@marp-team/marp-cli

A CLI interface, for Marp (using @marp-team/marp-core) and any slide deck converter based on Marpit framework.

It can convert Marp / Marpit Markdown files into static HTML / CSS, PDF, PowerPoint document, and image(s) easily.

Try it now!

npx

npx (npm exec) is the best way to use the latest Marp CLI if you wantedone-shot Markdown conversion without install. Just run below if you haveinstalled Node.js 12 and later.

# Convert slide deck into HTML
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest slide-deck.md
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest slide-deck.md -o output.html

# Convert slide deck into PDF
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest slide-deck.md --pdf
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest slide-deck.md -o output.pdf

# Convert slide deck into PowerPoint document (PPTX)
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest slide-deck.md --pptx
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest slide-deck.md -o output.pptx

# Watch mode
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest -w slide-deck.md

# Server mode (Pass directory to serve)
npx @marp-team/marp-cli@latest -s ./slides

ℹ️ You have to install Google Chrome, Chromium, or Microsoft Edge to convert slide deck into PDF, PPTX, and image(s).

Docker

Don't you like installing Node.js and Chrome to local? We have an official Docker image marpteam/marp-cli ready to use CLI.

Please refer how to use at Docker Hub.

Install

Use package manager

You can use the package manager to install/update Marp CLI easily.

• macOS
  • Homebrew: brew install marp-cli (Refer to the formula...)

• Windows
  • Scoop: scoop install marp (Refer to the manifest in Main bucket...)

Disclaimer: Package manifests are maintained by the community, not Marp team.

Local installation

We recommend to install Marp CLI into your Node project. You may control the CLI (and engine) version exactly.

npm install --save-dev @marp-team/marp-cli

Node.js 12 and later is required to install Marp CLI. The installed marp command is available in npm-scripts or npx marp.

Global installation

You can install with -g option if you want to use marp command globally.

npm install -g @marp-team/marp-cli

Standalone binary

We also provide standalone binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

⏩ Download the latest standalone binary from release page.

Basic usage

Convert to HTML

The passed markdown will be converted to HTML file by default. In the below example, a converted slide-deck.html will output to the same directory.

marp slide-deck.md

You can change the output path by --output (-o) option.

marp slide-deck.md -o output.html

Marp CLI supports converting multiple files by passing multiple paths, directories, and glob patterns. In this case, --output option cannot use.

When you want to output the converted result to another directory with keeping the origin directory structure, you can use --input-dir (-I) option. --output option would be available for specify the output directory.

Convert to PDF (--pdf)

If you passed --pdf option or the output filename specified by --output (-o) option ends with .pdf, Marp CLI will try to convert into PDF file by using Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, or a Chromium based browser.

marp --pdf slide-deck.md
marp slide-deck.md -o converted.pdf

ℹ️ All kind of conversions except HTML require Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, or a Chromium based browser. When an unexpected problem has occurred while converting, please update your browser to the latest version or try installing Google Chrome Canary.

If you want to use a browser other than Google Chrome, Chromium, or Microsoft Edge, specify the path to a Chromium based browser using the CHROME_PATH environment variable. For example: CHROME_PATH=$(which brave) marp --pdf slide-deck.md

If your slide deck had included Marpit presenter notes as HTML comment, you can add note annotations to the lower left by using --pdf-notes option together with --pdf.

Convert to PowerPoint document (--pptx)

Do you want more familiar way to present and share your deck? PPTX conversion to create PowerPoint document is available by passing --pptx option or specify the output path with PPTX extension.

marp --pptx slide-deck.md
marp slide-deck.md -o converted.pptx

A created PPTX includes rendered Marp slide pages and the support of Marpit presenter notes. It can open with PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, LibreOffice Impress, and so on...

ℹ️ A converted PPTX consists of pre-rendered images. Please note that contents would not be able to modify or re-use in PowerPoint.

Convert to PNG/JPEG image(s)

Multiple images (--images)

You can convert the slide deck into multiple images when specified --images [png|jpeg] option.

# Convert into multiple PNG image files
marp --images png slide-deck.md

# Convert into multiple JPEG image files
marp --images jpeg slide-deck.md

Output files have a suffix of page number, like slide-deck.001.png, slide-deck.002.png, and so on.

Title slide (--image)

When you passed --image option or specified the output path with PNG/JPEG extension, Marp CLI will convert only the first page (title slide) of the targeted slide deck into an image.

# Convert the title slide into an image
marp --image png slide-deck.md
marp slide-deck.md -o output.png

It would be useful for creating Open Graph image that can specify with image global directive and --og-image option.

Scale factor

You can set the scale factor for rendered image(s) through --image-scale option. It is useful for making high-resolution image from the slide.

# Generate high-resolution image of the title slide
marp slide-deck.md -o title-slide@2x.png --image-scale 2

ℹ️ --image-scale is not affect to the actual size of presentation.

It is also available for PPTX conversion. By default, Marp CLI will use 2 as the default scale factor in PPTX to suppress deterioration of slide rendering in full-screen presentation.

Security about local files

Because of the security reason, PDF, PPTX and image(s) conversion cannot use local files by default.

Marp CLI would output incompleted result with warning if the blocked local file accessing is detected. We recommend uploading your assets to online.

If you really need to use local files in these conversion, --alow-local-files option helps to find your local files. Please use only to the trusted Markdown because there is a potential security risk.

marp --pdf --allow-local-files slide-deck.md

Conversion modes

Watch mode (--watch / -w)

Marp CLI will observe a change of Markdown and using theme CSS when passed with --watch (-w) option. The conversion will be triggered whenever the content of file is updated.

While you are opening the converted HTML in browser, it would refresh the opened page automatically.

Server mode (--server / -s)

Server mode supports on-demand conversion by HTTP request. We require to pass --server (-s) option and a directory to serve.

In this mode, the converted file outputs as the result of accessing to server, and not to disk. You can set the server port by setting the environment variable PORT, for example PORT=5000 marp -s ./slides would listen on port number 5000.

You would get the converted PDF, PPTX, PNG, and JPEG by adding corresponded query string when requesting. e.g. http://localhost:8080/deck-a.md?pdf returns converted PDF.

index.md / PITCHME.md

Marp CLI server will provide the list of served files by default, but you can place the default Markdown deck like a common web server's index.html.

Place Markdown named index.md or PITCHME.md (GitPitch style) to served directory. It would be redirected just accessing to http://localhost:8080/.

Preview window (--preview / -p)

When conversions were executed together with --preview (-p) option, Marp CLI will open preview window(s) to check the converted result immediately.

Unlike opening with browser, you may present deck with the immersive window.Watch mode is automatically enabled while using preview window.

ℹ️ --preview option cannot use when you are using Marp CLI through official docker image.

Template

You can choose a built-in HTML templates by --template option. Default template is bespoke.

marp --template bespoke slide-deck.md

bespoke template (default)

The bespoke template is using Bespoke.js as the name implies. It has several features to be useful in a real presentation. A few features may control by CLI options.

Features

• Navigation: Navigate the deck through keyboard and swipe geasture.
• Fullscreen: Toggle fullscreen by hitting f / F11 key.
• On-screen controller: There is a touch-friendly OSC. You may also disable by --bespoke.osc=false if unneccesary.
• Fragmented list: Recognize Marpit's fragmented list and appear list one-by-one if used * and 1) as the bullet marker.
• Presenter view: Open presenter view in external window by hitting p key.
• Progress bar (optional): By setting --bespoke.progress option, you can add a progress bar on the top of the deck.
• Slide transitions (EXPERIMENTAL): You may turn on slide transitions support powered by Shared Element Transitions API proposal by --bespoke.transition option. Refer to marp-team/marp-cli#382 for details.

ℹ️ Presenter view may be disabled if the browser restricted using localStorage (e.g. Open HTML in the old Safari with private browsing, or open the local HTML file with Chrome that has blocked 3rd party cookies in chrome://settings/content/cookies).

bare template

The bare template is a primitive template, and there is no extra features. It only has minimum assets to give your presentation with browser.

Zero-JS slide deck

When the conversion engine is changed to Marpit framework by setting engine option, it would not use any scripts. Even then, it has enough to use for the browser-based presentation.

marp --template bare --engine @marp-team/marpit slide-deck.md

Metadata

Through global directives or CLI options, you can set metadata for a converted HTML, PDF, and PPTX slide deck.

*: If could not parse a specified value as valid, the URL will be ignored.

By global directives

Marp CLI supports additional global directives to specify metadata in Markdown. You can define meta values in Markdown front-matter.

---
title: Marp slide deck
description: An example slide deck created by Marp CLI
author: Yuki Hattori
keywords: marp,marp-cli,slide
url: https://marp.app/
image: https://marp.app/og-image.jpg
---

# Marp slide deck

By CLI option

Marp CLI prefers CLI option to global directives. You can override metadata values by --title, --description, --author, --keywords, --url, and --og-image.

Theme

Override theme

You can override theme you want to use by --theme option. For example to use Gaia built-in theme in Marp Core:

marp --theme gaia

Use custom theme

A custom theme created by user also can use easily by passing the path of CSS file.

marp --theme custom-theme.css

ℹ️ Normally Marpit theme CSS requires @theme meta comment, but it's not required in this usage.

Theme set

--theme-set option has to specify theme set composed by multiple theme CSS files. The registed themes are usable in Marpit's theme directive.

# Multiple theme CSS files
marp --theme-set theme-a.css theme-b.css theme-c.css -- deck-a.md deck-b.md

# Theme directory
marp --theme-set ./themes -- deck.md

Engine

Marp CLI is calling the Marpit framework based converter as "Engine". Normally we use the bundled marp-core, but you may swap the conversion engine to another Marpit based engine through --engine option.

Use Marpit framework

For example, it can convert Markdown by using the pure Marpit framework.

# Install Marpit framework
npm i @marp-team/marpit

# Specify engine to use Marpit
marp --engine @marp-team/marpit marpit-deck.md

Notice that Marpit has not provided theme. It would be good to include inline style in Markdown, or pass CSS file by --theme option.

Functional engine

When you specified the path to JavaScript file in --engine option, you may use more customized engine by a JavaScript function.

Spec

The functional engine should export a function with one parameter, which is a constructor option of Marpit. The function must return an instance of Marpit-based engine made by the passed parameter.

module.exports = function (constructorOption) {
  return new MarpitBasedEngine(constructorOption)
}

Marp CLI also exposes marp getter property to the parameter. It returns a prepared instance of the built-in Marp Core engine, so you can apply several customizations to Marp engine with simple declarations.

module.exports = ({ marp }) => marp.use(marpPlugin).use(andMorePlugin)

It allows converting Markdown with additional syntaxes that were provided by Marp (or compatible markdown-it) plugins.

Example: markdown-it-mark

// engine.js
const markdownItMark = require('markdown-it-mark')

module.exports = ({ marp }) => marp.use(markdownItMark)

# Install markdown-it-mark
npm install markdown-it-mark --save

# Specify the path to functional engine
marp --engine ./engine.js slide-deck.md

The customized engine will convert ==marked== to <mark>marked</mark>.

Confirm engine version

By using --version (-v) option, you may confirm the version of engine that is expected to use in current configuration.

$ marp --version
@marp-team/marp-cli v0.x.x (w/ bundled @marp-team/marp-core v0.x.x)

Marp CLI prefers to use an installed core by user than the bundled. If the current project has installed @marp-team/marp-core individually, it would show its version and the annotation: w/ user-installed @marp-team/marp-core vX.X.X or w/ customized engine.

Configuration file

Marp CLI can be configured options with file, such as marp.config.js, marp.config.cjs, .marprc (JSON / YAML), and marp section of package.json. It is useful to configure settings for the whole of project.

// package.json
{
  "marp": {
    "inputDir": "./slides",
    "output":" ./public",
    "themeSet": "./themes"
  }
}

# .marprc.yml
allowLocalFiles: true
options:
  looseYAML: false
  markdown:
    breaks: false
pdf: true

// marp.config.js
const markdownItContainer = require('markdown-it-container')

module.exports = {
  // Customize engine on configuration file directly
  engine: ({ marp }) => marp.use(markdownItContainer, 'custom'),
}

By default we use configuration file that is placed on current directory, but you may also specify the path for a configuration file by --config-file (--config / -c) option.

If you want to prevent looking up a configuration file, you can pass --no-config-file (--no-config) option.

Options

Advanced

The advanced options that cannot specify through CLI options can be configured by file.

Base options for engine constructor

options can set the base options for the constructor of the used engine. You can fine-tune constructor options for Marp Core / Marpit.

Example

The below configuration will set constructor option for Marp Core as specified:

• Disables Marp Core's line breaks conversion (\n to <br />) to match for CommonMark, by passing markdown-it's breaks option as false.
• Disable minification for rendered theme CSS to make debug your style easily, by passing minifyCSS as false.

{
  "options": {
    "markdown": {
      "breaks": false
    },
    "minifyCSS": false
  }
}

⚠️ Some options may be overridden by used template.

API (EXPERIMENTAL)

You can use Marp CLI through Node.js if installed Marp CLI into your local project.

const { marpCli } = require('@marp-team/marp-cli')

marpCli(['test.md', '--pdf'])
  .then((exitStatus) => {
    if (exitStatus > 0) {
      console.error(`Failure (Exit status: ${exitStatus})`)
    } else {
      console.log('Success')
    }
  })
  .catch(console.error)

marpCli() accepts an argument of CLI options as array, and returns Promise to resolve an expected exit status in CLI. It would be rejected with the instance of Error if CLI met an error to suspend the conversion process.

Error handling

We have exported CLIError class and CLIErrorCode enum from @marp-team/marp-cli, to allow handling for specific errors that have already known by Marp CLI.

If CLIError instance was thrown, you can identify the reason why CLI throwed error by checking errorCode member.

Wait for observation

marpCli() would not be resolved initiatively if started some observation: Watch mode, server mode, and preview window.

waitForObservation() is helpful to handle them. It returns Promise that would be resolved with helper object when ready to observe resources in marpCli().

const { marpCli, waitForObservation } = require('@marp-team/marp-cli')

marpCli(['--server', './slides/'])
  .then((exitCode) => console.log(`Done with exit code ${exitCode}`))
  .catch(console.error)

waitForObservation().then(({ stop }) => {
  console.log('Observed')

  // Stop observations to resolve marpCli()'s Promise
  stop()
})

The resolved helper has stop() method for telling Marp CLI to stop observation and resolve Promise.

Contributing

Are you interested in contributing? Please see CONTRIBUTING.md and the common contributing guideline for Marp team.

Author

Managed by @marp-team.

• Yuki Hattori (@yhatt)

License

This tool releases under the MIT License.