Google Slides (gws slides)

gws slides provides CLI access to Google Slides with structured JSON output.

Disclaimer: gws is not the official Google CLI. This is an independent, open-source project not endorsed by or affiliated with Google.

Dependency Check

Before executing any gws command, verify the CLI is installed:

gws version

If not found, install: go install github.com/omriariav/workspace-cli/cmd/gws@latest

Authentication

Requires OAuth2 credentials. Run gws auth status to check. If not authenticated: gws auth login (opens browser for OAuth consent). For initial setup, see the gws-auth skill.

Quick Command Reference

Detailed Usage

info — Get presentation info

gws slides info <presentation-id>

list — List all slides

gws slides list <presentation-id>

Lists all slides with their content and object IDs.

read — Read slide content

gws slides read <presentation-id> [slide-number]

Reads text content. Omit slide number to read all slides. Slide numbers are 1-indexed.

create — Create a presentation

gws slides create --title <title>

add-slide — Add a slide

gws slides add-slide <presentation-id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--title string — Slide title
• •--body string — Slide body text
• •--layout string — Layout type (default: "TITLE_AND_BODY")

Available layouts: TITLE_AND_BODY, TITLE_ONLY, BLANK, SECTION_HEADER, TITLE, ONE_COLUMN_TEXT, MAIN_POINT, BIG_NUMBER

delete-slide — Delete a slide

gws slides delete-slide <presentation-id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--slide-number int — Slide number (1-indexed)
• •--slide-id string — Slide object ID (alternative)

duplicate-slide — Duplicate a slide

gws slides duplicate-slide <presentation-id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--slide-number int — Slide number (1-indexed)
• •--slide-id string — Slide object ID (alternative)

add-shape — Add a shape

gws slides add-shape <presentation-id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--slide-number int — Slide number (1-indexed)
• •--slide-id string — Slide object ID
• •--type string — Shape type (default: "RECTANGLE")
• •--x float — X position in points (default: 100)
• •--y float — Y position in points (default: 100)
• •--width float — Width in points (default: 200)
• •--height float — Height in points (default: 100)

Shape types: RECTANGLE, ELLIPSE, TEXT_BOX, ROUND_RECTANGLE, TRIANGLE, ARROW, etc.

add-image — Add an image

gws slides add-image <presentation-id> --url <image-url> [flags]

Flags:

• •--url string — Image URL (required, must be publicly accessible)
• •--slide-number int — Slide number (1-indexed)
• •--slide-id string — Slide object ID
• •--x float — X position in points (default: 100)
• •--y float — Y position in points (default: 100)
• •--width float — Width in points (default: 400; height auto-calculated)

add-text — Add text to shape or table cell

# For shapes/text boxes:
gws slides add-text <presentation-id> --object-id <id> --text <text> [flags]

# For table cells:
gws slides add-text <presentation-id> --table-id <id> --row <n> --col <n> --text <text> [flags]

Flags:

• •--object-id string — Shape/text box ID (mutually exclusive with --table-id)
• •--table-id string — Table object ID (requires --row and --col)
• •--row int — Row index, 0-based (required with --table-id)
• •--col int — Column index, 0-based (required with --table-id)
• •--text string — Text to insert (required)
• •--at int — Position to insert at (0 = beginning)

Get object IDs from gws slides list <id> output. For tables, find elements with "type": "TABLE" and use their objectId as the --table-id value.

replace-text — Find and replace text

gws slides replace-text <presentation-id> --find <text> --replace <text> [flags]

Flags:

• •--find string — Text to find (required)
• •--replace string — Replacement text (required)
• •--match-case — Case-sensitive matching (default: true)

Replaces across ALL slides in the presentation.

delete-object — Delete any page element

gws slides delete-object <presentation-id> --object-id <id>

Deletes shapes, images, tables, or any page element by object ID.

delete-text — Clear text from shape

gws slides delete-text <presentation-id> --object-id <id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--object-id string — Shape containing text (required)
• •--from int — Start index (default: 0)
• •--to int — End index (if omitted, deletes to end)

update-text-style — Style text formatting

gws slides update-text-style <presentation-id> --object-id <id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--object-id string — Shape containing text (required)
• •--from int / --to int — Text range (optional)
• •--bold / --italic / --underline — Boolean styles
• •--font-size float — Size in points
• •--font-family string — Font name
• •--color string — Hex color #RRGGBB

update-transform — Move, scale, or rotate elements

gws slides update-transform <presentation-id> --object-id <id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--object-id string — Element to transform (required)
• •--x / --y float — Position in points
• •--scale-x / --scale-y float — Scale factors
• •--rotate float — Rotation in degrees

create-table — Add a table

gws slides create-table <presentation-id> --rows <n> --cols <n> [flags]

Flags:

• •--slide-number int or --slide-id string — Target slide
• •--rows int — Number of rows (required)
• •--cols int — Number of columns (required)
• •--x / --y / --width / --height float — Position and size

insert-table-rows — Insert rows into table

gws slides insert-table-rows <presentation-id> --table-id <id> --at <row> [flags]

Flags:

• •--table-id string — Table object ID (required)
• •--at int — Row index to insert at (required)
• •--count int — Number of rows (default: 1)
• •--below — Insert below the index (default: true)

delete-table-row — Remove row from table

gws slides delete-table-row <presentation-id> --table-id <id> --row <index>

update-table-cell — Style table cell

gws slides update-table-cell <presentation-id> --table-id <id> --row <r> --col <c> [flags]

Flags:

• •--table-id string — Table object ID (required)
• •--row int / --col int — Cell location (required)
• •--background-color string — Hex color #RRGGBB

update-table-border — Style table borders

gws slides update-table-border <presentation-id> --table-id <id> --row <r> --col <c> [flags]

Flags:

• •--table-id string — Table object ID (required)
• •--row int / --col int — Cell location (required)
• •--border string — top, bottom, left, right, or all
• •--color string — Hex color #RRGGBB
• •--width float — Border width in points
• •--style string — solid, dashed, or dotted

update-paragraph-style — Paragraph formatting

gws slides update-paragraph-style <presentation-id> --object-id <id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--object-id string — Shape containing text (required)
• •--from int / --to int — Text range (optional)
• •--alignment string — START, CENTER, END, JUSTIFIED
• •--line-spacing float — Line spacing percentage (100 = single)
• •--space-above / --space-below float — Paragraph spacing in points

update-shape — Shape properties

gws slides update-shape <presentation-id> --object-id <id> [flags]

Flags:

• •--object-id string — Shape to update (required)
• •--background-color string — Fill color #RRGGBB
• •--outline-color string — Outline color #RRGGBB
• •--outline-width float — Outline width in points

reorder-slides — Change slide order

gws slides reorder-slides <presentation-id> --slide-ids <ids> --to <position>

Flags:

• •--slide-ids string — Comma-separated slide IDs to move (required)
• •--to int — Target position, 0-indexed (required)

Output Modes

gws slides list <id> --format json    # Structured JSON (default)
gws slides list <id> --format text    # Human-readable text

Tips for AI Agents

General

• •Always use --format json (the default) for programmatic parsing
• •Use gws slides list <id> to get slide object IDs and element object IDs before using update commands
• •Slide numbers are 1-indexed (first slide is 1, not 0)
• •Positions and sizes are in points (PT): standard slide is 720x405 points
• •Presentation IDs can be extracted from URLs: docs.google.com/presentation/d/<ID>/edit
• •For comments on a presentation, use gws drive comments <presentation-id>
• •Use --quiet on update operations to suppress JSON output in scripts

Styling

• •Colors are always hex format with # prefix: --background-color "#005843", --color "#FFFFFF"
• •To style text: first add-text, then update-text-style for font/color, then update-paragraph-style for alignment
• •update-shape sets fill and outline colors on shapes, not text
• •update-text-style sets font properties (bold, italic, size, color) on text within shapes

Gotchas & Workarounds

• •add-slide --layout may fail on presentations with custom slide masters; use duplicate-slide + modify as workaround
• •replace-text operates across ALL slides in the presentation — cannot target specific slides
• •Image URLs must be publicly accessible — Google Slides fetches them server-side
• •add-text inserts into shapes/text boxes or table cells; use add-shape --type TEXT_BOX to create a text container first
• •When creating a styled slide from scratch, work in this order: (1) add shape, (2) style shape with update-shape, (3) add text, (4) style text with update-text-style, (5) align with update-paragraph-style

Common Workflows

Create a Colored Title Slide

# 1. Add a full-slide rectangle as background
gws slides add-shape "<PRES_ID>" --slide-number 1 --type RECTANGLE \
  --x 0 --y 0 --width 720 --height 405

# 2. Get the shape ID from the output, then set fill color
gws slides update-shape "<PRES_ID>" --object-id "<SHAPE_ID>" \
  --background-color "#005843"

# 3. Add title text to the shape
gws slides add-text "<PRES_ID>" --object-id "<SHAPE_ID>" \
  --text "Thank You"

# 4. Style text: white, large, bold
gws slides update-text-style "<PRES_ID>" --object-id "<SHAPE_ID>" \
  --color "#FFFFFF" --font-size 48 --bold

# 5. Center the text
gws slides update-paragraph-style "<PRES_ID>" --object-id "<SHAPE_ID>" \
  --alignment CENTER

Populate a Table with Data

# 1. List slide to find table ID
gws slides list "<PRES_ID>" | jq '.slides[0].elements[] | select(.type=="TABLE")'

# 2. Add text to cells (0-indexed rows and columns)
gws slides add-text "<PRES_ID>" --table-id "<TABLE_ID>" --row 0 --col 0 --text "Header 1"
gws slides add-text "<PRES_ID>" --table-id "<TABLE_ID>" --row 0 --col 1 --text "Header 2"
gws slides add-text "<PRES_ID>" --table-id "<TABLE_ID>" --row 1 --col 0 --text "Data A"
gws slides add-text "<PRES_ID>" --table-id "<TABLE_ID>" --row 1 --col 1 --text "Data B"

# 3. Style header row with background color
gws slides update-table-cell "<PRES_ID>" --table-id "<TABLE_ID>" \
  --row 0 --col 0 --background-color "#005843"
gws slides update-table-cell "<PRES_ID>" --table-id "<TABLE_ID>" \
  --row 0 --col 1 --background-color "#005843"

Template Variable Replacement

# Replace placeholders across all slides
gws slides replace-text "<PRES_ID>" --find "{{COMPANY_NAME}}" --replace "Acme Corp"
gws slides replace-text "<PRES_ID>" --find "{{DATE}}" --replace "February 2026"
gws slides replace-text "<PRES_ID>" --find "{{PRESENTER}}" --replace "Jane Smith"

Move Slide to End

# Get slide ID from list (use .id field)
SLIDE_ID=$(gws slides list "<PRES_ID>" | jq -r '.slides[2].id')

# Move to high position (API adjusts to valid range)
gws slides reorder-slides "<PRES_ID>" --slide-ids "$SLIDE_ID" --to 99

Learnings

See LEARNINGS.md for session-specific learnings and gotchas discovered during real usage.

Note: LEARNINGS.md is a template. Keep sensitive/proprietary learnings local - don't commit them to the repo.