Beamer Deck Skill

Generate academic Beamer presentations with original themes, rhetoric-driven structure, and multi-agent review. Internalises Scott Cunningham's rhetoric framework and implements an adversarial review workflow.

Purpose

Create polished, zero-warning Beamer decks for academic contexts: seminars, conference talks, teaching lectures, and working decks for coauthors. Every deck gets a custom theme, assertion-driven titles, and parallel review by rhetoric and graphics sub-agents.

NOT for project status updates — use project-deck for those.

When to Use

• Academic seminar presentations
• Conference talks (15–45 min)
• Teaching lectures (undergraduate or PhD)
• Working decks for coauthors or supervisors
• Any presentation that needs rhetoric discipline and visual quality

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Critical Rules

1. Build artifacts go to out/, PDF stays in the source directory. Use the latex pre-flight to install the fail-closed canonical .latexmkrc; never hand-write a partial config or copy block. Use latex for compilation and engine resolution.
2. Python: Always use uv run python. Never bare python, python3, pip, or pip3.
3. Fix ALL warnings. Overfull hbox, underfull hbox, overfull vbox, underfull vbox — no matter how small. Parse the .log file. Recompile until clean.
4. Titles are assertions, not labels. "Distance increases abortion rates" — not "Results". Every frame title states a claim.
5. One idea per slide. Not a guideline. A law. If a slide has two ideas, split it.
6. Use the unified template. Always use \usepackage[<institution>]{user-beamer} from templates/beamer/. Options: preset-a, preset-b, preset-c, preset-d, plain. Never use default Beamer themes (Warsaw, Madrid, etc.) as-is, and never create one-off preambles. See [templates/beamer/README.md] for available custom commands and how to add institutions.
7. Code-first figures. Generate figures via R or Python scripts before inserting. Never use placeholder images. Always save the script alongside the figures — never generate a figure without preserving the code that created it.
8. If a .bib file is used, validate it. Cross-reference all \cite{} keys against the bibliography file. See bib-validate for the full protocol.
9. Never define parameterized TikZ styles inside a frame. # inside a Beamer frame body is consumed by the frame parser before TikZ sees it, producing Illegal parameter number errors that cascade and resist all downstream fixes. Define ALL \tikzset{...} and .style={..., #1} entries in the preamble; use them inside frames. See ../shared/tikz-rules.md Rule 11.

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Rhetoric Principles

Full framework (Three Laws, MB/MC, Aristotelian Triad, Narrative Arc, Pyramid Principle, Devil's Advocate): ../shared/rhetoric-principles.md

Scott's original essay: resources/academics/scott-cunningham/MixtapeTools/presentations/rhetoric_of_decks.md

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Quality Scoring

Apply numeric quality scoring using the shared framework and skill-specific rubric:

• Framework: ../shared/quality-scoring.md — severity tiers, thresholds, verdict rules
• Rubric: references/quality-rubric.md — issue-to-deduction mappings for this skill

Start at 100, deduct per issue found, apply verdict. Compute the score in Phase 7 and report it in the final output.

Context-Specific Guidance

See ../shared/rhetoric-principles.md for the full Aristotelian Triad framework. Context-specific Ethos/Pathos/Logos balance and adjustments are applied in Phase 2 based on audience type (academic seminar, conference talk, teaching lecture, working deck).

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Workflow: 7 Phases

You (orchestrator)
├── Phase 1: Gather context        (direct)
├── Phase 2: Design structure       (direct)
├── Phase 3: Build deck             (direct)
├── Phase 4: Fix all warnings       (direct)
├── Phase 5: Rhetoric review        (sub-agent — Explore)
├── Phase 6: Graphics review        (sub-agent — Explore)  ← parallel with Phase 5
└── Phase 7: Apply & finalise       (direct)

Phase 1: Gather Context (Direct)

Read project files, content sources, and audience brief. Ask the user clarifying questions:

• Audience: Who is this for? (seminar, conference, teaching, coauthors)
• Duration: How long is the talk?
• Content source: Paper draft? Notes? Existing slides? Code output?
• Special requirements: Specific figures, institutional branding, language?

Check for existing .bib files in the project. If citations are needed, note this for Phase 3.

Phase 2: Design Structure (Direct)

1. Choose rhetoric balance based on audience (see table above)
2. Outline slide sequence with assertion titles — write each title as a claim
3. Plan narrative arc — consult docs/reference/talk-design.md for format-specific arcs (empirical, structural, theory, descriptive) and audience calibration
4. Choose institution option for user-beamer — colours and fonts are set by the template
5. Identify figures needed — which need to be generated via code?

Present the outline to the user for approval before building.

Phase 3: Build Deck (Direct)

1. Generate figures first — run R/Python scripts, save to figures/
2. Write .tex file using the unified template: \documentclass[aspectratio=169,11pt]{beamer} + \usepackage[university]{user-beamer} (or other institution option). Use \fbinstitute and \fbemail for metadata. Custom commands: \contribcard, \phasecircle, \accentbox, \highlightbox, standoutframe environment.
3. Use 16:9 aspect ratio (already in the documentclass above)
4. Install the canonical .latexmkrc through the latex pre-flight if it is missing; classify any divergent existing config before migration
5. Compile using latex — this handles missing packages, font conflicts, citation key mismatches, and stale cache automatically
6. If using citations: add \addbibresource{references.bib} or \bibliography{} as appropriate

Phase 4: Fix All Warnings (Direct)

After latex resolves errors, address remaining warnings (which autofix does not fix):

1. Parse out/*.log for overfull/underfull hbox/vbox warnings
2. Fix every single one — adjust text, resize figures, tweak \parbox, etc.
3. Recompile
4. Repeat until the log is clean

Circuit breaker — do not spiral. If the same compile error persists after 3 different fix attempts, STOP. Do not try a fourth approach. Instead:

1. Stop editing the .tex file.
2. Quote the exact error line from the .log.
3. List the 3 approaches tried and why each failed.
4. Ask the user how to proceed.

What counts as "the same error": any error that persists at the same line family after a fix (e.g., Illegal parameter number moving from line 568 to 572 is still the same error — that is the diagnostic signature in tikz-rules.md Rule 11). A fresh Overfull on a different slide after fixing the first is a new error — reset the counter.

The cost of stopping is 2 minutes; the cost of spiraling is an hour of edits that progressively obscure the original cause. This rule overrides "recompile until clean" — zero tolerance for warnings does not mean infinite attempts on the same fix.

"Compilation success does not mean visual success." Also check for silent visual errors:

• TikZ: shape constraints forcing label misplacement, coordinate misalignment. If the deck contains TikZ diagrams, run the 6-pass verification from ../shared/tikz-rules.md — compute Bezier depths, check gaps, verify label fit, check shape boundary clearance.
• matplotlib/ggplot: axis labels cut off, legend obscuring data, text sizing. If figures use curved arrows (arc3), compute Bézier positions using the helper functions in ../shared/tikz-rules.md § Matplotlib Extension — never guess where curves pass. Check label-to-shape clearance (Boundary Rule) and use anchor-based centering for text pairs.
• PDF visual inspection: Run uv run python scripts/pdf-to-images.py <deck>.pdf to convert pages to images, then inspect each image for text overflow, element overlap, font readability, and alignment issues that are invisible in the log

Phase 5: Rhetoric Review (Sub-Agent — Explore)

Launch a sub-agent to review the .tex file against 7 criteria: narrative arc, MB/MC balance, title quality, one-idea-per-slide, transitions, Aristotelian balance, and pyramid principle.

Full prompt template: references/review-prompts.md § Rhetoric Review

Phase 6: Graphics Review (Sub-Agent — Explore)

Launch in parallel with Phase 5. Reviews TikZ diagrams, figure sizing, table formatting, colour consistency, typography, and numerical accuracy.

Full prompt template: references/review-prompts.md § Graphics Review

Phase 7: Apply and Finalise (Direct)

1. Read both reviewer reports
2. Incorporate feedback — prioritise Critical and Needs Work items
3. Recompile
4. Verify zero warnings in the log
5. If using a .bib file: validate all \cite{} keys resolve correctly (check log for Citation .* undefined). See bib-validate for the full cross-referencing protocol.
6. If significant changes were made, loop back to Phase 5 for another review round
7. Compute quality score — read references/quality-rubric.md, log all issues from Phases 4-6, compute score and verdict
8. Confirm final PDF is in the source directory (copied from out/ by .latexmkrc)

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Reference Palettes

Three starting palettes (Professional, Energetic, Academic) in both LaTeX and CSS formats: ../shared/palettes.md

Use as inspiration — always create an original palette for each deck.

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Output Checklist

A completed deck directory should contain:

project/
├── deck.tex              # Main Beamer file (uses user-beamer.sty)
├── deck.pdf              # Compiled PDF (copied from out/ by .latexmkrc)
├── .latexmkrc            # Canonical build config
├── out/                  # Build artifacts only
├── figures/              # Generated figures (if any)
│   ├── figure_1.png
│   └── ...
├── scripts/              # R/Python scripts that generated figures (if any)
│   ├── figure_1.R
│   └── ...
└── references.bib        # Bibliography (if citations used)

• PDF compiles with zero warnings
• All frame titles are assertions
• One idea per slide
• Narrative arc: Problem → Investigation → Resolution
• Rhetoric review completed (Phase 5)
• Graphics review completed (Phase 6)
• If .bib used: all \cite{} keys validated (see bib-validate)
• Quality score computed and reported

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Cross-References

Skill	When to use instead/alongside
project-deck	For project status updates (supervisor meetings, coauthor handoffs)
latex	Default compiler — used in Phase 3 for error resolution and citation audit
latex	For manual compilation config details, .latexmkrc setup, engine selection
proofread	For post-hoc review of text quality in the deck
bib-validate	For thorough bibliography cross-referencing when citations are used
literature	For finding and verifying citations to include
quarto-deck	For HTML presentations (teaching, informal talks) instead of PDF
quarto-course	For full course websites with multiple lectures, exercises, and navigation

Scott's full rhetoric essay: resources/academics/scott-cunningham/MixtapeTools/presentations/rhetoric_of_decks.md Scott's deck generation prompt: resources/academics/scott-cunningham/MixtapeTools/presentations/create_deck_prompt.md Scott's example decks: resources/academics/scott-cunningham/MixtapeTools/presentations/examples/