Alai MCP Server

What the getalai/alai-mcp-server MCP server does

The getalai/alai-mcp-server MCP server exposes Alai’s presentation-generation features to MCP-compatible clients. It can create a presentation from supplied text, retrieve themes and visual styles available to the authenticated account, and list existing presentations. Agents can also add or remove slides, generate speaker notes, delete presentations, and export results.

The supported export formats are PDF, PPTX, and a shareable link. The generation workflow is intended for content such as notes, markdown, meeting material, pitch-deck text, sales content, and other presentation outlines. The source material also describes AI-based slide styling, image slides, and editing of existing slide content, but the listed MCP tools provide the operations exposed directly through this server.

How it works

Presentation generation is asynchronous. An agent first calls generate_presentation with at least input_text, optionally supplying a title, theme, vibe, slide range, image settings, language, and export formats. The response provides a generation identifier. The agent then polls get_generation_status until the operation reaches completed, using the resulting presentation identifier for later actions.

For account-specific styling, call get_themes and get_vibes before generation and pass one of the returned identifiers. Creative-variant settings have documented bounds: num_creative_variants accepts 0–2, while total_variants_per_slide accepts 1–4. Export requests specify one or more of pdf, ppt, or link.

The hosted MCP endpoint is https://slides-api.getalai.com/mcp/ and uses streamable HTTP. The getalai/alai-mcp-server MCP server also includes a local wrapper that communicates with that hosted endpoint over stdio.

Setup and configuration

OAuth-capable clients can connect using only the hosted URL. The service documents OAuth 2.1 with dynamic client registration, PKCE using S256, protected-resource metadata, and Supabase authorization. A client that supports this flow can discover the authorization endpoints and send the resulting bearer token to the MCP endpoint.

Static authentication is also supported. Supply an Alai API key using the api-key header or an Authorization: Bearer header. The README states that a key can be obtained from Alai. Real tool execution requires valid credentials, although tool introspection can work without them.

To run the repository’s local wrapper, install its npm dependencies and start it with npm install followed by npm start. ALAI_MCP_URL can override the upstream URL, and ALAI_API_KEY can provide the key forwarded to the upstream service. The wrapper also documents api_key as an alternate environment-variable name for Glama placeholder arguments.

Tools and capabilities

• Verify credentials and retrieve the authenticated user ID with ping.
• Generate presentations and monitor asynchronous generation jobs.
• Discover account-available themes and visual styles.
• List presentations and modify them by adding or deleting slides.
• Produce speaker notes with generate_transcripts.
• Export presentations as PDF, PPTX, or shareable links.
• Permanently delete presentations.

Limitations and notes

The service depends on the hosted Alai endpoint for normal operation. Generation requires polling rather than completing in one synchronous call. Theme and vibe availability depends on the authenticated account. The repository is licensed under MIT. The README does not specify pricing, export size limits, rate limits, or whether every described Alai editing feature is available through the listed MCP tools.