PowerPoint Automation with pptcli

Preconditions

• Windows host with Microsoft PowerPoint installed (2016+)
• Uses COM interop — does NOT work on macOS or Linux
• Requires pptcli.exe on PATH (dotnet tool install --global Sbroenne.PowerPointMcp.CLI)

How pptcli Works — a Background Daemon, Not a Cold Start Per Command

Launching PowerPoint and tearing it down again can take 90-150 seconds. To avoid paying that cost on every single CLI invocation, pptcli keeps one PowerPoint instance alive in a small background daemon (pptcli service run), auto-started the first time you open or create a session, and reused by every subsequent command that references the same session id — even though each command is a separate OS process.

Workflow Checklist