ppt-mcp

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that gives AI agents full control over a live Microsoft PowerPoint instance via COM automation. Unlike file-based libraries like python-pptx, this server interacts directly with a running PowerPoint application.

🎬 Demo

An agent building a deck in a live PowerPoint window (15x speed):

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/178b9b5b-624d-4de0-a1dd-619dc13d4bd7

Related MCP server: google-slides-mcp

✨ Key Features

• Real-time control — Directly manipulates a running PowerPoint instance; changes appear instantly on screen

• 156 tools across 26 categories — Slides, shapes, text, tables, charts, animations, SmartArt, media, freeform paths, and more

• Safe for AI agents — ppt_activate_presentation locks all tools to a specific file, preventing accidental edits to the wrong presentation

• Google Material Symbols icons — Search 2,500+ icons by keyword and insert as SVG with theme colors

• Theme color awareness — Use accent1, accent2, etc. instead of hardcoded RGB values

📋 Requirements

• Windows 11, or macOS with Apple Silicon or Intel

• Microsoft PowerPoint

• uv

On macOS the server drives PowerPoint over Apple Events instead of COM. The first tool call raises the system's automation prompt, and PowerPoint has to be allowed there once. See macOS support for what differs.

🚀 Getting Started

Standard config — works in Claude Desktop, Cursor, .mcp.json, and most other MCP clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "powerpoint": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ppt-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

User-scoped (available in all projects)

claude mcp add powerpoint uvx ppt-mcp

Project-scoped (stored in .mcp.json, shared with your team)

claude mcp add --scope project powerpoint uvx ppt-mcp

Cursor

Or add manually to ~/.cursor/mcp.json using the standard config above.

Claude Desktop

Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json using the standard config above.

Codex

Edit ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.ppt-mcp]
command = "uvx"
args = ["ppt-mcp"]

Or use the standard JSON config above in .codex/config.json.

VS Code

code --add-mcp '{"name":"powerpoint","command":"uvx","args":["ppt-mcp"]}'

From source

git clone https://github.com/ykuwai/ppt-mcp.git
cd ppt-mcp
uv sync

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "powerpoint": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "C:\\path\\to\\ppt-mcp",
        "run",
        "mcp",
        "run",
        "src/server.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

🛠️ Tool Categories

💡 Example Prompts

Just describe what you want in plain language — no code required.

Simple — topic only

"Create a 3-slide intro deck for a productivity app called Flowly."

With style direction — topic + visual style

"Make a 4-slide presentation on the benefits of async work. Dark navy style, add icons for each benefit."

Detailed — topic + design intent + slide structure

"Build a 5-slide pitch for an AI note-taking app called NoteAI. White background, teal accent. Slides: title, problem, solution, features with icons, closing."

Design keywords that elevate results:

🔍 Features in Detail

🎯 Presentation Targeting

ppt_activate_presentation sets a session-level target so every subsequent tool call operates on that specific file — regardless of which window is active in PowerPoint. Switch targets anytime by calling it again.

ppt_activate_presentation(presentation_name="report.pptx")
# All tools now operate on report.pptx
ppt_activate_presentation(presentation_name="demo.pptx")
# Switched — all tools now operate on demo.pptx

📁 Template Support

Auto-detects your personal PowerPoint templates folder (registry, OneDrive, or default paths). Use ppt_list_templates to discover available templates, then ppt_create_presentation(template_path=...) to create a new presentation from any template.

🎨 Google Material Symbols Icons

Search 2,500+ Google Material Symbols icons with ppt_search_icons(query="...") and insert them as SVG with ppt_add_svg_icon:

• 3 styles: outlined, rounded, sharp

• Filled variants: set filled=True

• Theme colors: color="accent1" uses the presentation's accent color

• Auto-fit: preserves aspect ratio within the specified area

⚡ Real-Time Navigation

Every write operation automatically navigates PowerPoint to the target slide. You see changes happening in real-time — no need to manually switch slides.

✍️ Text Formatting

• \n — Paragraph break (Enter). Each paragraph gets its own bullet/indent level.

• \v — Line break (Shift+Enter). Stays in the same paragraph, preserving formatting.

• Per-character formatting with ppt_format_text_range

• Auto-fit control: shrink text to fit, resize shape, or overflow

🎨 Theme Color Presets & Auto-Generation

ppt_set_theme_colors supports three modes:

• 17 curated presets — WCAG AA accessible palettes across 5 categories: Classic (corporate_blue, executive, consulting), Design Systems (tailwind, chakra, open_color, radix), Nature (ocean, forest, sunset, sage), Modern (nord_light, pastel_deep, swiss), Vibrant (vivid, rainbow, neon_safe)

• Primary color generation — provide a single brand color (primary="#2B579A") to auto-generate a full harmonious palette using color harmony (split-complementary + analogous)

• Manual — set individual color slots (accent1, accent2, etc.)

Modes can be combined: use a preset as a base and override specific slots. All accents are guaranteed 3:1+ contrast on white.

🔍 Typography Check

ppt_check_typography detects and optionally auto-fixes common typography issues:

• Widow lines — isolated 1-3 character lines caused by word wrapping

• Short lines after soft returns — side effects of manual line breaks (\v)

• Auto-shrunk text — text silently compressed by PowerPoint's shrink-to-fit feature

Auto-fix strategies include widening text boxes and inserting soft returns.

⚙️ Advanced Configuration

Handling PowerPoint Modal Dialogs

When PowerPoint has a modal dialog open (e.g., SmartArt layout picker, Save dialog, Insert dialog), COM calls return RPC_E_CALL_REJECTED. The MCP server automatically retries for up to 15 seconds (5 retries × 3 s), so the server stays connected and responsive even when a dialog is blocking PowerPoint.

Auto-dismiss (opt-in): By default, the server waits for you to close the dialog manually. To have the server automatically send ESC on the first retry — dismissing the dialog without user interaction — set PPT_AUTO_DISMISS_DIALOG=true:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "powerpoint": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["ppt-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "PPT_AUTO_DISMISS_DIALOG": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

ESC cancels without committing, so there are no destructive side effects. This is particularly useful in automated workflows where no human is present to close dialogs.

🍎 macOS support

12 tools refuse on macOS. The rest work. The 12 are listed by name in MACOS_PORT.md section 6.1, and a test keeps that list honest.

The same tools, the same arguments, the same answers. What differs is what PowerPoint for Mac's scripting dictionary can reach, and where it cannot reach something the tool says so rather than doing something unexpected.

Not available on macOS:

• SmartArt. The dictionary has no class and no command for it, so it cannot be created or edited from a script. An existing graphic is still an ordinary shape and can be moved, resized, read and deleted.

• A freeform node's editing type. Corner, smooth and symmetric are not stored anywhere a script can reach; move the node's handles instead.

• Removing one animation. Clearing a slide's animations works.

• Tags, ppt_select_shapes, ppt_set_table_style and ppt_execute_mso. Nothing in the dictionary reaches any of them.

Smaller differences:

• Call the tools one after another, not several in the same turn. Only one request at a time reaches PowerPoint, so the rest queue behind it and come out in whatever order they arrived. A call left waiting too long is taken back and says so, having changed nothing.

• A few tools accept an argument that has no counterpart, a screen tip on a hyperlink for instance. Those refuse with a message naming the argument, so dropping it and retrying works.

• Video and audio go in embedded, never linked, and of the eight playback settings only looping and hiding the frame exist. Hiding the frame is refused on a slide that already has animations, because writing it rewrites them.

• Exports are staged through PowerPoint's own container and moved out, because the application is sandboxed and cannot write to arbitrary folders.

• Slide images come from a PDF render rather than PNG export, which is sharper than the Windows route.

• Automation consent belongs to whichever application launched the server, so running it from a different terminal or editor raises the prompt again.

• Save the deck early and at each break. It costs nothing, and PowerPoint has been seen to close every open document and then exit when a sandbox prompt went up behind a script (#191).

• Charts, freeform paths and grouping go through the clipboard, which means the operation takes it for a moment and puts back what was there. This is how those three reach a dictionary that has no words for them.

• Editing an existing chart or path recreates the shape. The chart data, type, title, legend, axis and series tools, and the node tools, copy the shape, rewrite it and paste it back, then delete the original. The name, position and z order are kept; animations on the shape are not, and the result says how many were lost. A few formatting arguments that depend on the chart's rendered size (chart_style, legend and title coordinates, the 8-direction legend presets, tick_label_font_size) are refused by name.

• Icons are rasterised with sips before they are inserted, because PowerPoint for Mac cannot read an SVG. That needs macOS 13 or newer; older systems get a refusal naming the reason rather than a blank box.

📄 License

MIT

🙏 Credits

• FastMCP — Pythonic MCP server framework

• pywin32 — Windows COM automation

• appscript — macOS Apple Event bridge

• Model Context Protocol — by Anthropic