What Are Deck Files?

Deck files hold what a deck is for and how it should look: the brief it was created from, and its design system. Say it once and it sticks — every conversation on the deck, and every designer the agent sends out, works from the same files.

The chat is where you say what you want right now. Deck files are where you say it for the whole deck, or, on a brand template, for every deck made from it. You never have to touch them: the agent writes them as it works, and a deck with no file edited works well. They are there for when you want something to stick.

Which Files a Deck Has

• brief.md — the request the deck was created from. The chat on your dashboard writes it when it creates the deck and hands the build over. It matters most on that first build; later it is background, and what you ask in the chat wins.
• design-system.md — the palette, fonts, margins and visual style. The agent writes it from the deck's theme before it builds slides, and every designer and evaluator reads it, so slides built in different conversations still match.

Those are the only two; you can't add others. Files the agent writes for itself while it works, such as the researcher's research.md, belong to that conversation and open from their card in the chat.

They Belong to the Deck, Not the Chat

Deck files are stored with the deck. Clear the chat or start a new conversation and they are still there, and the agent reads them in the new one. Everyone who opens the deck in the editor sees the same files. People viewing the deck through a share link don't see them.

Duplicating a deck copies its files, the brief included. Save as template copies the design system but never the brief, which records a conversation that was yours.

The Files Column

A narrow column of file icons runs down the right edge of the editor, whether the chat is open or closed. Hover an icon for its status:

• This deck's version — a filled dot. The deck has its own copy.
• From template name — a hollow dot. The deck reads its template's file.
• Not written yet — a faded icon with no dot.

Click an icon to open the file. View shows it rendered; Edit lets you change it.

Editing a File

Open the file, switch to Edit, change the text and Save. The agent uses your version from its next read. A designer reads the design system when it starts, so designers already running finish with the version they started from.

If the file changes while you have it open — the agent edited it, or someone else saved — what happens depends on whether you have typed:

• Nothing typed: the dialog shows the new text and says who changed it.
• Unsaved text: a warning says the file changed and Save is disabled, so you can't overwrite the newer version. Your text stays in the editor for you to copy; Sync loads the live version.

Closing the dialog with unsaved changes asks first.

The agent edits design-system.md too, for instance after you ask it to restyle the deck. When the theme stops matching the file, it changes only the palette and font lines that contradict it and keeps the rest, above all lines a person wrote.

Inheriting from a Template

A deck made from a brand template starts with the template's design-system.md, and reads it live: edit the template's file and every deck still inheriting it has the change. It is the only thing a deck keeps reading from its template. The theme, master, layouts and slides are copied when the deck is created, so editing those on the template changes new decks only, never the ones already made from it. The brief is never inherited. A blank deck and an imported deck start with no files; the agent writes the design system the first time it builds.

The first edit on the deck, by you or by the agent, gives the deck its own copy, and the column shows This deck's version. From then on the template's changes don't reach it. The dialog says so, and says when the template has updated its version since.

Reset to template discards the deck's copy and goes back to the template's file. It appears in the dialog whenever the deck has its own copy of a file its template also has.

Editing a Template's Files

Open a template in the editor and its column shows the template's own files. Changes there reach every deck made from the template that hasn't made its own copy. The dialog shows how many decks use the template, and so does the chat when the agent edits a template's file. Published templates, such as Rideful's starters, show their files read-only.

Deleting a File

Delete is at the bottom of the dialog, for a deck's own file with no template version behind it.

• Deleting design-system.md is safe: the agent writes a new one the next time it needs it.
• Deleting brief.md can't be undone.
• A file read from the template has no Delete. To drop a deck's own copy and go back to the template's, use Reset to template.

Deleting a template that decks still use doesn't take its design system away from them: they keep it and can still edit it, but it can no longer be changed for all of them at once. The delete dialog says how many decks use the template. A deck that had made its own copy can still Reset to template: the deleted template's last version is kept for as long as a deck refers to it.

Over MCP

deck_get lists each deck file with its status — the deck's own, from the template, or not written yet — and when it was created and last edited. The contents aren't available over MCP yet.

Related

• The AI agent — The chat panel, the plan, and the designers that read these files
• Brand Templates — Import the templates decks inherit a design system from