Quick Start — deckhost

1

Create a deck

Click New Deck from your dashboard. Give it a title and start writing markdown. Separate slides with ---.

# My First Deck

Welcome to deckhost

---

## The Problem

- Current tools are slow
- AI can't write decent PowerPoint

---

## Our Solution

Markdown presentations that just work.

2

Edit with live preview

The editor shows your slides in real time as you type. The left pane is a code editor with markdown syntax highlighting, autocomplete for deckhost syntax, and keyboard shortcuts. The right pane is the live presentation.

Cmd+S Save

Cmd+F Search / Replace

Cmd+Z Undo

Type --- for autocomplete suggestions (slide breaks, animations, backgrounds)

3

Add animations

Prefix list items with a symbol to make them appear one at a time when you advance the slide.

## Key Metrics

- ^^^ Revenue grew 42%
- ^^^ Customer base doubled
- ^^^ Net retention hit 130%

^^^ Fade up

vvv Fade down

+++ Grow

... Shrink

~~~ Strikethrough

::: Background

4

Publish and share

Click Publish in the editor toolbar. Your deck gets a permanent URL you can share with anyone. Update the content anytime -- the link stays the same.

deckhost.com/@you/my-first-deck

5

Let AI create your deck

deckhost works with Claude and ChatGPT. Install the MCP server to let AI create, edit, and publish decks directly from the conversation.

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

# Auto-configure MCP (after installing the CLI — Step 6)

deckhost install-mcp

# detects Claude Desktop + Claude Code

# Then just say:

"Create a pitch deck for my startup"

ChatGPT / OpenAI

# Ask ChatGPT to write deckhost markdown

"Write a presentation in deckhost format about quarterly results"

# Paste the output into the editor

You can also bring your own API key in Settings to enable AI generation directly in the editor.

6

Use the CLI (optional)

Prefer working locally? The deckhost CLI lets you create, preview, and publish from your terminal.

# Install (see docs for full setup)

git clone https://github.com/adubinsky/deckhost.git && cd deckhost && ./scripts/install.sh

# Create a presentation

deckhost init my-deck

# Preview locally

deckhost serve

# Publish to your account

deckhost publish

7

Edit in VS Code or Cursor

The deckhost extension adds live side-by-side preview, syntax highlighting, and snippets while you write .md decks in your editor.

Download the extension (.vsix)

Then in VS Code or Cursor: open the Extensions panel → the ⋯ menu → Install from VSIX… → pick the downloaded file.

Prefer to build from source?

cd deckhost/vscode-extension && npm install && npm run package

# then Install from VSIX as above

One-click Marketplace & OpenVSX installs are coming soon.