Building & Export

Build and export your presentations for deployment or offline sharing.

Building for Production

Use the tap build command to create a production-ready static version of your presentation:

tap build slides.md

This generates optimized HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that can be deployed to any static hosting provider.

Build Output Structure

After building, your presentation is output to the dist/ directory:

dist/
├── index.html         # Audience view, with the deck's JSON embedded
├── presenter.html     # Presenter view (needs `tap dev`; see below)
├── assets/            # Hashed JS and CSS chunks, bundled fonts, and copied images
└── components/        # Bundled deck components, when the deck uses any

Everything the deck needs is in that folder. The fonts, the syntax highlighter, and the asciinema player are all bundled, so a built deck needs no network at all.

A build works from any URL path. Every asset reference is relative, so the same dist/ folder serves correctly from a domain root, from a sub-path like https://example.com/talks/q3/, and from a GitHub Pages project site like https://user.github.io/your-repo/. There is no base-path flag to set and no rewriting to do after the fact.

Build Options

Flag	Short	Description
--output <dir>	-o	Output directory (default: dist)

Example with custom output:

tap build slides.md --output ./public

What a Static Build Cannot Do

• Live code execution. A code block with a driver shows its code as written; nothing runs. Use tap dev for a live demo.
• Hot reload and cross-device sync. There is no server, so the viewer never opens a websocket and never tries to reconnect.
• The presenter view. presenter.html is written into the build, but it fetches the presentation from /api/presentation, which only tap dev serves, so it cannot load from a static build. The presenter view, with its notes, timer, and next-slide panel, is a tap dev feature. Export notes with tap export pdf --content notes or --content both if you need them alongside a static deck.
• The AI image generator and the slide builder. Both live in the tap dev terminal.

Everything else works, including themes, the t key, fragments, steps, deck components, mermaid, asciinema, and the overview.

tap build exits with status 1, printing to standard error, when a slide names an unknown layout, uses a slot its layout does not declare, or has a deck component that fails to build.

Previewing the Build

Use tap serve to preview your built presentation locally before deploying:

tap serve dist

This starts a local HTTP server serving your built files, simulating a production environment.

Serve Options

Flag	Short	Description
--port <number>	-p	Port to serve on (default: 3000)

Example:

tap serve dist --port 8080

TIP

Use tap serve to verify your presentation works correctly before deploying to production. This catches issues like broken asset paths or base URL misconfiguration.

Deploying to Static Hosts

Tap presentations are static HTML files that work on any static hosting provider.

Netlify

1. Build your presentation:

   tap build slides.md

2. Deploy the dist/ directory:

   npx netlify deploy --dir=dist --prod

Or configure automatic deployments via netlify.toml:

[build]
  command = "tap build slides.md"
  publish = "dist"

[[redirects]]
  from = "/*"
  to = "/index.html"
  status = 200

Vercel

tap build slides.md
npx vercel dist

GitHub Pages

1. Build the deck:

   tap build slides.md

2. Deploy the dist/ directory to the gh-pages branch. Every asset path in the build is relative, so a project page under https://user.github.io/your-repo/ works without extra configuration.

Any Static Host

Tap presentations work anywhere static files are served:

• AWS S3 + CloudFront
• Cloudflare Pages
• Firebase Hosting
• Your own nginx/Apache server

Simply upload the contents of the dist/ directory to your web root.

PDF Export

Export your presentation to PDF for offline sharing or printing:

tap export pdf slides.md

This generates a high-quality PDF with each slide as a page.

PDF Export Options

Flag	Short	Description
--output <file>	-o	Output filename (default: the deck's name with a .pdf extension)
--content <type>		What to include: slides (default), notes, or both

Page size follows the deck's own aspectRatio, so there is no paper-size flag.

How tap knows a slide is ready

Before it captures a slide, the export waits until the page reports that the slide has finished rendering: fonts and images are loaded, maps have drawn their tiles, components have loaded (or shown their error card), and slide transitions and theme animations are done. A slide gets 30 seconds. See "Ready signal" in the CLI reference for how other tools can wait for the same signal.

Export Formats

Slides only (default):

tap export pdf slides.md

Exports just the presentation slides, one per page.

Notes only:

tap export pdf slides.md --content notes

Exports speaker notes as a document, useful for printing a script.

Slides with notes:

tap export pdf slides.md --content both

Exports each slide with its corresponding speaker notes below, ideal for handouts or review materials.

PDF Examples

# Basic PDF export
tap export pdf presentation.md

# Custom output filename
tap export pdf slides.md --output quarterly-review.pdf

# Slides with notes below each one, as a handout
tap export pdf slides.md --content both --output handout.pdf

# Speaker notes only, as a script
tap export pdf slides.md --content notes --output script.pdf

Screenshotting One Slide

tap export images renders a single slide state to a PNG through the same headless browser, which is faster than a full PDF when you only want to check one slide:

tap export images slides.md --slide 12
tap export images slides.md --slide 12 --step 3
tap export images slides.md --all --output shots/

It exits with status 1 when the slide shows an error card, so it works as a check in a script. The capture waits for the same ready signal as a PDF export. See CLI Commands.

Both commands render in Chromium unless you pass --browser webkit. Tap Desktop presents in WebKit, Safari's engine, so a deck headed for the app is worth one check in that engine; see Two browser engines.

TIP

PDF export captures your presentation at a specific moment. If you have live code execution enabled, the results shown in the PDF will be whatever was displayed at export time.

Progress for Scripts and Apps

Add --progress json to tap export pdf, tap export images or tap build to get one JSON line per step on stderr, and a final line with the result:

tap export pdf talk.md --output talk.pdf --progress json

See "Progress output" in the CLI reference for every line's fields.

Best Practices

Pre-Deployment Checklist

1. Test locally - Run tap serve dist and verify everything works
2. Check all links - Ensure navigation and external links function
3. Verify images - Confirm all images load correctly
4. Test responsiveness - Check different screen sizes
5. Review presenter mode - Run tap dev and check /presenter; it does not work from a static build

Optimization Tips

• Use optimized images (WebP, compressed PNG/JPG)
• Keep presentations focused to reduce bundle size
• Test on target deployment platform before the presentation day

Version Control

Consider committing your built files or using CI/CD:

# Option 1: Commit dist/ to repo
tap build slides.md
git add dist/
git commit -m "Update built presentation"

# Option 2: Build in CI/CD pipeline
# Let your CI service build and deploy automatically

Quick Reference

Command	Description
tap build slides.md	Build for production
tap build slides.md --output ./public	Build to custom directory
tap serve dist	Preview built presentation
tap export pdf slides.md	Export to PDF (slides only)
tap export pdf slides.md --content notes	Export notes only
tap export pdf slides.md --content both	Export slides with notes
tap export images slides.md --slide 4	Render one slide to a PNG

Next Steps

• CLI Commands - Complete command reference
• Frontmatter Options - Configure your presentation
• Presenter Mode - Present your slides effectively