Templates

Your AI assistant uses these tools to discover and apply your brand templates — pre-configured layouts, colors, and fonts that keep every presentation on-brand.

Templates are imported from PowerPoint files (.potx / .potm) and contain one or more layouts — predefined slide structures with placeholders for titles, body text, images, and decorative elements. When your assistant creates slides using a template, it automatically applies the template's colors, fonts, and positioning.

For a step-by-step guide on importing and using templates, see How Do I Use Brand Templates?

Listing Your Templates

When you ask to “use my corporate template” or your assistant is about to create a new presentation, it first calls template_list to see what templates you have available. This is a required step before creating any new deck — your assistant checks for brand templates so it can use them instead of starting from scratch.

Parameters

What It Returns

• total — total number of templates you have
• templates — array of template summaries (id, name, layoutCount, primaryColor, updatedAt). Your own imported templates plus Rideful's published starters, which are marked (Rideful starter) and are read-only — buildable by anyone, editable by no one
• hasMore — whether more templates are available beyond the current page

Example

template_list({ limit: 10 })

// Response:
// {
//   total: 2,
//   hasMore: false,
//   templates: [
//     { id: "template_abc", name: "Corporate Blue",
//       layoutCount: 5, primaryColor: "#0066CC",
//       updatedAt: 1706000000000 },
//     { id: "template_def", name: "Marketing Deck",
//       layoutCount: 8, primaryColor: "#E33737",
//       updatedAt: 1705900000000 }
//   ]
// }

Browsing Layouts

Your assistant calls layout_list to see what layouts are available — on a brand template, or on the deck it is currently working in, which carries its own copy of the template's layouts. Each layout is a predefined slide structure — like “Title Slide,” “Content,” or “Two Column” — with specific placeholders and background styling.

Parameters

What It Returns

• templateName — name of the template
• layouts — array of layout summaries, each with:
  • id, name, order — layout identity and sort position
  • isDefault — whether this is the default layout — the first layout by order
  • layoutDescription — the free-text guidance on when to use this layout, or null where none has been written
  • placeholderCount, placeholderTypes — how many placeholders the layout has and what types, with a ×N suffix when a type repeats: ["title", "body×3", "footer", "slideNumber"]
  • placeholders — the targetable placeholders, each with elementId, type, size, and fontSize. Pass the elementId back as slide_bulk_create's placeholders[].elementId to write into one specific slot. Text-capable types only (title, subTitle, body, footer), so this list is shorter than placeholderCount on layouts carrying slide numbers, dates, or picture zones
  • hasBackgroundImage, backgroundColor — the layout's background details

Example

layout_list({
  deckId: "template_abc"
})

// Response:
// {
//   templateId: "template_abc",
//   templateName: "Corporate Blue",
//   layouts: [
//     { id: "layout_001", name: "Title Slide",
//       order: 0, isDefault: true,
//       placeholderCount: 2,
//       placeholderTypes: ["title", "subTitle"],
//       placeholders: [
//         { elementId: "dle-text-Ka1bZ9mQ",
//           type: "title",
//           size: { width: 1160, height: 120 },
//           fontSize: 44 },
//         { elementId: "dle-text-Xa9bK2mQ",
//           type: "subTitle",
//           size: { width: 1160, height: 80 },
//           fontSize: 24 }
//       ],
//       backgroundColor: "#FFFFFF" },
//     { id: "layout_002", name: "Content",
//       order: 1, isDefault: false,
//       placeholderCount: 3,
//       placeholderTypes: ["title", "body",
//                          "slideNumber"],
//       placeholders: [ /* title, body —
//         the slideNumber is counted above
//         but cannot hold text */ ],
//       backgroundColor: "#FFFFFF" },
//     { id: "layout_003", name: "Two Column",
//       order: 2, isDefault: false,
//       placeholderCount: 3,
//       placeholderTypes: ["title", "body×2"],
//       placeholders: [
//         { elementId: "dle-text-Lm3pQ8vT",
//           type: "title", ... },
//         { elementId: "dle-text-Pq7nR4vT",
//           type: "body",
//           size: { width: 560, height: 400 },
//           fontSize: 18 },
//         { elementId: "dle-text-Wc4kT6nR",
//           type: "body",
//           size: { width: 560, height: 400 },
//           fontSize: 18 }
//       ],
//       backgroundColor: "#FFFFFF" }
//   ]
// }

Inspecting a Layout

To understand exactly what a layout contains before using it, your assistant calls layout_get. This returns the full structural detail: every placeholder with its position, size, and text style; every decorative object (shapes, accent bars); and any background images.

Parameters

What It Returns

A detailed breakdown of the layout, including:

• Layout info — name, order, whether it's the default, background color
• Placeholders — each placeholder's elementId, type (title, body, subTitle, footer), position, size, font, color, alignment, and default text. The elementId is what slide_bulk_create's placeholders[] targets
• Decorative objects — shapes, accent bars, and other non-placeholder elements with their positions, colors, and styles
• Images — background or decorative images with positions and dimensions

Example

layout_get({
  deckId: "template_abc",
  layoutId: "layout_001"
})

// Response (formatted markdown):
//
// ## Layout: "Title Slide"
//
// Deck: Corporate Blue
// ID: layout_001
// Order: 0 (default layout)
// Background: #FFFFFF
//
// ### Placeholders
//
//   1. **title** `dle-text-Ka1bZ9mQ` (idx: 0)
//      Position: (60, 200) — Size: 1160 × 120
//      Style: font: Inter, size: 44pt,
//             color: #1C2833, align: center
//
//   2. **subTitle** `dle-text-Xa9bK2mQ` (idx: 1)
//      Position: (60, 340) — Size: 1160 × 80
//      Style: font: Inter, size: 24pt,
//             color: #666666, align: center
//
// ### Decorative Objects
//
//   1. **AccentBar** (rectangle)
//      Position: (0, 0) — Size: 1280 × 16
//      Style: fill: #0066CC, opacity: 100%

Updating a Layout Description

After inspecting a layout, your assistant can save a description that helps it (and other AI assistants) pick the right layout in the future. layout_update updates the layout's name and/or description. Your assistant will always ask for confirmation before saving.

This tool writes a layout's metadata, and only on a template — a plain deck's layout name and description are not writable. The limit stops there: a layout's elements are editable on any deck through the element tools, by passing the layout id where you would name a slide.

Parameters

* At least one of name or layoutDescription must be provided.

What It Returns

• success — whether the update succeeded
• updatedFields — list of field names that were changed

Example

layout_update({
  deckId: "template_abc",
  layoutId: "layout_003",
  layoutDescription: "Two-column comparison layout. Use for side-by-side content like pros/cons, before/after, or feature comparisons. Title spans full width at top."
})

// Response:
// {
//   success: true,
//   layoutId: "layout_003",
//   templateId: "template_abc",
//   updatedFields: ["layoutDescription"]
// }

Using Templates When Creating Slides

Once your assistant knows which template and layouts to use, it passes them to slide_bulk_create with a templateId and layout IDs for each slide. The template's theme (fonts, colors) is applied automatically, and placeholder content is filled in from your request.

Example

// Create a deck using template layouts
slide_bulk_create({
  name: "Q4 Review",
  templateId: "template_abc",
  slides: [
    {
      layoutId: "layout_001",
      title: "Q4 Business Review",
      subtitle: "January 2026"
    },
    {
      layoutId: "layout_002",
      title: "Revenue Highlights",
      body: "- Total revenue: **$4.2M**\n- Growth: +18% QoQ"
    },
    {
      // layout_003 has two body placeholders —
      // `body` alone can only fill the larger one,
      // so target each by id instead
      layoutId: "layout_003",
      placeholders: [
        { elementId: "dle-text-Lm3pQ8vT",
          text: "EMEA vs APAC" },
        { elementId: "dle-text-Pq7nR4vT",
          text: "- EMEA: $2.4M\n- Up 22% QoQ" },
        { elementId: "dle-text-Wc4kT6nR",
          text: "- APAC: $1.8M\n- Up 12% QoQ" }
      ]
    }
  ]
})

Which Tool Will My Assistant Use?

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

• “Do I have any templates?” → template_list to list available templates
• “What layouts does my corporate template have?” → layout_list to browse layouts
• “Show me what the title slide looks like” → layout_get to inspect placeholder positions and styles
• “Create a pitch deck using my brand template” → template_list → layout_list → slide_bulk_create with the template
• “Add a description to this layout” → layout_update to save a helpful description

Related

• How Do I Use Brand Templates? — Step-by-step guide to importing and using templates
• Deck Operations — Create presentations using template layouts via slide_bulk_create
• Layouts — Where a deck's layouts come from and how to pick one
• Fonts — Discover available fonts including those from templates
• Export to PowerPoint — Template-based decks export with full brand fidelity