mcp-server-powerpoint

# PowerPointMcp — MCP Server & CLI for Microsoft PowerPoint

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**Automate PowerPoint with AI** — a [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) server and CLI
for live, real-time PowerPoint automation through conversational AI. Sibling project to
[mcp-server-excel](https://github.com/sbroenne/mcp-server-excel), following the same layered
architecture: `ComInterop` → `Core` → `CLI` / `MCP Server`.

**MCP Server for PowerPoint** enables AI assistants (GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) to build and
edit real `.pptx` presentations through natural language — slides, shapes, text, tables, charts,
speaker notes, and layouts — no VBA or PowerPoint object-model knowledge required.

**🛡️ Live COM automation, not file parsing** — Most PowerPoint MCP servers manipulate `.pptx`
files offline with libraries like `python-pptx`, or use agent-run scripts with LibreOffice-rendered
thumbnails. This project instead drives a **live, real PowerPoint desktop instance** via
`Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint` — the official Primary Interop Assembly. That means
true-fidelity rendering, compatibility with an already-open deck, and zero risk of producing a
`.pptx` that PowerPoint itself can't open, because PowerPoint is the one writing it.

**🖼️ Export-to-verify** — the core differentiator. After any visual edit, export the slide (or the
whole deck) to an image with `export(action="export-slide-to-image", ...)` /
`export(action="export-all-slides-to-images", ...)` and let a
vision-capable AI assistant *see* the result — catching overlapping shapes, text overflow, and
layout regressions that text-only automation simply cannot detect.

**Technical Requirements:**
- ⚠️ **Windows Only** — COM interop is Windows-specific
- ⚠️ **PowerPoint Required** — Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 or later must be installed
- ⚠️ **Desktop Environment** — controls a real PowerPoint process (not for server-side processing)

> [!TIP]
> **Also automating spreadsheets?** Check out [Excel MCP Server](https://excelmcpserver.dev/) —
> the sister project, built the same way.

## 🎯 What You Can Do

**13 MCP tools with 141 operations across 13 domains:**

- 🗂️ **Presentation** (12 ops) — create, open, save, close, list sessions, apply a `.potx`/`.pptx`
  template's masters/theme/layouts, read the current theme name, read/write built-in and custom
  document properties
- 📑 **Slide** (14 ops) — add, count, delete, duplicate, reorder, per-slide background color, sections
- ▭ **Shape** (36 ops) — rectangles, text boxes, auto shapes, lines, connectors, fill/line/shadow,
  rotation, flip, z-order, grouping, naming, alt text
- ✏️ **TextFrame** (20 ops) — text, font size/name/color, bold, italic, underline, alignment, bullets
- 📊 **Table** (12 ops) — add, cell text, insert/delete rows & columns, cell fill/border, merge cells
- 🗣️ **Notes** (2 ops) — set/get speaker notes
- 🖼️ **Layout** (4 ops) — set/get slide layout
- 🎭 **Master** (10 ops) — slide master title/body placeholder fonts, background color
- 🎬 **Animation** (5 ops) — shape entrance/emphasis/exit effects, slide transitions
- 🖼️ **Image** (7 ops) — insert and adjust pictures (brightness, contrast, recolor, crop)
- 📈 **Chart** (10 ops) — add chart, multi-series data, titles, axis titles, legend
- 🔀 **SmartArt** (7 ops) — insert and edit SmartArt diagrams
- 🖼️ **Export** (2 ops) — export a slide, or all slides, to images for visual verification

Every domain is exposed as a single **action-dispatch tool** (e.g. `shape`, `table`, `chart`,
`presentation`) with an `action` parameter selecting the specific operation — keeping the tool
list small for AI assistants while still exposing every operation.

📚 **[Complete Feature Reference →](https://powerpointmcpserver.dev/features/)** — detailed
documentation of every tool and operation

## 💬 Example Prompts

**Build a deck from scratch:**
- *"Create a new presentation with a title slide and three content slides about our Q3 results,
  then export it as images so I can see it."*

**Tables & charts:**
- *"Add a 4x3 table summarizing this data, then add a bar chart next to it."*

**Formatting & shapes:**
- *"Make the title bold and blue, and move the logo to the top-right corner."*

**Speaker notes:**
- *"Write speaker notes for each slide summarizing the key talking point."*

**Templates & themes:**
- *"Apply our corporate template to this deck without losing any of the slide content."*

**Visual verification:**
- *"Export slide 3 as an image and tell me if the chart overlaps the text box."*

## 👥 Who Should Use This?

**Perfect for:**
- ✅ AI assistants and coding agents that need to build or edit `.pptx` decks
- ✅ Anyone automating repetitive slide-deck workflows (reports, status decks, templates)
- ✅ Teams that want export-to-verify visual checks on every automated edit

**Not suitable for:**
- ❌ Server-side/headless processing (this drives a real desktop PowerPoint process)
- ❌ Linux/macOS users (Windows + PowerPoint installation required)

## 🚀 Quick Start

| Platform | Installation |
|----------|-------------|
| **VS Code** | [Install Extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sbroenne.powerpoint-mcp) (one-click, recommended) |
| **Claude Desktop** | Download `.mcpb` from [latest release](https://github.com/sbroenne/mcp-server-powerpoint/releases/latest) |
| **Any MCP Client** | Download `mcp-powerpoint.exe` from [latest release](https://github.com/sbroenne/mcp-server-powerpoint/releases/latest) and add to PATH |
| **Details** | 📖 [Full Installation Guide →](https://powerpointmcpserver.dev/installation/) |

**⚠️ Important:** Close any open instances of the target file before automating it — the server
needs exclusive access to the presentation while it's driving PowerPoint.

## 🔧 CLI vs MCP Server

This project provides both a **CLI** and an **MCP Server** interface. Choose based on your use case:

| Interface | Best For | Why |
|-----------|----------|-----|
| **CLI** (`pptcli` / `powerpointcli.exe`) | Coding agents (Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf) + scripting | Single tool, no large schemas — better for cost-sensitive, high-throughput automation. |
| **MCP Server** (`mcp-powerpoint`) | Conversational AI (Claude Desktop, VS Code Chat) | Rich tool discovery, persistent session. Better for interactive, exploratory workflows. |

**Manual installation:**
```powershell
# Primary: Download standalone executables from latest release (no .NET runtime required)
# https://github.com/sbroenne/mcp-server-powerpoint/releases/latest
# - PowerPointMcp-MCP-Server-{version}-windows.zip → extract mcp-powerpoint.exe
# - PowerPointMcp-CLI-{version}-windows.zip → extract powerpointcli.exe

# Secondary: Install via .NET tool (requires .NET 10 runtime)
dotnet tool install --global Sbroenne.PowerPointMcp.McpServer
dotnet tool install --global Sbroenne.PowerPointMcp.CLI

# After installing either way, auto-configure your coding agents:
npx add-mcp "mcp-powerpoint" --name powerpoint-mcp
```

```powershell
# Optional: Install the agent skill for better AI guidance
npx skills add sbroenne/mcp-server-powerpoint --skill powerpoint-mcp
```

> 💡 The VS Code extension installs this skill automatically. Manual `npx skills add` is for other
> MCP clients (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.).

## ⚙️ How It Works - COM Automation & Unified Service Architecture

**PowerPointMcp uses Windows COM automation to control the actual PowerPoint application (not
just `.pptx` files).**

The **MCP Server** and **CLI** are two equal, first-class entry points. Each hosts its own
**PowerPointMcp Service** that manages presentation sessions — the MCP Server runs it
**in-process** (direct calls, no pipe), while the CLI uses a **background daemon** over a named
pipe so sessions persist across CLI invocations:

```
┌──────────────────────┐        ┌──────────────────────┐
│  MCP Server          │        │  CLI (pptcli)        │
│  (AI assistants)     │        │  (coding agents)     │
└──────────┬───────────┘        └──────────┬───────────┘
           │ in-process                     │ named pipe →
           │ (direct calls)                 │ background daemon
           ▼                                ▼
┌──────────────────────┐        ┌──────────────────────┐
│  PowerPointMcp       │        │  PowerPointMcp       │
│  Service             │        │  Service             │
│  (session mgmt)      │        │  (daemon; sessions   │
│                      │        │   persist across     │
│                      │        │   CLI invocations)   │
└──────────┬───────────┘        └──────────┬───────────┘
           ▼                                ▼
      Core Commands                    Core Commands
           ▼                                ▼
┌──────────────────────┐        ┌──────────────────────┐
│  PowerPoin