Derive a presentation from an existing deck

Use POST /api/v1/ppt/presentation/derive to create a new presentation from an existing one. Presenton copies every slide, deep-merges the supplied content into the selected indices, exports the new deck, and returns a new presentation ID.

Choose edit or derive

Goal	Endpoint	Result
Update the existing deck	`/presentation/edit`	The original presentation ID is changed
Create a variation	`/presentation/derive`	A new presentation ID is created

Derive is useful for customer-specific decks, localized variants, recurring reports, and any workflow that needs an immutable source presentation. The example below turns a reviewed customer-business-review master into a Northstar Logistics renewal deck.

Inspect the source

Fetch the presentation before preparing a patch:

curl --request GET \
  --url "$PRESENTON_URL/api/v1/ppt/presentation/$PRESENTATION_ID" \
  --user "$PRESENTON_USERNAME:$PRESENTON_PASSWORD"

Use slides[].index as the target and match field names already present in slides[].content. Indices are zero-based. Assume the source deck returns title and subtitle on slide 0, and title and body on slide 4. The example patches only those confirmed fields; use the keys from your own source deck.

Create the derived deck

curl --request POST \
  --url "$PRESENTON_URL/api/v1/ppt/presentation/derive" \
  --user "$PRESENTON_USERNAME:$PRESENTON_PASSWORD" \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data "{
    \"presentation_id\": \"$PRESENTATION_ID\",
    \"slides\": [
      {
        \"index\": 0,
        \"content\": {
          \"title\": \"Northstar Logistics — Q3 Business Review\",
          \"subtitle\": \"Renewal decision and 2027 expansion plan\"
        }
      },
      {
        \"index\": 4,
        \"content\": {
          \"title\": \"Renewal risk and mitigation\",
          \"body\": \"Analytics adoption is limited to two regions. Complete manager enablement by October 15 and review weekly-active-user adoption with the executive sponsor every two weeks.\"
        }
      }
    ],
    \"export_as\": \"pdf\"
  }"

A successful response points to the new presentation:

{
  "presentation_id": "NEW_PRESENTATION_ID",
  "path": "/app_data/exports/Northstar Logistics — Q3 Business Review.pdf",
  "edit_path": "/presentation?id=NEW_PRESENTATION_ID"
}

The source ID remains unchanged. Open the returned edit_path to review the derived deck visually.

Batch variations

Keep a canonical source ID and call derive once per audience or dataset. Store the relationship in your application:

{
  "source_presentation_id": "SOURCE_ID",
  "derived_presentation_id": "NEW_PRESENTATION_ID",
  "variant_key": "northstar-logistics-q3-2026"
}

Do not derive repeatedly from an already customized variant unless that inheritance is intentional. Starting each run from the same canonical deck keeps output predictable.

Production checklist

Confirm the source deck is the expected version.
Validate every target index before sending the request.
Preserve the returned new ID with the source ID and variant metadata.
Review the export for overflow after inserting longer customer-specific text.
Delete obsolete variants according to your retention policy.

Edit in place

Update an existing presentation when a separate copy is not required.

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Derive a presentation from an existing deck

Choose edit or derive

Inspect the source

Create the derived deck

Batch variations

Production checklist

Edit in place

​Choose edit or derive

​Inspect the source

​Create the derived deck

​Batch variations

​Production checklist

Edit in place

Choose edit or derive

Inspect the source

Create the derived deck

Batch variations

Production checklist