Deck Operations

Your AI assistant uses these tools to create, find, and manage your presentations. You don't call them directly — just tell your assistant what you need and it handles the rest.

When you connect an AI assistant to Rideful via MCP, it gets access to tools for managing your presentations. A deck is a presentation containing ordered slides. Every deck has a name, an aspect ratio (which determines the canvas size), and optionally a theme with colors and fonts.

This page documents the four deck-level tools your AI assistant uses behind the scenes. Understanding them helps you give better instructions and troubleshoot when something doesn't look right.

Finding Your Presentations

When you ask your AI assistant to “open my Q4 deck” or “show me my presentations,” it uses deck_list to search your decks by name, see how many slides each has, and when they were last updated. This is a read-only operation. It lists the decks you own and the decks others have shared with you.

Parameters

What It Returns

• total — total number of matching decks
• decks — array of deck summaries (id, name, slideCount, updatedAt, role; folderId and folderName on decks you own)
• hasMore — whether more results are available beyond the current page

role is owner for your own decks, editor for a shared deck your assistant can change, and viewer for a shared deck it can only read — every write tool on a viewer deck is refused with an access-denied (403) error. Sharing itself is managed in the app, not over MCP.

Example

deck_list({ limit: 10 })

// Response:
// {
//   total: 3,
//   hasMore: false,
//   decks: [
//     { id: "deck_abc123", name: "Q4 Business Review",
//       slideCount: 8, updatedAt: 1706000000000 },
//     { id: "deck_def456", name: "Product Launch",
//       slideCount: 12, updatedAt: 1705900000000 },
//     { id: "deck_ghi789", name: "Team Standup",
//       slideCount: 3, updatedAt: 1705800000000 }
//   ]
// }

// Filter by name (case-insensitive partial match)
deck_list({ name: "review" })

// Returns only decks with "review" in the name

Viewing Deck Details

Before making any changes to a presentation, your AI assistant calls deck_get to understand what it's working with. This returns the canvas size, theme, available layouts, any slide rules to follow, and a summary of every slide and its elements. This is always the first step — it ensures the assistant positions elements correctly and follows your design rules.

Parameters

What It Returns

A detailed overview of the deck, including:

• Deck info — name, slide count, aspect ratio, last updated
• Origin — whether the deck started blank or came from a template. A blank deck reads theme is yours to choose, so the assistant sets the theme with deck_update_theme; a template deck names the template and reads theme, master and layouts are the brand's; change them only when the user asks
• Theme — heading and body fonts, and every theme color by slot name (accent1 #2563EB), for the deck master and each other master: what deck_update_theme needs to change one color and keep the rest
• Available layouts — layout names and IDs the assistant can use when adding slides
• Slide rules — mandatory content and design rules to follow when working with this deck
• Quick reference — deck ID, canvas size, and a summary of each slide with its elements

Example

deck_get({ deckId: "deck_abc123" })

// Response (formatted markdown):
//
// ## Q4 Business Review
//
// **8 slides** | Aspect: 16:9
// Updated: 2 hours ago
// Origin: blank (Rideful starter) — theme is yours to choose
//
// ### Theme
// - Fonts: Heading: Inter, Body: Inter
// - Colors: dark1 #000000, light1 #FFFFFF, dark2 #1C2833, light2 #F4F6F6, accent1 #2E4053, accent2 #AAB7B8, accent3 …
//
// ### Available Layouts
//
//   1. "Title Slide" (default) — `layout-7Kd2Rm4p`
//      Cover slide with centered title and subtitle
//
//   2. "Title and Content" — `layout-Qc9Wb3Xn`
//      Standard content with a title and body area
//
//   3. "Blank" — `layout-Ze5Vh8Ta`
//      Empty canvas with no placeholders
//
// ### Quick Reference
// - Deck ID: deck_abc123
// - Canvas: 1280 × 720
// - Slides (8):
//   1. slide_001 — Title Slide (3 elements)
//      - elem_a text [title]
//      - elem_b text [subtitle]
//   2. slide_002 — Title and Content (2 elements)
//      ...

Creating an Empty Deck

When you need a blank starting point, deck_create creates a new presentation with one empty slide. This is useful when your assistant will build each slide individually with fine-grained control. For most cases, the assistant will use slide_bulk_create (below) instead, which creates a full deck with content in one step.

Parameters

What It Returns

• id — the new deck's ID
• name — the deck name
• canvas — { width, height } in pixels

Example

deck_create({
  name: "Quarterly Review",
  aspectRatio: "16:9",
  masterBackgroundColor: "#0F172A",   // every slide inherits this
  themeFonts: { heading: "Inter", body: "Inter" }
})

// Response:
// {
//   id: "deck_abc123",
//   name: "Quarterly Review",
//   canvas: { width: 1280, height: 720 }
// }

Setting the Deck Theme

deck_update_theme is the one deck-level style write: theme colors, theme fonts, and the master background, in a single call. The theme drives the fonts, text color and size every element inherits, chart text color, the editor's color swatches, and the fonts the deck loads. The master background is what every slide and layout inherits, so a deck gets its look from one call rather than from a color repeated on every slide.

Your assistant calls it before building slides on a blank deck. A later call restyles what is already there and cannot be undone: text with no color of its own, table styles, chart series with no color of their own, and every shape, line, icon, image frame, background, text color and chart series that names a theme slot such as accent1 take the new theme at once. Colors stored as a hex keep theirs. On a deck whose deck_get origin names a template, the theme, master, and layouts are the brand's — the assistant changes them only when you ask for that change.

Parameters

* At least one of themeColors, themeFonts, masterBackgroundColor or masterBackgroundGradient must be provided; a call with none of them is rejected.

What It Returns

• The resulting theme — colors and fonts as they now stand, so a colors-only call still reports the fonts it left alone
• The master's effective background — the color or gradient every slide without one of its own now inherits
• The deck's font list — after the swap, so you can see which families the deck loads
• The deck's origin — a re-theme of a template deck says so in the reply

A background image on the master is never touched: clearing the color and the gradient leaves the image owning the background.

Example

deck_update_theme({
  deckId: "deck_abc123",
  themeColors: {
    accent1: "#38BDF8", accent2: "#818CF8", accent3: "#F472B6",
    accent4: "#FBBF24", accent5: "#34D399", accent6: "#FB7185",
    dark1: "#0F172A", dark2: "#1E293B",
    light1: "#F1F5F9", light2: "#CBD5E1"
  },
  themeFonts: { heading: "Inter", body: "Inter" },
  masterBackgroundColor: "#0F172A"
})

// Response:
// Updated deck theme
// - Colors: accent1 #38BDF8, dark1 #0F172A, light1 #F1F5F9
// - Fonts: Heading: Inter, Body: Inter
// - Deck fonts: Inter
// - Master background: #0F172A
//
// Deck ID: deck_abc123
// Existing slides keep the styles already on them; new slides take the theme.

// Hand the master back to white:
deck_update_theme({ deckId: "deck_abc123", masterBackgroundColor: null })

Building a Full Presentation

When you say “create a pitch deck” or “make me a 10-slide presentation,” your assistant typically uses slide_bulk_create — the most efficient way to build a presentation. It creates a new deck (or adds to an existing one) with up to 20 slides of content in a single step. Consistency comes from the deck theme — set once with deck_update_theme (or deck_create's theme arguments) before the slides are built. Use masterStyles for the per-role text sizes and families the layout does not give you, then override individual slides as needed.

Parameters

* Exactly one of name or deckId must be provided.

masterStyles Object

Sets default text styling for all slides in the call. Per-slide values override at the field level — for example, if a slide sets only textColor, it keeps the master's fontSize and fontFamily.

masterStyles no longer accepts a backgroundColor: the deck-wide background belongs on the master, through deck_update_theme's (or deck_create's) masterBackgroundColor. A call that still sends it is rejected with that message — if your client cached the older tool list, reconnect it to pick up the current schema.

Placeholder color and font come from the deck theme once it is set: a placeholder created on a dark master comes out in the theme's light text color, one on a light master in the dark. Pass a role style only for a size or family the layout does not give you — a literal color written onto the slide is what a later theme change cannot move.

Slide Object Properties

Each item in the slides array can have:

What It Returns

• deckId, deckName — the deck that was created or appended to
• isNewDeck — whether a new deck was created
• canvas — { width, height } in pixels
• totalSlideCount — total number of slides in the deck after the operation
• slides — array of created slides, each with slideId, slideNumber, layoutName, and elements
• unassigned — per slide, any content that matched no placeholder, each with the field or elementId it was addressed to and a reason. Omitted when everything was placed
• availablePlaceholders — the layout's targetable placeholders, attached alongside unassigned so the ids can be passed straight back in placeholders. Omitted when the slide was created without a layout

Example — New Deck

slide_bulk_create({
  name: "Q4 Business Review",
  masterStyles: {
    titleStyle: {
      textColor: "#1C2833",
      fontSize: 40,
      fontFamily: "Inter"
    },
    bodyStyle: {
      textColor: "#566573",
      fontSize: 16,
      fontFamily: "Inter"
    }
  },
  slides: [
    {
      title: "Q4 Business Review",
      subtitle: "January 2026"
    },
    {
      title: "Revenue Highlights",
      body: "- Total revenue: $4.2M\n- Growth: +18% QoQ\n- New customers: 340"
    },
    {
      title: "Key Initiatives",
      body: "1. Launch enterprise plan\n2. Expand to APAC\n3. Hire 12 engineers",
      backgroundColor: "#2E4053"
    }
  ]
})

// Response:
// {
//   deckId: "deck_abc123",
//   deckName: "Q4 Business Review",
//   isNewDeck: true,
//   totalSlideCount: 3,
//   canvas: { width: 1280, height: 720 },
//   slides: [
//     { slideId: "slide_001", slideNumber: 1,
//       layoutName: "Title Slide", elements: [...] },
//     { slideId: "slide_002", slideNumber: 2,
//       layoutName: "Title and Content", elements: [...] },
//     { slideId: "slide_003", slideNumber: 3,
//       layoutName: "Title and Content", elements: [...] }
//   ]
// }

Example — Add to Existing Deck

// Add slides to an existing deck (use deckId instead of name).
// Layout ids come from deck_get on that deck — omit layoutId for its default.
slide_bulk_create({
  deckId: "deck_abc123",
  slides: [
    {
      layoutId: "layout-Qc9Wb3Xn",
      title: "Next Steps",
      body: "- Finalize roadmap\n- Schedule kickoff\n- Assign owners"
    }
  ]
})

Which Approach Will My Assistant Use?

Your AI assistant picks the right tool based on what you ask:

• “Find my Q4 deck” → deck_list to search by name
• “What's in this presentation?” → deck_get to get the full overview
• “Create me a pitch deck about...” → slide_bulk_create to build all slides at once
• “Start a blank presentation” → deck_create for an empty starting point
• “Add 3 more slides to this deck” → slide_bulk_create with the existing deck ID

Related

• Slide Operations — Add, inspect, duplicate, and delete individual slides
• Element Operations — Create and style shapes, text, lines, and images on slides
• Layouts — Where a deck's layouts come from and how to pick one
• Canvas Size — Slide dimensions and the coordinate system
• Create a Presentation with AI — End-to-end guide for building slides with natural language