How to Build a Deck With Claude and Preso (MCP Walkthrough)

You have an idea. You have a deadline. And you are staring at a blank slide, already dreading the afternoon you will lose nudging text boxes one pixel at a time. Maybe you found a template that looks almost right, but it does not use your brand colors, the executive summary slide feels wrong, and the chart you pasted in broke every alignment guide. The deck matters. It should look like you spent a week on it, but you have an hour.

The fix is not another template. The fix is a workflow that turns a few sentences into a finished, on-brand presentation. That workflow exists right now, and it runs inside your Claude conversation using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Preso, the AI presentation builder.

This walkthrough shows you exactly how to connect Claude to Preso via MCP, describe a deck in plain English, and ship a polished, editable presentation in minutes. No design skills, no slide wrestling, no broken templates. Just a conversation that outputs a deck.

Prerequisites

Before you start, have these ready.

• Claude Desktop installed on your machine. You can grab it from claude.ai. The desktop app is where you enable MCP servers. The walkthrough uses Claude Desktop, but the same pattern works anywhere you can run an MCP client.
• A Preso account. Sign up at trypreso.com if you do not have one. Any plan that includes API access works. Check the pricing page to pick the right tier; for testing, the free trial gives you enough runs.
• A Preso API key. After logging in, go to your account settings and generate a key. We will use it to authenticate the MCP connection. If you plan to generate decks at scale, the API page explains how Preso fits into a headless workflow.
• Basic comfort editing a JSON file. We will add a few lines to a configuration file. That is the extent of the "coding" required.

If you have those, you are ten minutes from seeing a real deck appear from a prompt.

What Is MCP, and Why Should You Care

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard from Anthropic that lets Claude talk to external tools. Instead of pasting data back and forth, you give Claude the ability to call a tool directly, just like it calls a function. Once connected, Claude can create slides, pull data, or run actions inside another application. Anthropic published the official introduction to MCP and maintains detailed developer docs that explain the architecture. For our purpose, the important part: MCP lets Claude build a deck for you inside Preso, not just describe what a deck might look like.

Preso ships an official MCP server that wraps its presentation generation engine. When you ask Claude to create a deck, Claude calls the preso_generate_deck tool (or a similar named tool) with your instructions, brand settings, and slide structure. Preso returns a ready-to-edit deck. No file uploads, no copy-pasting, no export/import dance.

Other platforms have built similar connectors. Gamma published its own Claude connector via MCP, and the SlideSpeak guide to Claude Design shows how to generate HTML-based slide decks using Claude’s visual capabilities. Tools like 2Slides and even the Maven learning module on building slide decks in Claude Code all reinforce the same idea: natural language to finished deck is here. But Preso is purpose-built for the kind of decks that get funded, closed, or greenlit—pitch decks, sales decks, board decks, QBRs—with brand control, editing power, and export to PowerPoint, Google Slides, and PDF.

Step 1: Install and Configure the Preso MCP Server

The first tangible step is to make the Preso tools available to Claude.

1. Open a terminal. Choose a directory where you want to store the server config.

2. Clone the Preso MCP server repository. Preso maintains an official setup guide with the exact command, but it is essentially:

   npx @preso/mcp-server init

   This pulls the latest server and creates a default configuration file. If you prefer inspecting the code, the server is also listed among the verified MCP server implementations on the MCP servers GitHub.

3. The server will ask for your Preso API key. Paste it. The server stores the key locally and uses it to authenticate every request.

4. The server may also prompt you to select a default brand kit. If you have already set up your brand inside Preso (colors, logos, fonts), that kit will be applied to every generated deck by default. You can override it per conversation later.

Pro tip: If your organization manages multiple brands—say, a parent brand and a product sub-brand—create separate brand kits in Preso first. Then, when you generate a deck, specify the brand by name in your prompt. This is especially useful for agencies and consultants who switch client branding regularly.

After init completes, you have a running server. Leave the terminal open; the server must stay active while Claude is connected.

Step 2: Connect Claude Desktop to the Server

Now we tell Claude where to find the server.

1. Open Claude Desktop.

2. Go to Settings (the gear icon) > Developer > Edit Config. This opens a JSON file called claude_desktop_config.json. If the file does not exist, create it in the location shown in the settings panel.

3. Add an entry for the Preso server. The exact structure depends on your setup, but a minimal configuration looks like this:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "preso": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["@preso/mcp-server"],
         "env": {
           "PRESO_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
         }
       }
     }
   }

   If you used the init command, the server may already be registered and the config editor will walk you through it. The key point: Claude needs to see the server under mcpServers and know how to launch it.

4. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop. Look for a small hammer icon or a notification that MCP tools are available. If you see it, the connection is live.

Warning: Avoid committing your API key to version control. The init command writes the key to a local .env file by default. Keep that file out of Git. If you use the inline env block, the key sits in the desktop config file, which is also local. Treat either file as a secret.

If you run into trouble, the Claude MCP introduction docs explain the configuration format in detail and include troubleshooting steps.

Step 3: Describe Your Deck and Let Preso Build It

This is where the work of slide design gets replaced by a conversation. You can start with a vague idea and iterate, or you can be extremely specific. The more context you give, the more finished the result.

Open a new conversation in Claude and type something like:

I need a pitch deck for a seed-stage SaaS startup. The product uses AI to generate personalized onboarding emails for B2B sales teams. Include slides for: problem, solution, market size (show a TAM SAM SOM chart), our traction (monthly recurring revenue grew 20% MoM for the last 6 months), team bios, competitive landscape as a 2x2 matrix, and a funding ask of $1.2M with use of funds as a pie chart.

Claude will recognize that it has a presentation tool available and will respond by confirming the structure, then calling the Preso MCP tool. You will see a progress indicator. Within a minute, Claude returns a link to your new deck.

Behind the scenes, Preso’s engine mapped your description to a set of slide types, selected appropriate layouts from its deck templates library, and applied your brand defaults. The charts you mentioned—TAM SAM SOM, bar charts for MoM growth, a 2x2 matrix, and pie chart—were all built programmatically, not hand-drawn. The result is not a screenshot or an image of slides; it is a real, editable presentation in Preso’s editor.

Pro tip: If you want a specific visual style, add a design direction to your prompt. For example: "Make the design minimal, use the brand colors, and keep it on a dark background for contrast." Preso will adjust the layout and color scheme accordingly. You are essentially art-directing the AI in plain English, just as you would a designer.

For recurring deck types, you can save your prompt variations. Many SaaS and startup teams keep a library of prompts for investor updates, board decks, and sales one-pagers. When a quarterly board meeting approaches, you re-run the prompt with updated numbers and get a fresh deck in minutes.

Step 4: Refine, Edit, and Add Narrative

The first output is rarely the final deck. That is fine. The Preso editor gives you full control, and you can also steer Claude to refine the deck without leaving the conversation.

After the initial generation, you might say:

• "Slide 3’s headline is too vague. Change it to ‘Manually Crafted Emails Lose Deals’ and swap the stock image for something closer to a sales dashboard."
• "Add a comparison table on slide 7 showing our product versus the top three competitors on features, pricing, and deployment time."
• "Earlier you included a pie chart for use of funds; make the engineering slice 45% and show the exact dollar amounts."

Claude will call the appropriate tool to update the deck. Each change is a discrete call, so you maintain version history. If you prefer to tweak things by hand, open the deck in the Preso editor and move elements, swap layouts, or adjust the narrative. Every slide is fully editable, just like a PowerPoint file, but with the added benefit of an AI assistant inside the editor that can rewrite slide content, restyle visuals, or suggest better headlines.

One underappreciated move: add voice-over right inside Preso. The Sequences feature writes a script for each slide and narrates it with natural AI voice in any language. This turns your deck into a self-running walkthrough—ideal for leaving behind with an investor who was not in the meeting, or for sharing a training deck that explains itself. You can choose from dozens of languages and adjust the tone. For global sales teams, a narrated deck in the prospect’s language lands harder than a silent slide file.

Step 5: Share Securely or Export to the Format You Need

A deck that lives only in Preso is still useful, because you can present directly from the browser, but most teams need to download a PowerPoint or PDF, or share a link.

From the Preso editor:

• Share a view-only link. Click Share, set permissions, and send the URL. The viewer gets a responsive, interactive version of the deck that works on any device. No file attachments, no version confusion. This is how many sales teams deliver personalized decks to prospects. Each rep can generate a prospect-specific deck from the same prompt, tweak it, and share a link that tracks engagement.
• Export to PowerPoint (PPTX), Google Slides, or PDF. If your board requires a static file or you need to integrate with a document vault, one click downloads the deck in the format you specify. The export preserves fonts, colors, and layouts; you will not spend an afternoon fixing alignment in PowerPoint.
• Embed in a webpage or portal. Preso supports embed codes, so you can surface a deck inside a client portal, a CMS, or an e-learning platform.

Warning: When exporting to PowerPoint, check any custom charts that use data pulled from your API or MCP call. While Preso renders charts natively, complex chart types may need a quick review in PowerPoint to ensure they match expectations. Test one export early in your workflow.

If you are building decks at scale—say, generating hundreds of personalized pitch decks from your CRM—the MCP flow is just one surface. The Preso API and Triggers let you programmatically generate decks from your product data. Connect a webhook to your CRM, your analytics, or your product database, and every time a customer record qualifies for a QBR, Preso can auto-generate an on-brand deck and email it to the account owner. The MCP pattern we walked through here is the same engine, just driven by a conversation instead of an event.

Step 6: Operationalize the Workflow Across Your Team

Now that you have seen how a single deck comes together, think about how to turn this into a repeatable motion for your team.

• Standardize prompts. Save the best-performing prompts in a shared document or a Claude Project. Include placeholders like {{company_name}}, {{mrr_growth}}, {{competitive_landscape}} that the team fills in before running. This ensures every deck stays on-brand and hits the right narrative beats.
• Define brand kits once. In Preso, build a brand kit for your primary brand and any sub-brands. When you generate decks from plain English, the AI adheres to the brand kit, so you never email a deck that uses Comic Sans by accident. This is the asset that separates Preso from generic AI slide tools: the output looks designed, not templated.
• Train the team on MCP setup. The initial configuration we walked through takes about ten minutes. Create an internal checklist based on this article, and make sure every team member generates an API key from their Preso account. For teams on the Pricing plan with shared workspaces, you can manage keys centrally.
• Integrate with other Claude workflows. Because MCP tools are just functions, you can chain deck generation with other Claude capabilities. For example, first ask Claude to analyze a spreadsheet of sales results and identify the top three growth levers. Then ask it to turn that analysis into a QBR deck for the leadership team. The deck arrives already anchored in real data, not placeholder numbers.

Industries where this workflow hits hardest:

• SaaS and startups: Pitch decks, board updates, investor updates that change every month. Rebuilding them by hand wastes founder energy. Generating them from a prompt and data frees that energy for the narrative.
• Sales and revenue teams: Client-ready pitch decks and QBRs personalized to each prospect. Describe the account angle, and Preso designs the deck—no designer required.
• Agencies and consultants: On-brand deliverables at scale. Each client gets their own brand kit, and Preso switches between them in a click. A single prompt can produce a strategy deck, a report, and a proposal for three different clients, each in their own livery.
• E-commerce and retail: Wholesale line sheets, buyer pitches, brand decks that need frequent updates. Describe the deck once, and Preso rebuilds it when the catalog changes.

Across all these, the common thread is speed without sacrificing brand integrity. MCP with Preso is not about automating the ugly; it is about automating the repetitive parts of good design so you can focus on the story.

Summary and Next Steps

You just learned how to:

• Set up the Preso MCP server and connect it to Claude Desktop.
• Generate a full, editable, on-brand presentation from a plain English description.
• Refine the deck with follow-up prompts and edit it in a powerful presentation editor.
• Add voice-over narration to turn the deck into a self-running walkthrough.
• Share securely or export to PowerPoint, Google Slides, and PDF.
• Apply the workflow across your team and to scale with the API.

This is a leap forward from the old stack of hand-building slides in PowerPoint, wrangling templates in Canva, or generating static images in generic AI tools. With Claude and Preso, a deck becomes a function call, and the output is a real file you can open, edit, and present today.

Your next move: Book a 30-minute demo with the Preso team. They will walk you through the MCP setup live, show you advanced features like data-connected charts and voice-over, and answer your specific use case questions. Or, if you learn best by doing, sign in to trypreso.com, grab your API key, and follow this guide step by step. The first deck will take you less time than you used to spend aligning a single slide.