Automate Presentations with the Google Slides Skill: Create Decks from Your AI Agent

Ever wish you could generate presentations without leaving your terminal? The Google Slides skill brings the power of Google's presentation API to your Clawdbot agent, letting you create decks, add slides, insert content, and style text—all through simple API calls.

What Problem Does This Solve?

Creating presentations manually is time-consuming. Whether you're preparing weekly reports, client proposals, or educational content, the process usually involves:

• Opening Google Slides
• Creating a new deck
• Adding slides one by one
• Formatting text and inserting images

The Google Slides skill automates all of this. Your AI agent can now generate entire presentations programmatically—perfect for:

• Automated reporting: Generate weekly/monthly report decks from data
• Template-based decks: Fill in placeholders across hundreds of slides
• Content workflows: Turn structured data into visual presentations
• Batch operations: Update multiple presentations at once

Installation

Getting started is straightforward:

npx clawhub@latest install google-slides

Prerequisites

You'll need a Maton API key for OAuth authentication. Here's how to get one:

1. Visit maton.ai and sign in (or create an account)
2. Go to maton.ai/settings
3. Copy your API key

Set the key in your environment:

export MATON_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

Connect Your Google Account

Before making API calls, connect your Google account:

python <<'EOF'
import urllib.request, os, json
data = json.dumps({'app': 'google-slides'}).encode()
req = urllib.request.Request('https://ctrl.maton.ai/connections', data=data, method='POST')
req.add_header('Authorization', f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}') 
req.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/json')
result = json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req))
print(f"Open this URL to authorize: {result['connection']['url']}")
EOF

Click the URL to complete OAuth—this grants the skill access to your Google Slides.

Usage Examples

Example 1: Create a New Presentation

import requests, os

headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.environ["MATON_API_KEY"]}',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

# Create the deck
response = requests.post(
    'https://gateway.maton.ai/google-slides/v1/presentations',
    headers=headers,
    json={'title': 'Q1 Performance Review'}
)
presentation = response.json()
print(f"Created: {presentation['presentationId']}")

Example 2: Add Slides with Different Layouts

presentation_id = "your_presentation_id"

# Add a title slide and a content slide
requests.post(
    f'https://gateway.maton.ai/google-slides/v1/presentations/{presentation_id}:batchUpdate',
    headers=headers,
    json={
        'requests': [
            {'createSlide': {'slideLayoutReference': {'predefinedLayout': 'TITLE'}}},
            {'createSlide': {'slideLayoutReference': {'predefinedLayout': 'TITLE_AND_BODY'}}}
        ]
    }
)

Available layouts include: BLANK, TITLE, TITLE_AND_BODY, TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS, SECTION_HEADER, MAIN_POINT, BIG_NUMBER, and more.

Example 3: Template-Based Generation

The replaceAllText feature is powerful for template workflows:

# Replace placeholders across the entire deck
requests.post(
    f'https://gateway.maton.ai/google-slides/v1/presentations/{presentation_id}:batchUpdate',
    headers=headers,
    json={
        'requests': [
            {'replaceAllText': {'containsText': {'text': '{{company}}'}, 'replaceText': 'Acme Corp'}},
            {'replaceAllText': {'containsText': {'text': '{{date}}'}, 'replaceText': 'February 2026'}},
            {'replaceAllText': {'containsText': {'text': '{{revenue}}'}, 'replaceText': '$1.2M'}}
        ]
    }
)

Create a template once, then fill it programmatically for each client or report period.

Tips & Best Practices

• Object IDs must be unique within a presentation. Use meaningful prefixes like slide_001, shape_header_1 to keep things organized.

• Batch your updates: The batchUpdate endpoint applies all requests atomically. Group related changes together for better performance.

• Sizes use points (PT): 72 points = 1 inch. Keep this in mind when positioning shapes and images.

• Handle multiple Google accounts: If you have several connected accounts, specify which one to use with the Maton-Connection header.

• Error 429 = rate limited: Maton allows 10 requests/second per account. Build in retry logic for bulk operations.

Conclusion

The Google Slides skill transforms your AI agent into a presentation generator. Whether you're automating reports, filling templates, or building content pipelines, this skill handles the heavy lifting while you focus on the content.

Links:

• ClawdHub: Google Slides
• Google Slides API Reference
• Maton API Gateway