Sonesta is an agent-focused Python CLI for creating PowerPoint decks from structured JSON specs.

It is built for deterministic, local-first deck generation:

• create and mutate slide specs through the CLI
• validate presentations or individual slides
• inspect normalized deck state as JSON
• render .pptx output without GUI automation

Core project commands:

• sonesta init
• sonesta new presentation <name>
• sonesta new slide <presentation.json> <slide-id> [--preset blank|body|title]
• sonesta validate <presentation.json-or-slide.json>
• sonesta inspect <presentation.json-or-slide.json> --format json
• sonesta render <presentation.json>
• sonesta render-slide <presentation.json> <slide-id>

Deck and slide management:

• sonesta slides list <presentation.json>
• sonesta slides add <presentation.json> --slide <slide.json>
• sonesta slides remove <presentation.json> <slide-id> [--delete-files]
• sonesta slides rename <presentation.json> <slide-id> <new-slide-id>
• sonesta slides duplicate <presentation.json> <slide-id> <new-slide-id>
• sonesta slides move <presentation.json> <slide-id> --after <slide-id>
• sonesta slides elements <presentation.json> <slide-id>
• sonesta slides notes <presentation.json> <slide-id>
• sonesta slides set-notes <presentation.json> <slide-id> --text "..."
• sonesta slides clear-notes <presentation.json> <slide-id>

Element mutation commands:

• sonesta slides add-text|update-text
• sonesta slides add-image|update-image
• sonesta slides add-shape|update-shape
• sonesta slides add-table|update-table
• sonesta slides add-chart|update-chart
• sonesta slides remove-element <presentation.json> <slide-id> <element-id>

Resource discovery:

• sonesta themes --project-root <path>
• sonesta templates --project-root <path>
• sonesta assets list --project-root <path>
• sonesta assets inspect <asset-path>

• text
• image
• shape
• table
• chart

• theme loading from .sonesta/themes/<name>.json
• template loading from .sonesta/templates/<name>.json
• named slot-based placement
• explicit x/y/w/h placement
• speaker notes via notes_path
• table column_widths
• chart title, show_legend, and value_format
• text bullets and paragraph payloads
• image fit modes: contain, cover, stretch
• z_index-aware render ordering

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta init .
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta new presentation demo
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta new slide presentations/demo/presentation.json overview --preset blank
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta slides add-text presentations/demo/presentation.json overview headline \
  --text "Lorem Ipsum Overview" --x 1 --y 1 --w 4 --h 0.6 --style headline
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta slides add-text presentations/demo/presentation.json overview bullets \
  --bullets-json '["Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet","Sed do eiusmod tempor","Ut enim ad minim veniam"]' \
  --x 1 --y 1.8 --w 5 --h 2.2 --style body
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta validate presentations/demo/presentation.json --format json
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta render presentations/demo/presentation.json --format json

This creates a .pptx under .sonesta/builds/demo/demo.pptx.

Basic reference deck:

• examples/basic

Lorem ipsum demo deck:

• presentation.json
• lorem_demo.pptx

Useful example commands:

PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta validate examples/basic/presentations/demo/presentation.json --format json
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta render examples/basic/presentations/demo/presentation.json --format json
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta inspect examples/presentations/lorem_demo/presentation.json --format json
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m sonesta render-slide examples/presentations/lorem_demo/presentation.json overview --format json

.sonesta/
presentations/
assets/

Run tests with:

PYTHONPATH=src pytest -q