mapre

mapre is presentation software for the browser. You write slides in markdown, and mapre turns them into a single, self-contained HTML file that runs from a web server, from a USB stick, or straight from file:// — no runtime, no plugins, no internet connection. On top of that file you get a presenter view, a slide overview, a timer, and multi-window support.

The focus is presentations. But mapre is layered, so the markdown parser and slide model (@mapre/core) are DOM-free and can be used on their own — for a slide preview in another app, a static site generator, or any tool that needs markdown turned into slides.

The name

markdown + presentation = mapre.

What makes it different

• Channels — one deck, several content variants. A slide can carry an English and a German version, or a short and a long take, side by side in the same file. Each window picks its own channel, so the audience screen can show one language while a second screen shows another. See Channels.
• Very flexible reveals — progressive reveal is not limited to list items. A single @1 line reveals everything below it; a second @1 closes the region again. A region wraps anything: a paragraph, a table row, a phrase in the middle of a sentence, or a few lines inside a fenced code block.
• Detail slides — a slide can branch into a whole sub-deck. Arrow down enters the detail path, arrow up leaves it, and navigation returns to the trunk automatically at the end of a branch. Ideal for material you only show when someone asks. See Detail slides.
• Aspect ratios — the slide box is a fixed-aspect canvas (16:9, 4:3, 1.85:1, …) that letterboxes into any window. Typography scales with the box, so a slide looks the same on a laptop, on a beamer, and in the PDF export.
• Slides across many files and folders — a deck is a folder tree. Chapters become subfolders; files and folders are sorted together alphabetically. Large decks stay reviewable and mergeable.
• Single-file deployment — mapre build inlines markdown, styles, and the browser client into one HTML file. Alongside it you get one print-ready HTML per channel, and with --pdf the PDFs as well.
• Presenter view with real multi-window support — open as many audience windows as you have displays, each on its own channel and zoom level. All windows stay in sync and reconnect after a reload.
• Spotlight — dim the slide and highlight the area under the pointer, mirrored on every connected window.
• Invisible directives — slide metadata uses the CommonMark link-reference form [key: value]: #, so the source still renders cleanly in any markdown preview.

A slide

---
title: My Talk
theme: dark
---

# Hello

- always visible

@1
- appears on the first step
@1

???
Speaker notes, visible only in the presenter view.

Build it:

mapre init my-talk
cd my-talk
mapre dev            # preview on http://127.0.0.1:4321
mapre build          # write dist/presentation.html

Documentation

• Getting started — install, scaffold, author, preview, build, and hand over a deck.
• Reference — every CLI command and flag, every front matter key and slide directive, keyboard shortcuts, URL hashes, and the programmatic API.
• Channels — several content variants in one deck.
• Detail slides — branching a slide into a sub-deck.
• Theming — built-in themes, design tokens, author stylesheets, and slide templates.

Examples

Example	Shows
examples/basic-presentation	a deck with fragments, columns, and speaker notes
examples/single-file	building a self-contained HTML file with @mapre/runtime
examples/custom-theme	overriding design tokens from an author stylesheet
examples/multi-level	detail paths and the tree overview

Packages

This is a pnpm workspace monorepo.

Package	Purpose
@mapre/core	markdown parser, slide model, and HTML rendering — no DOM, no framework, usable standalone
@mapre/node	filesystem loader that assembles a deck from a slides folder
@mapre/runtime	browser runtime (navigation, presenter view, window sync) plus the single-file and print builders
@mapre/cli	the mapre command: init, dev, build

The design goals behind that split: keep parsing and presentation separable, keep the markdown layer reusable outside the app, and favour explicit module boundaries over one monolith.

Contributing

Requires Node 20+ and pnpm. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development setup and pull request guidelines.

License

MIT

mapre bundles marked and Prism into its build artifacts. Their licenses are reproduced in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md and travel with every generated presentation.