Build Your First Presentation

In this tutorial you’ll install the AgentPreso CLI, create a complete product launch presentation with five slides, add a chart and a diagram, customize the look with brand colors, and render the final deck to PDF. By the end, you’ll have a polished PDF ready to share.

What you’ll build: A 5-slide “Acme Widgets” product launch deck with a title slide, a feature overview, a revenue chart, an architecture diagram, and a closing summary.

Time: About 10 minutes.

Step 1 — Install the CLI

Install the AgentPreso CLI binary:

curl -fsSL https://agentpreso.com/install.sh | bash

Verify the installation:

agentpreso --version

You should see output like:

agentpreso v0.2.0

If you see a version number, you’re ready to continue.

Step 2 — Log in

AgentPreso stores your decks, themes, and rendered files in the cloud. Log in to connect the CLI to your account:

agentpreso login

A browser window opens. Sign in or create an account, then return to the terminal. You should see:

Logged in as: [email protected]
Server: https://api.agentpreso.com

Your API key is stored locally in ~/.agentpreso/credentials. You won’t need to log in again on this machine.

Step 3 — Create a deck from a theme

Scaffold a new presentation using the corporate theme:

agentpreso create product-launch --theme corporate

You should see:

Created product-launch.md (theme: corporate)

Open product-launch.md in your editor. You’ll see a markdown file with YAML frontmatter and several starter slides. We’re going to replace the content with our own.

Step 4 — Write the slides

Replace the entire contents of product-launch.md with:

---
agentpreso:
  theme: corporate
paginate: true
---

<!-- _class: title-hero -->

# Acme Widgets
## Product Launch 2025

**Jane Smith** — VP Product

---

<!-- _class: bullets -->

## Why Acme Widgets?

- **50% lighter** than the leading competitor
- **Modular design** — snap together any configuration
- **API-first** — full REST API for integrations
- Built with sustainable materials
- Ships worldwide in 3 business days

---

## Revenue Forecast

```chart
type: bar
data:
  labels: [Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4]
  datasets:
    - label: Projected Revenue ($M)
      data: [2.1, 3.4, 5.2, 7.8]

System Architecture

graph LR
    A[Web App] --> B[API Gateway]
    B --> C[Widget Service]
    B --> D[Order Service]
    C --> E[(Widget DB)]
    D --> F[(Order DB)]

Key Takeaways

  • Market opportunity: $2B addressable market
  • Launch date: March 2025
  • Revenue target: $18.5M first year
  • Hiring: 12 engineers, 4 designers

Save the file. The `paginate: true` in the frontmatter adds page numbers to every slide. You can hide them on specific slides (like the title) with `<!-- _paginate: skip -->` — see the [Markdown Format Reference](/docs/markdown-format#slide-numbers) for details.

## Step 5 — Preview in the browser

Start the local development server:

```bash
agentpreso serve product-launch.md

You should see:

Serving at http://localhost:3000
Watching for changes...

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. You’ll see your five slides with the corporate theme applied — blue headings, professional typography, and structured layouts. Use arrow keys or click to navigate between slides.

The chart and diagram render automatically. The bar chart shows four quarters of revenue projections, and the Mermaid diagram shows the system architecture as a flowchart.

Leave the server running — changes to the markdown file reload instantly.

Step 6 — Customize with brand colors

Let’s override the corporate theme’s default blue with Acme’s brand colors. In product-launch.md, update the frontmatter:

---
agentpreso:
  theme: corporate
  brand:
    --primary-color: "#dc2626"
    --accent-color: "#f59e0b"
paginate: true
---

Save the file. The browser refreshes automatically — headings are now red, and accent elements are amber.

The brand object overrides any of the theme’s CSS variables. You can change colors, fonts, and more without creating a full custom theme.

Step 7 — Render to PDF

Stop the dev server (Ctrl+C) and render the final output:

agentpreso render product-launch.md --format pdf

You should see:

Rendered product-launch.pdf (5 slides, 1.2 MB)

Open product-launch.pdf — your five slides are rendered as a polished PDF with the chart, diagram, and brand colors baked in.

Step 8 — Push to the cloud

Save your deck to the cloud so you can access it from anywhere:

agentpreso push product-launch.md
Pushed product-launch (5 slides) → https://app.agentpreso.com

Now you (or an AI agent) can pull this deck on any machine:

agentpreso pull product-launch

What you’ve learned

  • Install and authenticate the AgentPreso CLI
  • Create a deck from a built-in theme
  • Write slides using markdown with layouts (title-hero, bullets, summary)
  • Add charts with chart code blocks
  • Add diagrams with mermaid code blocks
  • Customize brand colors via frontmatter CSS variable overrides
  • Preview with hot-reload and render to PDF
  • Push and pull decks to/from the cloud

Next steps