Nature Image2PPT

Additional configured journals

For Applied Soft Computing (ASC), Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (EAAI), ISA Transactions, Knowledge-Based Systems (KBS), Measurement, Neurocomputing, or IEEE Transactions on Reliability, use ../nature-shared/journal-formats/index.md to resolve the exact journal. Treat a source journal as metadata: preserve the source’s facts and structure. Load submission constraints only when target formatting or fit is requested. Keep this skill’s original source-processing workflow.

ESWA journal context

Recognize Expert Systems with Applications (ESWA, Expert Syst. Appl.) as the same journal, case-insensitively; distinguish similarly named titles. Preserve the supplied image/slide content and reconstruction intent. Do not restyle source slides to ESWA manuscript rules merely from a journal label. Only if journal fit or submission requirements are requested, read ../nature-shared/journal-formats/eswa.md; otherwise keep this workflow source-oriented without loading submission rules.

Use this directory as the complete runtime. Run deterministic actions only through:

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py <command> ...

Use Python 3.10 or later with requirements.txt installed. When a dedicated environment exists, substitute <image2ppt-root>/.venv/bin/python on macOS/Linux or <image2ppt-root>/.venv/Scripts/python.exe on Windows for every python command below. Do not continue after a failed doctor; install only the reported missing dependency, then rerun it.

Do not discover or invoke another Skill, CLI, Prompt, Schema, module, or state machine.

Read the local contracts progressively

Always read references/workflow.md. Read references/runtime-dependencies.md only for setup or doctor failures, and read references/ocr-text-hints-contract.md only when choosing or troubleshooting OCR.

Before writing a page manifest, read references/page-decision-tree.md and references/manifest-schema.md. Add only the references needed by that page:

• structured or compound page: references/region-decomposition.md and references/object-routing.md;
• arrows: references/manifest-arrow-extension.md;
• raster assets or image-backend work: references/assets-provenance-contract.md.

Before accepting or delivering output, read references/qa-contract.md.

Preserve the single source of truth

• Treat page_jobs.json as the only page-state source.
• Treat each pages/page_NNN/manifest.json as the only page-content source.
• Treat deck_manifest.json as the final-assembly source.
• Use only prepare, run next/dispatch/record/reset/hints/finalize, and the page commands in the local CLI for stateful lifecycle operations.
• Keep semantic-region evidence in manifest.json.image2ppt_region_decomposition.
• Never create a second job file, reconstruction plan, OCR normalizer, page controller, packager, or finalize path.
• Let supplemental QA report failures; never let it mutate lifecycle state.

Keep every write inside its owner directory

• Page build, validation, hints, and QA may read and write only inside that page directory. Manifest paths, recorded assets, formulas, reports, previews, and --out overrides must not use .., symlinks, or absolute paths to escape it. The sole external-input exception is an explicit image-tool result supplied to image import or as process-sheet --asset-sheet-source; it is copied into the page before becoming a build dependency.
• Run-level manifests and final outputs must remain inside the prepared run directory. Finalization rebuilds into a same-directory temporary file and publishes it atomically only after a successful build.
• Treat any boundary rejection as a hard failure; do not copy the rejected file back into scope and present it as runtime output.

Preserve pre-migration behavior

• Treat self-containment as a path/import/entrypoint migration, not a redesign of reconstruction behavior.
• Generate each worker Prompt from the complete local base layer plus the preserved Image2PPT profile layer. Do not condense, reinterpret, or replace either layer.
• Prefer the previously validated visual strategy when several routes satisfy the contracts. Keep simple measured objects native and retain bounded complex assets wherever a native redraw would reduce fidelity.
• Never re-author an accepted baseline page merely to prove runtime independence.

Run the workflow

Image backend selection

Use builtin-imagegen when the agent runtime exposes image_gen.imagegen; it is the preferred backend because the worker can inspect edit inputs and import the explicit local result. Use the CLI image contract only when the built-in tool is unavailable, errors, cannot read an input, or returns no valid local output. A missing optional argument such as model, mask, size, quality, or output path never authorizes fallback. Record the actual producer and permitted fallback reason in imagegen-jobs.json.

The CLI image contract is provider-neutral at the transport boundary. Select codex-oauth only for GPT Image model ids. Select openai-compatible-api for any provider-specific model whose endpoint implements the OpenAI Images-compatible /images/generations and/or /images/edits schema. Do not infer the image backend from the task's language model. Use an explicit backend when provenance matters; auto uses Codex OAuth only for compatible GPT Image ids and otherwise selects the configured API without sending Codex OAuth credentials to third parties.

1. Preflight and OCR choice

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py doctor --json

Use Baidu AI Studio PADDLE_OCR_TOKEN when configured. If it is absent, tell the user once that the local builtin-ink fallback measures text geometry but does not recognize characters; offer the configuration path in references/ocr-text-hints-contract.md. Respect an offline-only choice.

2. Prepare one run

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py prepare <input...> \
  --out-root output/image2ppt --image-backend builtin-imagegen

To pin a configured third-party provider/model for auditable provenance, prepare with --image-backend openai-compatible-api. The run contract records the exact IMAGE2PPT_IMAGE_MODEL from the active project config or environment; it does not substitute a GPT Image default merely because no --model flag was passed.

Use --no-text-hints only when OCR processing is intentionally disabled. Regenerate hints without creating a new run when needed:

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py run hints <run-dir>

3. Advance and claim pages

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py run next <run-dir> --json
python <image2ppt-root>/scripts/build_page_worker_prompt.py \
  <run-dir> --page <page-id> --out <absolute-page-dir>/worker-prompt.md
python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py run dispatch \
  <run-dir> --page <page-id> --agent-id <id> --prompt-file <absolute-prompt>

For exactly one page, claim it with --local and reconstruct it in the current agent. For multiple pages, dispatch independent page workers up to the capacity in page_jobs.json. Do not reset a live worker merely because it is slow.

4. Reconstruct and gate each page

Plan a structured page as 3–5 semantic regions and route each region independently. Use measured compound diagrams: measure every node, relation, and protected anchor. Keep measurable circles, cards, straight/dashed relations, and simple connectors native. Use bounded transparent assets only for complex local subparts.

Represent a thin arrow as one connector with its arrowhead on the same object. Represent a filled arrow as one Arrow AutoShape, with centered label text inside the same object. Never construct an ordinary arrow from a line plus triangle and never flatten a whole knowledge graph into one image.

Write new page manifests with schema_version: 2. Use structured visual_inventory items with explicit kind and representation values, and write a concrete quality_evidence observation for every required quality check. Formula rendering is a hard gate: a missing engine, converter, or failed compile must keep the page failed unless the user explicitly approves that exact formula exception and the manifest records both user_approved_exception: true and a concrete approval_note.

The worker Prompt performs the deterministic sequence. Its final gates are:

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py page build <page-dir>
python <image2ppt-root>/scripts/run_image2ppt_qa.py <page-dir>
# The first run writes visual-review-evidence.template.json and remains pending.
# Inspect source.png against render/rendered.png, copy and complete the template
# as visual-review-evidence.json, repair if needed, then:
python <image2ppt-root>/scripts/run_image2ppt_qa.py <page-dir> \
  --visual-review-status reviewed \
  --visual-review-evidence <page-dir>/visual-review-evidence.json
python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py page contact-sheet <page-dir>

The evidence file must cover the current source/render hashes and every required check with a specific observation. --visual-review-notes is optional context and cannot substitute for the evidence file.

Record only after standard validation and the Image2PPT region, arrow, and rendered gates pass:

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py run record \
  <run-dir> --page <page-id> --agent-id <id>

Use the same run reset → dispatch → record lifecycle to repair rejected pages.

5. Finalize and revalidate the rebuilt deck

When run next reports finalize, run:

python <image2ppt-root>/cli/image2ppt/cli.py run finalize <run-dir>
python <image2ppt-root>/scripts/run_final_image2ppt_qa.py <run-dir>
# The first run writes final/visual-review-evidence.template.json and remains pending.
# Inspect every rendered slide, complete final/visual-review-evidence.json, then:
python <image2ppt-root>/scripts/run_final_image2ppt_qa.py <run-dir> \
  --visual-review-status reviewed \
  --visual-review-evidence <run-dir>/final/visual-review-evidence.json

Finalize rebuilds from page manifests, preserves source speaker notes, validates the package, and writes the output recorded by deck_manifest.json. Final QA reapplies manifest arrows, verifies arrow atomicity and compound structure, renders every slide, checks speaker-note integrity, and writes final/image2ppt_qa.json.

Deliver

Return the final PPTX path, standard final validation, and final/image2ppt_qa.json. Report which complex visuals remain replaceable bitmap assets. Do not call the deck complete while any page/final gate is pending or failed.