CUE — The HTML Presentation Studio

A local, zero-dependency studio for HTML presentations, the way you would work in Keynote: a library of every deck, inline editing, presenter view, a clean screen-shareable slideshow window, and one-click PDF export. Everything runs on your own machine and every change is saved straight into the deck's .html.

Get it

Trainers / anyone who just wants to use it — download the latest release:

macOS	CUE-macOS.dmg — drag to Applications
Windows	CUE-Windows.zip — unzip, run CUE.bat
Debian / Ubuntu	cue_<version>_amd64.deb — sudo apt install ./cue_*.deb
Other Linux	CUE-linux-x64.tar.gz
Any OS, tiny download	CUE-portable.zip — needs Node.js installed

The installers bundle their own runtime, so nothing else is needed. On first launch CUE asks which folder holds your presentations and remembers it.

Building from source needs Node.js; the macOS app also needs the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

Making decks

Decks are plain HTML. AUTHORING.md is the contract — give it to any AI assistant you ask to build a deck, and check the result with:

node cue-doctor.mjs "path/to/My Deck/My Deck.html"

Every deck is one manageable card; Slideshow opens a chromeless, full-bleed window you can screen-share on its own:

Your decks live wherever you want

The tool is decoupled from your presentations. Point it at any folder of decks via the CUE_ROOT environment variable (browser mode) or File ▸ Open Workshop Folder… (native app). It scans that folder for HTML decks and lists them — just drop a deck's .html (ideally in its own subfolder with its assets) into the folder and refresh.

The library groups decks by their folder, with a section per folder — so you can organise by course, language, or topic. Each card has a Move… action that relocates the deck into any folder under the decks root (type a new name to create one). Moving is safe by design: a deck travels together with its assets only when its folder contains nothing but the deck and web assets; folders holding other materials (documents, videos, other decks) are treated as shared and only the deck's .html moves.

Two kinds of deck are recognised:

• <deck-stage> decks — the fully-featured format: inline editing, thumbnail rail, presenter view, synced slideshow window, and clean PDF export.
• External decks — any other self-contained HTML presentation (its own slide engine, e.g. a one-file deck from another tool). These are listed with an EXTERNAL badge; you can Open them, pop them into their own Window to screen-share, export a best-effort PDF, and Duplicate / Rename / Delete them. Deep editing is deck-stage-only — the deck keeps its own design and controls untouched (the manager only overlays a small, fade-out toolbar).

Start

• Native app — copy native/cue.conf.example to native/cue.conf and set WORKSHOP_DIR (your decks folder) and, optionally, SIGN_IDENTITY (a Developer ID for signing). Then cd native && ./build.sh and open CUE.app. It starts the server, shows the library, and opens the slideshow/presenter as separate macOS windows you can share individually in Zoom/Meet. (Ad-hoc-signed builds may need a right-click ▸ Open the first time.)
• Browser — CUE_ROOT=/path/to/decks node server.mjs, then open http://localhost:4321. Or edit CUE.command and double-click it.

The library (home page)

Every presentation found in this folder appears as a card with a live thumbnail. From there you can Open (edit), Present, Duplicate, Rename, or create a New deck from the starter template. Single-file bundled decks exported from claude.ai show an Import to edit button that extracts them into an editable folder (the original file is untouched).

Editing a deck (open it through the library)

• Thumbnail rail (left): click to jump, drag to reorder. Right-click a thumbnail for Skip / Move / Duplicate / New slide… / Delete.
• New slide… opens a gallery of layout templates (templates/slides/). Add your own .html snippets there — one <section> per file.
• Double-click any text on a slide to edit it in place. Blur or press Esc to finish.
• Click any element to select it — outline + style bar (font size ±, text color, alignment, duplicate, delete; bring-forward/backward for floating objects). Drag to move: floating objects move freely; flow-layout elements get a visual offset so the slide's responsive layout never breaks. Arrow keys nudge (⇧ = bigger steps), ⌫ deletes, ⌘D duplicates, Esc deselects.
• ＋ Text adds a floating text box; ＋ Image adds a picture — or just drag & drop an image file onto the slide (or paste one from the clipboard). Images are copied into the deck's assets/ folder; drag the corner handle to resize.
• Translate… (library card) copies the deck and opens a side-by-side editor: original on the left, editable translation on the right, including slide names and speaker notes. Only text is touched, so both language versions keep identical structure and design. Progress is shown as you go.
• Notes (toolbar or N): edit presenter notes for the current slide. Notes are stored as data-speaker-notes on the slide, so they travel with it when you reorder or duplicate.
• Every change is saved to the HTML file automatically ("Saved ✓" pill, bottom right). The last 20 versions of each deck are kept in a .cue-backups folder next to your decks.

For bigger layout/design changes, edit the deck's HTML directly (or ask Claude Code) — the file is plain HTML, one <section> per slide.

Presenting

Presenter view — click Present (or press P): current slide, next slide, notes, clock, and an elapsed timer that starts on your first advance.

Annotate live — in the slideshow window: L laser pointer, P pen, B black screen (W white), E erase this slide (⇧E all), C cycle ink colour. The presenter window carries the same controls and drives them remotely — move the mouse across its current-slide preview to point, drag to draw. Ink is kept per slide and never touches the deck file.

Play Slideshow — click Slideshow (or press S) to open a clean, full-bleed window with no rail, toolbar, or browser chrome. This is the window you share in Zoom/Meet (share that window specifically). Press F for fullscreen; the cursor auto-hides. It follows the presenter automatically — move to a slide in the presenter view and the shared window mirrors it — and you can also arrow through the slideshow window directly. Sync runs through the server, so it works across separate windows, browsers, and the native app's windows alike.

PDF export

Click PDF on a library card, the ⤓ PDF toolbar button, or the native app's File ▸ Export Current Deck as PDF…. The server renders the deck with headless Chrome/Brave — one 1920×1080 page per slide, fonts intact. If no Chromium-based browser is installed it falls back to the browser's Print → Save as PDF dialog.

Decks remain fully portable: double-clicking the deck's .html file plays it standalone (no server, no editing chrome).

Native app (native/)

CueApp.swift + Info.plist + build.sh build a CUE.app (SwiftUI + WKWebView) with swiftc — no Xcode project. It spawns the Node server (found next to the app), shows the library, and opens Slideshow/Presenter as individual native windows (each shareable on its own in Zoom). File ▸ Open Workshop Folder… re-points it at a different decks folder. Needs Node installed (found automatically in the usual locations). Quitting the app stops the server.

Interface

CUE's chrome is deliberately achromatic. Decks bring their own colour, and a tinted frame distorts them, so the tool stays neutral graphite and colour is spent only on state: focus, saving, danger. Tokens and shared components live in cue.css (all --cue-* prefixed, so the stylesheet is safe to load over a deck). Typefaces are the operating system's own, which means CUE renders correctly with no network at all — the same rule AUTHORING.md sets for decks.

Pieces

File	Role
server.mjs	zero-dependency local server: library, save API, backups, SSE sync bus, PDF export
library.html	the home page
edit-mode.js	editing layer injected into decks served via the manager
presenter.js / presenter.html	presenter view, slideshow window, cross-window sync (SSE)
unbundle.mjs	import claude.ai single-file bundles (also a CLI)
templates/	new-deck starter + slide layout gallery
native/	SwiftUI CUE.app + build.sh
cue.css	shared design tokens and components for every CUE surface
prototypes/	throwaway design explorations, kept for reference