Rdeck

Rdeck is a Ruby CLI tool that converts Markdown presentations to Google Slides, enabling continuous deck creation with content and design separation.

This is a Ruby implementation of the deck tool originally written in Go.

• Convert Markdown files to Google Slides presentations
• Support for CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)
• Automatic slide layout detection
• Support for images, tables, and block quotes
• Code blocks with syntax highlighting (via external command)
• Incremental updates - only modify changed slides
• File watching mode for live updates
• Custom style support
• Multiple authentication methods (OAuth2, Service Account, ADC)
• Profile support for multiple Google accounts

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'rdeck'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install rdeck

1. Create a project in Google Cloud Console
2. Enable the Google Slides API and Google Drive API
3. Create OAuth2 credentials or a Service Account
4. Download the credentials file

• Ruby 3.1.0 or higher
• libvips (for image processing)

On macOS:

brew install vips

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install libvips-dev

# Create a blank presentation
$ rdeck new

# Create with a title and save ID to markdown file
$ rdeck new deck.md -t "My Presentation"

# Create from a base template
$ rdeck new deck.md -t "My Presentation" -b <base-presentation-id>

# Apply markdown to presentation
$ rdeck apply deck.md

# Specify presentation ID via command line
$ rdeck apply deck.md -i <presentation-id>

# Apply specific pages
$ rdeck apply deck.md -p 1,3-5

# Watch mode - automatically apply on file changes
$ rdeck apply deck.md -w

# List your presentations
$ rdeck ls

# List available layouts
$ rdeck ls-layouts deck.md

# Open presentation in browser
$ rdeck open deck.md

# Export to PDF
$ rdeck export deck.md -o presentation.pdf

# Check environment and configuration
$ rdeck doctor

---
presentationID: your-presentation-id
title: My Presentation
---

# First Slide Title

This is the content of the first slide.

---

## Second Slide

- Bullet point 1
- Bullet point 2
  - Nested bullet

---

# Slide with Image

![alt text](path/to/image.png)

---

# Slide with Table

| Header 1 | Header 2 |
|----------|----------|
| Cell 1   | Cell 2   |
| Cell 3   | Cell 4   |

---
presentationID: your-presentation-id  # Required for apply
title: My Presentation
breaks: true  # Treat single line breaks as <br>
codeBlockToImageCommand: "command to convert code"
defaults:
  - if: page == 1
    layout: title
  - if: titles.size() == 0
    layout: blank
---

Use HTML comments with JSON to configure individual pages:

<!-- {"layout": "title-and-body"} -->
<!-- {"freeze": true} -->
<!-- {"skip": true} -->

# Slide Title

Content here

<!-- This is a speaker note -->

• Headers (H1-H6): Mapped to title, subtitle, or body based on hierarchy
• Bold and italic text
• Links
• Inline code
• Bullet lists (ordered and unordered)
• Nested lists

• Block quotes

• Tables
• Images
• Strikethrough
• Horizontal rules (for page breaks: ---)

Configuration files are located at:

• ~/.config/rdeck/config.yml
• ~/.config/rdeck/config-{profile}.yml (for profiles)

Example configuration:

# Base presentation to copy from
basePresentationID: "abc123..."

# Default folder for new presentations
folderID: "xyz789..."

# Default line break behavior
breaks: true

# Command to convert code blocks to images
codeBlockToImageCommand: "code2img"

# Default conditions for layout selection
defaults:
  - if: page == 1
    layout: title
  - if: titles.size() == 1 && headings[2].size() == 1
    layout: section

1. Download OAuth2 credentials from Google Cloud Console
2. Save to ~/.local/share/rdeck/credentials.json
3. Run any rdeck command - you'll be prompted to authorize

export RDECK_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY='{ "type": "service_account", ... }'
rdeck apply deck.md

export RDECK_ENABLE_ADC=1
rdeck apply deck.md

export RDECK_ACCESS_TOKEN="ya29...."
rdeck apply deck.md

Use profiles to manage multiple Google accounts:

# Use a specific profile
rdeck apply deck.md --profile work

# Profile files
~/.config/rdeck/config-work.yml
~/.local/share/rdeck/credentials-work.json
~/.local/state/rdeck/token-work.json

After checking out the repo, run:

bundle install
bundle exec rake spec  # Run tests
bundle exec rdeck      # Run CLI

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/ydah/rdeck.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

This project is a Ruby port of deck by k1LoW. The original Go implementation provided the specification and inspiration for this Ruby version.