pointless.

Presentations, minus the Power.

Pointless is a self-hosted presentation tool you talk to instead of click at. Deploy it once, connect any LLM tool (Claude, or anything that speaks MCP) to its endpoint, and ask for a presentation in plain language. What you get back is not a slide template — it's a bespoke interactive HTML experience (its own typography, motion, and navigation), published at a share link anyone in your org can open.

You: "Turn these Q3 numbers into a dark, editorial presentation —
      full-screen sections, keyboard nav, end on the hiring ask."
LLM: …calls create_presentation / set_html / publish…
LLM: "Here you go: https://pointless.yourcompany.com/d/YzRu45qV…"

See examples/uk-quiz.html for the kind of thing a presentation can be — a daily standup quiz with timers, reveal states, and keyboard navigation, generated in one conversation.

How it works

• One server, one Docker image. Express + SQLite + a built-in web UI.
• A presentation is one complete, self-contained HTML document — CSS and JS inline, scripts allowed. The MCP get_design_guide tool gives the LLM the authoring contract: self-containment, viewport rules, house light/dark palettes, interaction patterns, and the craft bar.
• Sandboxed by construction. Documents are only ever served with a CSP sandbox and embedded via <iframe sandbox>, so they run in an opaque origin: no cookies, no API access, no reach into the app or other presentations.
• MCP endpoint at /mcp (Streamable HTTP). Tools: get_design_guide, create_presentation, set_html, get_presentation, list_presentations, publish.
• Share links are unguessable 128-bit tokens (/d/<token>). Re-publishing after edits keeps the same link. Optionally password-protect a presentation (publish takes a password, scrypt-hashed at rest); viewers are prompted before it opens.
• Web UI: a landing page that onboards new users (copy the MCP endpoint, connect Claude, ask), plus a grid of your presentations with live thumbnails. /d/<token>.pdf gives a best-effort PDF capture of the initial view.

Run it

docker build -t pointless .
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 -v pointless-data:/data \
  -e BASE_URL=https://pointless.yourcompany.com pointless

BASE_URL is what publish links are minted with; omit it to derive from the request host.

Connect an LLM

Point any MCP client at http://your-host:3000/mcp. For Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http pointless http://your-host:3000/mcp

For Claude Desktop / claude.ai: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste the endpoint URL. Then just ask for a presentation.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm --filter @pointless/shared build
pnpm dev           # server on :3000 (tsx watch)
pnpm dev:web       # vite dev server on :5173, proxies /api + /raw + /mcp

PDF capture locally needs Chromium once: npx playwright install chromium.

Repo layout: server/ (Express, MCP, SQLite, PDF capture), web/ (React landing + viewer host), shared/ (types), examples/ (sample presentations).

Security model (v1)

Built for deployment inside a trusted network. Anyone who can reach the server can create presentations; anyone with a share link can view that presentation unless it carries a password. Presentation documents may contain arbitrary JavaScript — that is the point — and are therefore always isolated behind a CSP sandbox / sandboxed iframe with an opaque origin. Creator auth (API keys / OAuth) is on the roadmap — the schema already carries a nullable owner for it.

License

MIT