adjustable as a unit:

officecli set deck.pptx '/slide[1]/group[1]' --prop width=20cm --prop keepAspect=true
officecli remove deck.pptx '/slide[1]/group[1]'

Child font sizes re-bake on resize, so text stays proportional. A lone width or height changes only that axis — add keepAspect=true, or pass both for an exact box.

Verify before claiming it worked

officecli get deck.pptx '/slide[1]' --depth 1     # shapes + connectors present?
officecli view deck.pptx issues

For a visual check: officecli view deck.pptx screenshot -o out.png (or svg), then read the image.

Shell gotchas

• Quote the whole Mermaid string; use ; between statements for one-liners.
• Newlines inside --prop text= need \\n, not \n.
• Paths are 1-based and must be quoted: '/slide[1]'.

Notes

• Unsure whether a Mermaid construct exists or how it's spelled? Query context7 (/mermaid-js/mermaid) rather than guessing — it carries versioned syntax docs, and a mermaid parse error surfaces as a failed add with no slide. Check its Versions: list against the mermaid your renderer bundles; newer syntax silently fails on an older parser.
• For a whole deck (multiple slides, layout, theming) rather than a diagram, load officecli's own deck skill first: officecli load_skill pptx.
• Mermaid already renders in GitHub, on claude.ai, and in a published Artifact — but not in the Claude Code terminal, which has no graphics protocol and prints the fence as literal text. Only reach for this skill when the target really is PowerPoint; reach for whiteboard when you just need to see a diagram to agree on it.