Interactive Wizard

mdslide features an interactive, CLI-guided wizard designed to help you quickly build, configure, and preview your presentations without memorizing syntax or command-line flags.

The wizard asks a series of simple questions (e.g. choosing your theme, selecting the export format, deciding whether to launch a watch server) and then compiles or serves the presentation based on your choices.

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Running the Wizard

You can launch the interactive wizard in three different ways:

1. Default Command (Recommended)

If you run mdslide with only the input presentation file and no flags, it launches the wizard automatically:

mdslide slides.md

2. Explicit Interactive Option

Specify the -i or --interactive flag on the default command or on compile:

mdslide slides.md -i
# or
mdslide compile slides.md -i

3. Explicit Interactive Command

Run the dedicated interactive subcommand:

mdslide interactive slides.md

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Interactive Wizard Steps

When you launch the wizard, you will be guided through the following prompt options in your terminal:

? Choose slide theme (Use arrow keys)
❯ gradient
  light
  dark
  notion
  terminal
  corporate
  solarized

Prompt Questionnaire flow:

1. Choose Slide Theme: Select from the built-in themes.
2. Choose Output Format: Choose the export format:
   • html (Interactive web deck)
   • pdf (Headless browser printed page)
   • pptx (PowerPoint presentation)
3. Specify Output File: Enter a file path or accept the auto-detected path (e.g., output.html).
4. Choose Action Mode:
   • Compile only (Build static presentation files immediately)
   • Watch and preview (Launch live hot-reloading dev server)
5. Auto-Open Web Browser: Decide if the browser should open automatically after compiling or starting watch mode.

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Bypassing or Automating the Wizard

Two global flags change how the wizard is triggered, for CI pipelines and AI agents that can't answer interactive prompts:

• --no-input always bypasses the wizard, even when no other flags are passed and even if -i/--interactive is explicitly given. Previously the wizard triggered by default whenever no flags were present; --no-input now short-circuits that check unconditionally, so the command runs in manual mode using only its defaults and any explicit flags.
• --yes runs the wizard "hands-free": instead of prompting, it auto-accepts every question with its default answer and prints a short summary of what was chosen.

In auto mode (triggered by either --yes or --no-input), the effective defaults used are:

Prompt	Auto default
Output format	html
Theme	light
Output file	output.html
Watch server	Not started
Auto-open browser	Never opens (opening a browser is never a safe default in a non-interactive run)

# CI/agent-friendly: never prompts, no wizard
mdslide slides.md --no-input --json

# Hands-free wizard: same defaults, but goes through the wizard's summary output
mdslide slides.md --yes