I had been using Marp for creating slides, but I’ve switched to Slidev.

The Trigger

When preparing slides for my talk at Geodesic Developer Lab 2026, I tried Slidev for the first time. Both tools let you write slides in Markdown, but the development experience turned out to be quite different.

What I Liked About Slidev

Compatibility with Claude Code

Slidev has a rich syntax, which might seem daunting to learn, but Claude Code handles the adjustments effortlessly. Just saying “make this section two columns” or “adjust the font size” is enough to get the slides shaped up. The barrier to getting started is low. What a time to be alive.

Theme Customization

It’s easy to create slides based on your company website or service site’s design theme. Slidev lets you freely customize themes with CSS / UnoCSS, so you can quickly match brand colors and fonts.

Embedded Demo Video Playback

When I needed to show demo videos during a presentation, I could embed videos directly in the slides and play them smoothly. No need to switch to an external player, so the flow of the presentation stays uninterrupted.

Presenting on localhost

You can present directly using Slidev’s dev server. Hot reload means last-minute changes are reflected immediately. Speaker notes and timer are also available on the dev server, so there’s no need for separate tools.

Export Formats

Slidev supports various output formats including PDF and PowerPoint. You can export PDF for sharing or distribute PowerPoint for internal use—flexible enough for different purposes.

Bonus Tip: Create Diagrams with AI Alongside Your Slides

A great complement to Slidev was the Excalidraw MCP Server & Agent Skill. With a single prompt, you can have AI draw hand-drawn style diagrams, so the figures for your slides can also be delegated to AI. Claude Code handles the slide text, Excalidraw MCP Server handles the diagrams—with this division of labor, most of the slide creation process was done in collaboration with AI.

Summary

Marp is a solid, simple tool, but Slidev is a step ahead in terms of customizability and developer experience. The combination with Claude Code is especially powerful—it virtually eliminates the cost of learning the syntax.

That’s all for today—slides are now made with AI too. That’s all from the Gemba.