pptx-mcp-server 0.1.0

MCP server for PPTX presentation editing — create, read, and edit PowerPoint slides with professional formatting

pptx-mcp-server

MCP server for creating, reading, and editing PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations. Provides 25 tools for slide management, shape/text manipulation, table operations, composite layouts, and slide rendering -- all accessible via the Model Context Protocol.

Installation

pptx-mcp-server ships with two install paths: a minimal library install for driving the engine programmatically, and an [mcp] extra for running the MCP server CLI.

# Library usage (no MCP runtime — only python-pptx + lxml):
pip install pptx-mcp-server

# MCP server (includes the mcp SDK):
pip install 'pptx-mcp-server[mcp]'

The MCP SDK lives behind the [mcp] extra so that pure-library consumers do not pay for the MCP SDK + anyio transitive dependencies at install time. The pptx-mcp-server CLI and pptx_mcp_server.server module require the [mcp] extra; importing them without it raises a clear ImportError pointing back here.

Claude Desktop Configuration

Add the following to your Claude Desktop MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pptx-editor": {
      "command": "pptx-mcp-server"
    }
  }
}

Or, if running from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pptx-editor": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["-m", "pptx_mcp_server"]
    }
  }
}

Use as a Python library

pptx-mcp-server also ships a pure-Python engine you can drive directly, without starting an MCP server. The engine and theme modules have no dependency on the MCP SDK at import time, so you can build decks from scripts, notebooks, or batch jobs.

Install it the same way you would any other package — the bare install does not pull the MCP SDK:

# From PyPI (once published) — library only:
pip install pptx-mcp-server

# From a local checkout (editable install during development):
pip install -e /path/to/pptx-mcp-server

Then compose a deck by calling the engine functions directly:

from pptx_mcp_server.engine.pptx_io import create_presentation, open_pptx
from pptx_mcp_server.engine.shapes import add_textbox
from pptx_mcp_server.engine.slides import add_slide
from pptx_mcp_server.theme import MCKINSEY

out = "deck.pptx"
create_presentation(out, width_inches=13.333, height_inches=7.5)
add_slide(out, layout_index=6)
add_textbox(
    out,
    slide_index=0,
    left=1.0, top=1.0, width=10.0, height=1.0,
    text="Hello from pptx_mcp_server",
    font_name=MCKINSEY.fonts.get("body", "Arial"),
    font_size=24,
    bold=True,
)

prs = open_pptx(out)
print(f"Slides: {len(prs.slides)}")

The mcp SDK is an optional extra (pip install 'pptx-mcp-server[mcp]') and is only required when launching the pptx-mcp-server CLI / importing pptx_mcp_server.server. Nothing in pptx_mcp_server.engine or pptx_mcp_server.theme imports it — an AST-level CI guardrail in tests/test_library_usage.py enforces that, and tests/test_packaging_extras.py enforces the packaging side of the split.

Tools

Presentation

Tool	Description
pptx_create	Create a new blank PPTX file (default 16:9 widescreen)
pptx_get_info	Get presentation overview: slide count, dimensions, shape summaries
pptx_read_slide	Read detailed content of a slide -- all shapes, text, tables
pptx_list_shapes	List all shapes on a slide with indices, types, positions, text preview

Slides

Tool	Description
pptx_add_slide	Add a new slide with a specified layout
pptx_delete_slide	Delete a slide by 0-based index
pptx_duplicate_slide	Duplicate a slide (appended at end)
pptx_set_slide_background	Set solid background color for a slide
pptx_set_dimensions	Set presentation slide dimensions in inches

Text & Shapes

Tool	Description
pptx_add_textbox	Add a text box with full formatting options
pptx_edit_text	Edit text content and formatting in an existing shape
pptx_add_paragraph	Append a new paragraph to an existing shape
pptx_add_shape	Add an auto shape (rectangle, oval, arrow, chevron, etc.)
pptx_add_image	Add an image (PNG, JPG, SVG) to a slide with optional sizing
pptx_delete_shape	Delete a shape from a slide by index
pptx_format_shape	Reposition, resize, or restyle an existing shape

Tables

Tool	Description
pptx_add_table	Add a professionally formatted table with headers and alternating rows
pptx_edit_table_cell	Edit a single table cell's text and formatting
pptx_edit_table_cells	Batch edit multiple table cells
pptx_format_table	Apply bulk formatting to an entire table

Composites

Tool	Description
pptx_add_content_slide	Add a content slide with action title, divider, footnote, page number
pptx_add_section_divider	Add a section divider slide with dark background and accent stripes
pptx_add_kpi_row	Add a row of KPI callout boxes
pptx_add_bullet_block	Add a bulleted text block with multiple items

Rendering

Tool	Description
pptx_render_slide	Render slide(s) to PNG via LibreOffice for visual verification

Dependencies

Required (installed by pip install pptx-mcp-server):

• python-pptx -- PPTX file manipulation
• lxml -- XML processing

Optional extra (installed by pip install 'pptx-mcp-server[mcp]'):

• mcp -- Model Context Protocol SDK (required only for the pptx-mcp-server CLI / pptx_mcp_server.server)

System tools

• LibreOffice -- required for pptx_render_slide (PPTX to PDF conversion). Install with brew install --cask libreoffice (macOS) or your system package manager.
• pdftoppm (poppler-utils) -- required for pptx_render_slide (PDF to PNG conversion). Install with brew install poppler (macOS) or apt install poppler-utils (Debian/Ubuntu).

Development

# Install in editable mode
pip install -e .

# Run tests
python -m pytest tests/ -v

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development conventions.

License

MIT -- see LICENSE for details.