# scientific-slides

> Build slide decks and presentations for research talks including PowerPoint slides, conference presentations, seminar talks, research presentations, and thesis defense slides with structure, design templates, timing guidance, and visual validation.

**Use case**: Build structured research talk slide decks

**Canonical URL**: https://agentcookbooks.com/skills/scientific-slides/

**Topics**: claude-code, skills, science, scientific-writing

**Trigger phrases**: "make slides for my talk", "create a conference presentation", "build a thesis defense deck", "PowerPoint for my seminar", "research presentation slides"

**Source**: [K-Dense AI](https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/tree/main/scientific-skills/scientific-slides)

**License**: MIT

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## What it does

`scientific-slides` is a Claude Code skill from K-Dense AI's [scientific-agent-skills repo](https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills). It turns Claude into a presentation designer that builds slide decks for research talks — PowerPoint files or LaTeX Beamer sources — with narrative structure tuned to scientific audiences, timing guidance per slide, and visual validation to flag slides that are overloaded.

A session produces a structured slide deck: title, overview, background, methods, results, and conclusion sections with slide-by-slide content, speaker notes, and a talk timing estimate calibrated to the allocated slot.

## When to use it

Reach for it when:

- You're preparing a conference talk and want a complete slide structure scaffolded from your paper or abstract
- You need timing guidance — knowing whether 15 slides fits a 12-minute slot before you're on stage
- You're doing a thesis defense and want a narrative arc that flows from introduction through future work

When *not* to reach for it:

- Conference posters — use `latex-posters`
- Visual infographics not tied to a talk — use `infographics`

## Install

Copy the `SKILL.md` from K-Dense AI's [scientific-slides folder](https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/tree/main/scientific-skills/scientific-slides) into `.claude/skills/scientific-slides/` in your project.

Trigger phrases: "make slides for my talk", "create a conference presentation", "build a thesis defense deck", "PowerPoint for my seminar".

## What a session looks like

A typical session has three phases:

1. **Talk specification.** Provide the paper or abstract, the talk slot duration, and the target audience level. Claude proposes a slide count, section breakdown, and timing budget.
2. **Slide content drafting.** Each slide is drafted with a headline, 3–5 bullet points or figure description, and speaker notes. Visual validation flags slides with more content than fits a 90-second pace.
3. **Output file.** A PowerPoint file (via python-pptx) or LaTeX Beamer source is generated, ready to open and apply your institution's template.

## Receipts

**Where it works well:**
- Structuring talks from a paper — Claude's breakdown of background, methods, results, and future work follows logical narrative flow that scientific audiences expect
- Speaker notes are consistently useful; they capture the reasoning that the sparse slide bullets don't convey

**Where it backfires:**
- Visual design quality depends on the output format — PowerPoint output is functional but not polished; Beamer output requires a custom theme file to look professional
- Domain-specific figures must be supplied by you; Claude generates placeholders with captions but cannot create the data plots

**Pattern that works:** treat the first output as a story outline rather than a finished deck; the narrative structure is where the skill adds value, not the visual polish.

## Source and attribution

Originally authored by [K-Dense Inc.](https://github.com/K-Dense-AI). The canonical SKILL.md lives in the [`scientific-slides` folder](https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/tree/main/scientific-skills/scientific-slides) of their public scientific-agent-skills repository.

License: MIT. Install, adapt, and redistribute with attribution preserved.

This page documents the skill from a practitioner's perspective. For the formal spec and any updates, defer to the source repo.