Write a deck

deck.yaml is the source of truth. Each slide picks a template and fills its slots. deckforge renders it to a static deck.html.

meta:
  title: Shipping with confidence
  theme: build                 # see Themes
  footer: Platform team / Q3   # rich text in every slide footer
  brief:                       # gives Copilot context
    audience: Engineering managers
    goal: Agree on one release gate
slides:
  - id: gate                   # stable id: letters, digits, dashes
    template: statement        # see Templates
    data:
      kicker: The idea
      text: Every release passes <span class="accent">one gate</span>.
    notes: |
      Pause after the sentence.

Build it and check it:

deckforge build my-talk          # prints issues, exit code 2 on errors
deckforge templates my-talk      # every template, its slots and limits

Rules of thumb

Do	Why
One takeaway per slide	The templates have a max limit on every slot, and the editor counts characters
Use <span class="accent"> for emphasis	Rich text accepts a short allow-list of tags and classes only
Write speaker notes in notes	They show in the notes panel and the presenter window
Keep id stable	Hash links (#slide-gate) and the editor rely on it
Never edit deck.html	It is rebuilt on every change

Images and overlays

• Images are files in assets/ (the editor adds them) or https:// URLs. Always set an alt text.
• Overlays are free elements (callouts, arrows, shapes, text, images) placed above the template, in % of the slide.

  - id: photo
    template: image-text
    data:
      image: { src: assets/3f2a9c1b04de.jpg, alt: Review board, fit: cover, focus: 50% 30% }
      title: What reviewers see
    overlays:
      - { id: arrow-1, kind: arrow, x: 30, y: 20, w: 15, h: 6.67, rotate: 25, data: { color: accent } }

Every field is described in the deck.yaml reference.

Comments are not kept

The editor rewrites deck.yaml on every change, so it drops YAML comments. Changes you make in a text editor are picked up live, and you can undo them.