Slidesmith
Generate on-brand TikTok/Instagram carousel slideshows with Claude, then schedule and post them to your connected accounts — all from a clean local dashboard you run yourself.
Slidesmith is bring-your-own-keys and local-first. There's no SaaS, no sign-up, and no database to set up. It runs on your machine, stores its config in a single file in your home directory, and uses post-bridge to handle the hard parts (media hosting, multi-platform scheduling/posting, and analytics).
How it works
You ──▶ Brain (niche, audience, style)
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Claude generates slideshows ──▶ Queue (review / approve)
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Slides rendered to images in the browser
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post-bridge ──▶ schedules + posts to TikTok / IG / …
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Results (live analytics)
- Generation is done by an AI model via OpenRouter (your OpenRouter key) — pick any model from the dropdown.
- Slide images are rendered locally in your browser (text over a gradient or a background image from the Library) — no image-gen API, no cost.
- Backgrounds come from a bundled image library of curated aesthetic packs. Want more? Scrape Pinterest with your own Apify key (optional).
- Scheduling, posting, and analytics are handled by post-bridge (your post-bridge key). That also means no posting integrations to build and no storage to host.
What you need
Two API keys, entered in the in-app Settings screen:
Connect your social accounts inside post-bridge — they'll show up in Slidesmith automatically.
Quick start
git clone <this-repo>
cd slidesmith
npm install
npm run dev
Then open the printed Vite URL (default http://localhost:5173). On first run you'll land on Settings — paste your two keys, hit Test connection, and you're set.
npm run dev starts two things together:
- the web UI (Vite, port 5173)
- the local server (Node/Express, port 8787) that holds your keys and talks to Claude + post-bridge
Production / single-process
npm run build # build the UI
npm start # serves the UI + API from one Node process (port 8787)
Deploying somewhere public (Vercel)
Slidesmith can also run as a Vercel deployment instead of purely locally.
There's no shared database in this mode — the queue and image library live
in your browser (localStorage + IndexedDB), not on the server, so each
browser/device has its own. What is shared is the deployment itself: the
AI generation, Pinterest scraping, and post-bridge scheduling all still run
server-side, using keys set once in Vercel's environment variables.
Steps:
- Push this repo to GitHub and import it into a new Vercel project.
- Set
OPENROUTER_API_KEY, POSTBRIDGE_API_KEY, and (optionally)
APIFY_API_KEY as environment variables — see .env.example. These
always take precedence over whatever's typed into Settings, and unlike
Settings-saved values, they survive cold starts.
- Set an
APP_PASSWORD env var. Without it, anyone with the deployment
URL can use the app (and, worse, run up usage on your API keys) — see below.
- Deploy. Open the URL, enter the shared password once, and you're using it.
On security: self-hosted Slidesmith trusts "whoever can reach 127.0.0.1"
(only you). A public Vercel URL has no such boundary, so APP_PASSWORD gates
every /api/* route behind a simple shared login, and API keys are never
sent to the browser at all (Settings shows "already set", not the value).
Using it
- Projects — each project is one brand/account, with its own Brain and default posting accounts. Switch/create them from the top-left. (Your keys and chosen model are shared across all projects.)
- Brain — tell the AI who this project is: niche, app/brand, audience, and style memory. This shapes every generation.
- Background packs (Settings) — pick which image packs this project draws from. Generate then auto-applies a background to every slide. Select none for plain gradients.
- Queue — hit Generate and the AI writes a batch of slideshows, already wearing backgrounds. Hit Edit on any card to preview the carousel and tweak the caption, hashtags, per-slide text, and per-slide background.
- Library — browse the bundled aesthetic packs, or scrape more images from any Pinterest search with your Apify key.
- Approve — pick which connected accounts to post to and either schedule a time or save as a draft in post-bridge. Slidesmith renders each slide to an image and hands it to post-bridge.
- Schedule / Results — track what's queued and how published posts are performing, straight from post-bridge.
A note on the bundled images
Slidesmith ships with ~140 curated background images organized into aesthetic packs (public/library/). They were collected from the web to get you started and may be subject to third-party copyright — they are not licensed stock. Swap in your own via the Library (scrape Pinterest with your own Apify key) if you need images you have the rights to.
Where your data lives
- API keys + Brain + settings:
~/.slidesmith/config.json self-hosted (or Vercel env vars for keys, if you deploy that way — see above).
- Generated-but-not-yet-scheduled drafts (the queue): your browser's
localStorage, per project.
- Scraped/uploaded library images: your browser's IndexedDB. Bundled packs ship as static files in the repo at
public/library/ either way.
Everything else (media, scheduled posts, results) lives in your post-bridge account, and your keys never leave the server to reach anywhere but the services they belong to (OpenRouter, post-bridge, Apify) — the browser never sees the actual values, only whether each one is set.
You can override the config storage location with SLIDESMITH_DIR and the server port with PORT (see .env.example).
Tech
React 19 + Vite + Tailwind (UI), a small Express server (keys + OpenRouter + post-bridge proxy), the OpenRouter API, and the post-bridge API. No database, self-hosted or deployed — the queue and image library are entirely client-side.
License
PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 — free to use, modify, self-host, and share for any noncommercial purpose. Commercial use (including reselling, hosting it as a paid service, or bundling it into a product you charge for) is not permitted without separate permission from the author.
