mdpr-ppt

mdpr-ppt is a PowerPoint add-in bridge for MDPR. It inspects selected PowerPoint objects, captures user-approved shape/style evidence, and creates MDPR component transform candidates from inside PowerPoint.

It is not an agent layout tool. It does not ask an LLM to invent coordinates, colors, recipes, variants, z-order, or exact renderer objects.

Role Boundary

Repository	Responsibility
MDPR	Deterministic Markdown-to-editable-PPTX runtime, schema source of truth, final layout/style/render decisions
mdpr-skill	Optional hint, review, eval, design-analysis, and gate companion
mdpr-ppt	User-approved PowerPoint selection capture and JSON bridge

Rails

Rail	Coordinates and style values	Consumer
mdpr-ppt-selection-v1	Allowed because the user selected the PowerPoint object	mdpr-ppt, MDPR pack or override import
mdpr-selection-context-v1	Not allowed; contains only source/block/region context	mdpr-skill hint and review inputs
mdpr-ppt-pack-candidate-v1	Allowed after user approval and provenance checks	MDPR pack validation/import
mdpr-user-override-candidate-v1	Limited, approval-bound, semantic override preferred	MDPR override validation/apply

Repository Structure

schemas/                 Synced MDPR source-of-truth bridge schema copies
packages/shared/         Shared TypeScript types, validation, mapping, and selection-context export
packages/cli/            Local validation and conversion commands
packages/addin/          Office Add-in boundary for selected shape capture
packages/ooxml-extractor/ Future fallback for grouped shapes and table internals
tests/                   Runtime tests for rail boundaries and mapping helpers

MDPR owns the schema source of truth. This repository keeps synced copies for the bridge contracts it emits or consumes: mdpr-ppt-selection, mdpr-ppt-pack-candidate, mdpr-user-override-candidate, mdpr-selection-context, and mdpr-pptx-object-map.

Usage

Use inside PowerPoint

The repository now includes a sideloadable PowerPoint task pane UI at packages/addin/taskpane/index.html and an Office add-in manifest at packages/addin/manifest.xml. The manifest adds an MDPR PowerPoint ribbon tab with an Inspect Selection button, so the bridge is opened from inside PowerPoint instead of from an external JSON tool.

If the MDPR tab is not visible, use the direct PowerPoint sideload command first. This is the closest workflow to a normal in-PowerPoint add-in and runs without the Office debugging popup:

npm run start:ppt

This creates and trusts a current-user localhost certificate, starts the HTTPS localhost asset server required by the Office manifest, registers the manifest for a sideloading session, and opens PowerPoint with the add-in loaded. When you are done testing, stop that session so Office clears the development registration and shuts down the local server:

npm run stop:ppt

Only use the debug variant when you intentionally want Office WebView/runtime debugging messages:

npm run start:ppt:debug

Prepare the local Windows add-in catalog and copy the manifest:

npm run install:addin:windows

For the closest IguanaTex-like Windows setup, run PowerShell as an administrator and let the helper create a shared-folder catalog and register it under the current user's Office Trusted Add-in Catalogs registry key:

npm run install:addin:windows:register

This runs the installer with -TryShare -RegisterTrustCatalog. If you want to run the options manually:

npm run install:addin:windows -- -TryShare -RegisterTrustCatalog

The script writes install-next-steps.txt under %LOCALAPPDATA%\mdpr-ppt\AddinCatalog. It contains the manifest path and, when -TryShare succeeds, the UNC catalog path to add in PowerPoint. If you run without -TryShare, share that folder manually or rerun the command from an elevated PowerShell session with -TryShare. If -RegisterTrustCatalog succeeds, the Office trusted catalog entry is created for the current Windows user; otherwise add the catalog manually in PowerPoint Trust Center.

Office task pane manifests use HTTPS SourceLocation URLs. Start the task pane asset server with your trusted development certificate and key:

npm run serve:addin -- --cert ./certs/localhost.crt --key ./certs/localhost.key

Then restart PowerPoint. If the MDPR tab is not visible yet, register or confirm the catalog in PowerPoint:

1. Open PowerPoint.
2. Go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings.
3. Open Trusted Add-in Catalogs.
4. Confirm the catalog URL from install-next-steps.txt is listed.
5. Enable Show in Menu for that catalog if it is not already enabled.
6. Restart PowerPoint.
7. If needed, go to Home > Add-ins > Advanced.
8. Choose SHARED FOLDER.
9. Add mdpr-ppt once.

In PowerPoint:

1. Open an MDPR-generated PPTX.
2. Select one or more MDPR-created shapes.
3. Open the MDPR tab and choose Inspect Selection.
4. Enter the MDPR source SHA-256 and PPTX SHA-256.
5. Click Capture Selected Shapes.
6. Click Approve Selection.
7. Copy one of the approved rail outputs:
   • Copy Selection JSON
   • Copy Object Info
   • Copy Selection Context
   • Copy Override Candidate
   • Copy MDPR Transform Candidate

Copy Object Info is the fastest way to inspect the selected PowerPoint object. It includes shape ids, names, types, bounds, style snapshots, and any MDPR metadata inferred from shape names.

The task pane keeps raw PowerPoint bboxPt, fill, line, and text style data in the approved mdpr-ppt-selection-v1 output. Copy Selection Context strips geometry and style before producing weak mdpr-skill review context.

If a selected shape name follows MDPR renderer metadata such as mdpr:slide-4:region-main:b12, the task pane automatically fills the MDPR slide, region, and block mapping fields.

Copy MDPR Transform Candidate creates an approved mdpr-ppt-pack-candidate-v1 component-pack proposal directly from the selected PowerPoint object. This is separate from mdpr-skill: mdpr-ppt records the user-selected object and requested target component, then MDPR can validate and import the candidate through its own pack/override workflow.

Use from the CLI

Validate a captured selection:

mdpr-ppt validate-selection .mdpresent/ppt/selection.json

Refresh a captured selection against an MDPR manifest or object-map export:

mdpr-ppt map-selection .mdpresent/ppt/selection.json \
  --object-map .mdpresent/mdpresent-manifest.json \
  --out .mdpresent/ppt/selection.mapped.json

Convert the approved selection into a weak selection context for mdpr-skill:

mdpr-ppt selection-context .mdpresent/ppt/selection.mapped.json \
  --out .mdpresent/review/selection-context.json

Export a semantic override candidate from the approved selection:

mdpr-ppt override-candidate .mdpresent/ppt/selection.mapped.json \
  --op pinBlock \
  --out .mdpresent/proposals/override.candidate.json

The generated selection context intentionally removes raw PowerPoint geometry and style snapshots. Those values stay in the user-approved selection or pack rail, not in agent hints.

Check synced schema copies against a local MDPR checkout:

mdpr-ppt validate-schema-sync --mdpr-path ../mdpr-skill/.cache/mdpr

Development

npm install
npm run validate

The Office.js integration is split into a small adapter and a static task pane. packages/addin/src/office/getSelectedShapes.ts captures the current PowerPoint selection through an Office.js-like context and converts each shape through the shared snapshot mapper. packages/addin/taskpane/taskpane.js provides the user-facing capture, approval, copy, selection-context, and override-candidate controls without weakening the no-agent deterministic boundary.