Design: pptx show — progressive inspection with context-aware filtering

[tmustier]

Problem

pptx show needs to present slide contents in a way that is useful for an agent across different tasks:

• Editing a data label: need to find the tiny "954" text box
• Rewriting narrative: need the bullet-point text shapes
• Understanding content: need a text summary, not positions
• Replicating layout: need everything including decorative shapes
• Updating placeholders: need to know which shapes are structural

Current flat list of 78 shapes (on a complex slide) does not serve any of these well.

Design questions

1. Filtering vs. showing everything: Filtering by word count wrongly hides chart data labels. But 78 shapes in a flat list is overwhelming. What is the right default?

2. Sort order: (top, left) reading order seems right, but does not capture visual grouping (e.g. shapes forming a "row" of a waterfall chart).

3. Modes vs. one output: Should show have modes (--text, --all, --structure) or one good default with drill-down via show <file> <slide> <shape>?

4. Placeholder constraints: Placeholders (title, subtitle, tracker) have implicit rules:

   • Title: text only, 1-2 lines, do not change font/size/position, one per slide
   • Subtitle: text only, 1 line, same constraints
   • Content placeholders: flexible — use as-is or delete for custom content
   • Should these rules be enforced in the tool or documented in SKILL.md?

5. Numbering: Placeholders use ph0, ph1 (stable IDs). Content shapes need stable references too — index is random, name is often duplicated ("Content Placeholder 4" appears 20x). Position-based numbering?

Reference

Complex slide example (slide 5 of Tiber deck): 78 shapes total

• 4 placeholders (title, subtitle, tracker, body)
• 1 chart (waterfall)
• 13 text shapes (≥3 words)
• 25 labels (1-2 words — chart axis labels, data values)
• 33 decorative (connectors, rectangles, freeforms)
• 3 groups

Next steps

Pick a design, prototype it, test on real decks.