Preface¶

When using AI to generate slides, technical documents, or HTML landing pages, the content often takes shape quickly, but the styling tends to be “inconsistent across pages”: inconsistent title fonts, random color matching, and insufficient contrast. Manually adjusting page by page in PowerPoint, Markdown, or CSS is time-consuming and makes it difficult to ensure visual consistency across the entire output.

Anthropic has released the theme-factory Agent Skill in its official open-source repository anthropics/skills. It writes color schemes, font pairings, and the skin-changing workflow into SKILL.md, allowing AI programming tools such as Cursor and Claude Code to generate or modify outputs with a preset unified style, and also supports on-demand generation of custom themes. This article introduces its positioning, capabilities, and usage based on official materials.

What is it¶

theme-factory is one of Anthropic’s official sample Skills, belonging to the Creative & Design category. Its core is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter, plus theme specification files and a visual showcase PDF.

The official description states: This is a theme toolkit for “artifacts” such as slides, documents, reports, and HTML landing pages. It includes 10 preset themes (color matching + fonts), allowing users to apply a selected theme to existing artifacts, or generate new themes on the fly when the presets are not suitable.

The Skill directory structure (extracted from the official repository) is roughly as follows:

theme-factory/
├── SKILL.md              # Skill description and workflow
├── theme-showcase.pdf    # Visual preview of 10 preset themes
├── themes/               # Detailed specifications for each theme (hex color codes, fonts, etc.)
│   ├── ocean-depths.md
│   ├── sunset-boulevard.md
│   └── ...
└── LICENSE.txt

Core Features and Highlights¶

1. 10 Professional Preset Themes¶

The official SKILL.md lists 10 themes, each with a separate Markdown specification file in the themes/ directory, and visual demonstrations in theme-showcase.pdf:

Taking Ocean Depths as an example, the official theme file contains a complete color palette and font specifications:

## Color Palette
- **Deep Navy**: `#1a2332` - Primary background color
- **Teal**: `#2d8b8b` - Accent color for highlights and emphasis
- **Seafoam**: `#a8dadc` - Secondary accent for lighter elements
- **Cream**: `#f1faee` - Text and light backgrounds

## Typography
- **Headers**: DejaVu Sans Bold
- **Body Text**: DejaVu Sans

Each theme also marks applicable scenarios. For example, Ocean Depths is suitable for corporate presentations, financial reports, consulting demonstrations and other content that needs to build trust.

2. Standardized Skin-changing Workflow¶

SKILL.md specifies the steps for the Agent to perform skin changes, avoiding “directly modifying styles without the user knowing which theme was selected”:
1. Show theme preview: Display theme-showcase.pdf to the user (read-only, do not modify this file).
2. Ask for selection: Prompt the user to specify the theme they want to apply.
3. Wait for confirmation: Proceed only after receiving a clear theme selection from the user.
4. Apply theme: Read the corresponding file under themes/, consistently apply the color values and fonts to the slides or other artifacts, and pay attention to contrast and readability.

This workflow splits “select theme → confirm → implement” into reproducible steps, which is suitable for integration into AI design workflows: first generate the content skeleton, then unify the styling with one click.

3. Support for Custom Themes¶

If none of the 10 preset themes are suitable, the Skill instructs the Agent to generate a new theme based on the user’s description: follow the same naming convention as existing themes, select appropriate colors and font combinations, first display the generated theme for user confirmation, then apply it according to the above workflow.

4. Cross-artifact Compatibility¶

The official explicitly supported artifact types include: presentation slides, documents, reports, HTML landing pages, etc. The theme specifications are stored in the form of hex color values and font pairs. After the Agent reads them, it can map them to corresponding style rules across different output formats.

Installation and Activation¶

theme-factory follows the universal Agent Skills format (SKILL.md + optional resource directory), and can be used in a variety of AI programming tools. The following methods are sourced from the official repository or public documentation of the Agent Skills ecosystem; please refer to your local environment for tool-specific details.

Method 1: Install via Skills CLI¶

npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill theme-factory

Or use the full GitHub address:

npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/skills --skill theme-factory

Method 2: Manually copy the Skill directory¶

The Skill is self-contained, you need to copy the entire theme-factory folder (including themes/ and theme-showcase.pdf), not just SKILL.md:

# Project-level (Cursor example)
.cursor/skills/theme-factory/

# Project-level (Claude Code example)
.claude/skills/theme-factory/

# User-level (Claude Code, available across projects)
~/.claude/skills/theme-factory/

Method 3: Claude Code Plugin Marketplace¶

Anthropic’s official README provides the Claude Code plugin installation method:

/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills

Then select anthropic-agent-skills from the plugin list and install example-skills (theme-factory is included in the sample skill set). You can also run directly:

/plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skills

Method 4: Claude.ai and API¶

The official notes: The sample skills in anthropics/skills are now available to paid Claude.ai users; for uploading custom skills and API usage, see Using skills in Claude and Skills API Quickstart.

Note: The official repository’s disclaimer states that these skills are primarily for demonstration and education purposes. Claude’s actual behavior may differ from the description in the Skill file. Please conduct sufficient local testing for critical tasks.

Typical Usage Examples¶

After activating the Skill, you can trigger it through natural language. The following are prompt examples organized based on the official workflow to facilitate reproduction:

Example 1: Select a theme for an existing slide deck

I have a draft product roadmap PPT. Please use theme-factory:
1. First show the theme previews in theme-showcase.pdf;
2. I will select Tech Innovation;
3. After confirmation, apply the theme's color scheme and fonts to all slides.

Example 2: Generate an HTML landing page and apply a theme

Help me write a one-page HTML landing page for a SaaS product introduction. After the content is completed, use theme-factory to unify the background color, accent color, and header/body fonts according to the Modern Minimalist theme.

Example 3: Custom theme

None of the 10 preset themes match our brand (primary color #2563eb, which feels technical but not too cold). Please use theme-factory to generate a custom theme, name it, display the color palette and fonts, and I will confirm before applying it to the document.

When applying the theme, the Agent will read themes/<theme-name>.md, apply the hex color values and font pairs consistently to all elements of the artifact, while checking contrast and readability.

Applicable Scenarios and Notes¶

Who is it suitable for¶

• Developers or content creators who often use AI to generate PPTs, Markdown reports, and HTML pages, and want to unify their visual styles.
• Product or operations personnel who need to quickly switch between multiple styles and conduct A/B visual solution tests.
• Technical authors who are learning how to write Agent Skills and want to reference the “resource files + workflow instructions” design pattern.

Usage Restrictions¶

1. Complete Skill directory required: Only copying SKILL.md without the themes/ and theme-showcase.pdf folders will prevent the Agent from reading specific color values and previews.
2. Themes are specifications, not templates: The Skill provides color matching and font specifications, but does not replace the specific layout engine; the final effect depends on how the Agent maps the specifications to your artifact format (PPTX, HTML, PDF, etc.).
3. Font availability: If the fonts listed in the theme file (such as DejaVu Sans) are not installed in the target environment, fallback fonts may be required. It is recommended to preview the output before finalizing.
4. Demo nature: The official notes that the skills in the repository are sample implementations. Please verify the output quality yourself before using them in a production environment.

Summary¶

theme-factory encapsulates “professional color matching + font pairing + skin-changing workflow” into an Agent Skill. With 10 preset themes and extensible custom capabilities, it solves the problem of fragmented styling of AI-generated outputs. For scenarios such as slides, documents, and landing pages, it provides a reproducible path of “first select a style, then unify the application”, making it an official sample Skill worth trying in AI design workflows.

Official repository and Skill directory:
- https://github.com/anthropics/skills/tree/main/skills/theme-factory
- Agent Skills standard documentation: https://agentskills.io