Introduction

Kadal Deck has your back for the whole talk: build it, rehearse it, present it and own the room. A talk is one deck.mdx file: Markdown with components in it, split into slides at ---, written by you, by the builder’s AI assistant or by your own agent. The engine turns it into a web app with a presenter view, a teleprompter, a phone remote, an audience page your listeners open on their phones, and a live room that keeps everyone in step.

To see what a deck can do before installing anything, take the tour: a deck that shows every feature, built with Kadal Deck. Press ? there for the keys.

The journey

Each stage of a talk, and the pages that cover it.

Stage	What you do	Read
Build it	Start from an idea: the builder’s ✦ Assistant drafts and revises the deck on your own AI key, or your own agent builds it over MCP. Or write it yourself, in your editor or the browser, with themes, the Pro library and media.	AI agents and MCP · Build a deck with an AI agent · Write a deck in the browser · MDX slides · Themes · Pro backgrounds and layouts
Rehearse it	Practise out loud: the deck reads your notes and turns its pages, the timer keeps a plan for every slide, the teleprompter shows your notes big, and glossary cards explain your terms.	Narration · The timer · The teleprompter · Glossary term cards · Editing notes
Present it	Walk on with your notes, timer and next slide in front of you, your phone as the remote, and the ✦ Copilot to drive the deck when you ask.	Presenter view and keys · Phone remote · Present from your phone · Copilot · Export
Own the room	The audience joins from their phones: polls, quizzes, word clouds, Q&A with upvotes, reactions and a pace check. Afterwards, the analytics show how it went.	The live room · Give a talk with a live audience · Analytics · Self-hosting the room

Start here

Install Node 20.19+, one command, and what each file is for.

Your first deck in 5 minutes Write a slide, present it with notes, publish it to a link.

Give a talk with a live audience Polls, a quiz, questions and reactions from the audience's phones.

Build a deck with an AI agent Claude, Cursor or VS Code write the slides and look at them.

The pieces

Piece	What it is	Cost
`@kadal/deck`	The engine and the `kadal-deck` command: compiler, Vite plugin, runtime, components, the three built-in themes, backgrounds, presenter, audience and remote pages, export	Free, AGPL-3.0
`@kadal/create-deck`	Starts a new deck: `npm create @kadal/deck@latest my-talkpnpm create @kadal/deck my-talkyarn create @kadal/deck my-talkbun create @kadal/deck my-talk`	Free
`@kadal/theme-*`	Thirteen theme packages; with the built-ins, 16 themes in all. See the gallery	Free
`@kadal/deck-vue`, `-svelte`, `-solid`, `-preact`, `-qwik`, `-angular`, `-fresh`, `-wasm`, `-python`	Islands: a component from another framework on a slide	Free, AGPL-3.0
VS Code extension, `@kadal/prettier-plugin`	A preview, outline, completions and checks in your editor; formatting	Free
`kadal-deck mcp` and the Agent Skill	Lets an AI agent write, check, look at and publish decks	Free
deck.kadal.cc	Publishing, the live room, the builder, analytics, workspaces	Free to $16/mo

Everything a single machine can do is free and stays free: writing, presenting, the presenter view and phone remote, export to PDF, PNG and PPTX, a static build for any host, and running your own live room. The hosted service is what you pay for when you want a link to send, a room for hundreds of phones, and the numbers afterwards.

Find your way

Writing a talk? MDX slides, layouts, clicks and animation, code, and every component in the component reference.
Choosing a look? The theme gallery shows every theme in light and dark; Pick and customise a theme does the rest.
Rehearsing? Narration, the timer and the teleprompter.
Presenting soon? The presenter view and keys, the phone remote and the live room.
Sharing it? Publish to deck.kadal.cc, build for any host or export to PDF, PNG and PPTX.
Moving an existing deck? Migrate a Slidev deck or come from reveal.js: either converts in one command.
Scripting it? The CLI reference and configuration.

Getting help

Questions about the product, your account or billing: support@kadal.cc. Bugs and feature requests for the engine: GitHub issues. Something not loading? The status page shows whether the service is up, and can email you when it isn’t.