Beamer To Ltx Talk

beamer-to-ltx-talk

An [Agent Skill](https://agentskills.io) that converts existing LaTeX **Beamer** slide decks to the **ltx-talk** class, producing tagged, accessible PDF (PDF/UA, PDF/A). Built and tested with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code), but the `SKILL.md` format is an open, cross-tool standard. The [client list](https://agentskills.io/clients) includes Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex, and dozens of others. Point any compliant agent at this repo, or just ask any coding agent with file-read and shell access to follow `SKILL.md`.

The guiding principle is **faithful, minimal, scripted change**: keep body content and slide order identical, rewrite only what the class change forces, and report every compromise made.

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Why ltx-talk?

Beamer is [incompatible with `\DocumentMetadata`](https://github.com/josephwright/beamer/issues/808), the LaTeX kernel's tagging activation hook. ltx-talk is a purpose-built replacement that supports:

• Tagged PDF output (PDF/UA-2, PDF/A-4) via the LaTeX tagging kernel
• Native handout mode without per-deck edits
• Clean \EditInstance-based theming instead of \setbeamer* commands

The trade-off is that ltx-talk is still experimental and has known incompatibilities, most of which only surface under tagging. This skill encodes the fixes discovered converting two real courses: an 11-deck course and a 20-deck course.

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
TeX Live 2026+	Needs LaTeX kernel ≥ 2026-06-01; dev branch needs ≥ 2026-06-01
ltx-talk installed	kpsewhich ltx-talk.cls should return a path
latexmk	For the Makefile targets
Python 3.8+	For scripts/convert_deck.py

Check your setup:

kpsewhich ltx-talk.cls
pdftex --version
tlmgr info ltx-talk | grep -E 'cat-version|installed'

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What the skill does

When you give a compatible agent a Beamer `.tex` file and ask to convert it, the skill:

1. Checks the toolchain and surveys the d