Workflows

Pitch Smith operates through a command-driven workflow model. You interact with the system by running slash commands in Claude Code, and each command triggers a guided workflow that handles one part of the presentation lifecycle. Understanding the workflow model and the available commands gives you a clear picture of what Pitch Smith can do and how the pieces fit together.

The Pitch Smith workflow model

The overall lifecycle of a presentation in Pitch Smith follows a five-stage pipeline:

Plan  -->  Build  -->  View  -->  Edit  -->  Export

• Plan -- Define what your presentation should contain. Capture audience context, messaging strategy, narrative structure, and slide-by-slide content in a YAML plan file.
• Build -- Generate HTML/CSS slides from your plan. The AI combines your plan content with your theme's design tokens and a template layout to produce self-contained slide files.
• View -- Preview your slides in the VS Code viewer or browser. Navigate between slides, check the visual design, and verify that the content matches your intent.
• Edit -- Refine slides after building. Make natural-language layout changes, edit text directly in the viewer, add animations, or refresh the manifest.
• Export -- Produce deliverable output. Export your deck to PDF, PPTX, or present it live through the built-in presenter.

These stages are not strictly linear. You can build one slide, view it, edit it, then build the next. You can go back to your plan, add a slide, and build just that one. The workflow is designed for iterative refinement -- plan a little, build a little, adjust, repeat.

Before any of these stages, you typically run brand setup once to establish your theme. The theme persists across all decks, so brand setup is a one-time activity (with optional refinement later).

Command categories

Pitch Smith provides 24 slash commands organized into four categories based on their namespace prefix. Each category groups related functionality:

Category	Prefix	Commands	Purpose
General	/pitchsmith:	2	Entry points and status overview
Brand & Theme	/pitchsmith:	3	Brand extraction and theme management
Content Creation	/pitchsmith:	11	Planning, building, and editing slides
Asset Management	/pitchsmith:	8	Templates, decks, workflows, and brand assets

General commands (/pitchsmith:)

These are your starting points for interacting with Pitch Smith.

Command	Description
/pitchsmith:help	List all available Pitch Smith commands with descriptions. Also serves as a smart entry point that detects your current state and presents context-aware options.
/pitchsmith:status	Display the unified status dashboard showing all decks with progress indicators, slide-by-slide build status, and workspace configuration state.

The /pitchsmith:help command (or simply /pitchsmith) is the recommended way to start. It analyzes your current workspace -- whether you have a theme, any decks in progress, or slides ready for editing -- and suggests the most relevant next action.

Brand and theme commands (/pitchsmith:)

These commands handle your brand identity and visual theme.

Command	Description
/pitchsmith:setup	Create a brand theme from assets. Accepts website URLs, PDF brand guidelines, logo images, and other brand materials. Analyzes them with AI to generate a complete theme.json with colors, typography, shapes, and behavioral rules. Includes a sample deck validation loop for visual verification.
/pitchsmith:theme	Display your current theme summary -- colors (with ANSI swatches), typography, shapes, components, and available templates. Useful for reviewing your brand configuration at a glance.
/pitchsmith:theme-edit	Modify your existing theme using natural language feedback. Describe what you want to change ("make the primary color warmer", "increase heading sizes"), and the system updates your theme accordingly. Includes a visual validation loop with sample slides.

Brand setup is typically the first thing you do with Pitch Smith. Once your theme is established, the theme view and edit commands let you refine it over time without starting from scratch.

To learn more about the brand setup process, see Brand Setup.

Content creation commands (/pitchsmith:)

These commands cover the core creative workflow -- planning presentations, building slides, and editing results.

Command	Description
/pitchsmith:plan-deck	Plan a full presentation deck with narrative structure, audience context, and slide-by-slide breakdown. Uses adaptive discovery to collect context efficiently, identify gaps, and produce a comprehensive YAML plan.
/pitchsmith:plan-one	Plan a single slide by capturing your intent and content requirements. Produces a lightweight plan for one-off slides that can later be incorporated into a deck.
/pitchsmith:plan	Smart router that asks whether you need a single slide or a full deck, then routes to the appropriate planning workflow (plan-deck or plan-one). A convenient shortcut when you are unsure which to use.
/pitchsmith:build-all	Build all remaining (pending) slides in a deck plan. Processes slides sequentially with progress tracking and continues past individual slide errors so the rest of the deck still builds.
/pitchsmith:build-one	Build the next pending slide (or a specific slide) from your plan. Combines the slide plan, theme, and template to generate a self-contained HTML file.
/pitchsmith:edit	Edit a slide's layout using natural language prompts. Describe the change you want ("move the chart to the left", "make the heading larger"), and the AI modifies the slide HTML while preserving your previous text edits.
/pitchsmith:edit-plan	Edit an existing deck plan via natural language instruction. Apply targeted changes to your plan YAML without manually editing the file. Used by the Plan Editor's "Edit with Claude" feature.
/pitchsmith:animate	Generate animation build groups for a slide using AI analysis of the content structure. Creates sequenced reveal animations based on the slide's template type and narrative flow.
/pitchsmith:refresh	Refresh the slide viewer and regenerate the manifest for the current deck. Use this after building new slides or making manual file changes to ensure the viewer reflects the latest state.
/pitchsmith:add-slide	Add a new slide to an existing deck plan through a guided conversation. Specify where in the deck the new slide should appear and what it should contain.
/pitchsmith:use-template	Instantiate a pre-built deck template with new content. Deck templates provide multi-slide structures with placeholder content; this command replaces placeholders with your actual content while respecting the template's layout constraints.

Asset management commands (/pitchsmith:)

These commands manage the reusable assets and configuration that support your creative workflow.

Command	Description
/pitchsmith:add-slide-template	Create a new slide template through conversational discovery. Describe the type of slide you need, and the system designs and builds a reusable template for your catalog.
/pitchsmith:add-deck-template	Create a new multi-slide deck template through guided conversation and iterative slide building. Produces a reusable deck structure that can be instantiated with different content.
/pitchsmith:edit-deck-template	Add, edit, remove, or reorder slides in an existing deck template. Provides full CRUD operations on the slides within a deck template.
/pitchsmith:delete-deck	Permanently delete a deck and all its files (plan, manifest, slide HTML). Removes the deck from the registry.
/pitchsmith:eject-workflow	Copy a workflow from the plugin to your local .slide-builder/workflows/ directory for customization. Ejected workflows override the plugin defaults, letting you tailor behavior without forking the plugin.
/pitchsmith:list-overrides	Display which workflows are ejected (customized locally) versus using plugin defaults. Useful for understanding what you have customized.
/pitchsmith:optimize-instructions	Transform workflow instruction files into an optimized format using Anthropic prompt engineering best practices. Improves AI generation quality for ejected workflows.
/pitchsmith:update-brand-assets	Manage the brand asset catalog -- classify and import icons, logos, and images that can be used in slides. Organizes your visual assets for easy reference during slide generation.

How commands relate

Understanding the typical command sequence helps you work efficiently with Pitch Smith. While commands can be used independently, the most common flow follows the pipeline stages:

Initial setup (once):

1. /pitchsmith:setup -- Establish your brand theme from assets
2. /pitchsmith:theme -- Review the generated theme
3. /pitchsmith:theme-edit -- Refine if needed

For each presentation:

1. /pitchsmith:plan-deck or /pitchsmith:plan-one -- Plan your content
2. /pitchsmith:build-all or /pitchsmith:build-one -- Generate slides
3. /pitchsmith:edit -- Refine individual slides as needed
4. /pitchsmith:animate -- Add animations where desired
5. Export or present your finished deck

Ongoing management:

• /pitchsmith:add-slide-template or /pitchsmith:add-deck-template -- Expand your template library
• /pitchsmith:update-brand-assets -- Keep your asset catalog current
• /pitchsmith:eject-workflow -- Customize workflows for your specific needs

Some commands can be used at any point in the lifecycle. /pitchsmith:edit works on any built slide regardless of when it was created. /pitchsmith:add-slide can insert a new slide into an existing deck at any time. /pitchsmith:status provides a dashboard view of all your decks and their build progress whenever you need to check where things stand.

The /pitchsmith:help command is always available as a starting point. It examines your workspace state and suggests the most logical next action, making it easy to pick up where you left off or discover commands you haven't tried yet.

Related resources

• Themes -- How brand identity is encoded and applied to slides
• Templates -- Reusable slide and deck layouts used during building
• Plans -- The YAML blueprints that drive slide generation
• Slides -- The HTML/CSS output format and build process
• Commands reference (coming in Story 4.6) -- Complete syntax and usage details for every command
• Build Slides -- Step-by-step guide to building slides from plans
• Edit Slides -- Step-by-step guide to editing slides after building