zagens-office quick start

zagens-office is a local structured Office engine: generate or edit Word / Excel / PowerPoint / PDF from JSON — no Microsoft Office install required.

Built for people (CLI / GUI) and for agents / Cursor Skills using the same binary.

Looking for the desktop agent Office mode (sessions, skill cards)? See Agent Office mode.

Three steps

  1. Install the CLI (and optional GUI).
  2. Read the contract: zagens-office schema write pptx
  3. Write and validate:
zagens-office write pptx --path deliverables/intro.pptx --input-file deck.json
zagens-office edit --path deliverables/intro.pptx --op validate --input '{}'

Minimal deck.json:

{
  "title": "Company intro",
  "slides": [
    { "title": "About us", "bullets": ["Point one", "Point two"] }
  ]
}

Habits that matter

Habit Practice
Contract first schema write <format> or schema edit
Complex JSON Prefer --input-file over shell quoting
Long PPT decks Skeleton write → edit --op upsert_slide
Multi-step edits edit --op batch with "atomic": true
Before delivery edit --op validate until ok=true

Every command prints one JSON envelope: {"ok":true,...} or {"ok":false,"code":...,"error":...,"suggestion":...}. On failure, follow suggestion — do not blindly retry the same request.

After upgrading, if a host still sees an old skill, see Updates (skill sync).

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