Gatsby Starter Deck is an archived Gatsby starter that produces a slide-deck website from Markdown files, using React for rendering and arrow-key navigation for presenting. Built on the Gatsby static site framework, it turns plain text slides into a fast, deployable presentation that can be hosted anywhere, including Netlify.
What is Gatsby Starter Deck?
Gatsby Starter Deck is an open-source starter template for creating presentations with Gatsby, React, and Markdown. It takes Markdown files split by --- horizontal rules and outputs a static site where each slide is a separate section navigable with the arrow keys. The project is archived and no longer maintained; the README directs users to gatsby-theme-mdx-deck as its successor. It was authored by Fabian Schultz, Frank Murphy, and Stefan Probst, and is inspired by Guillermo Rauch's deck on Next.js and the mdx-deck project.
Key Features
- Markdown-based slides — Write presentations in Markdown inside
src/slides/, with each slide separated by an---line; files load in sorted path order. - React & Gatsby stack — Slides are rendered as React components and pre-built as static HTML by Gatsby, giving fast initial load times.
- Simple development workflow — Run
yarn developto write and preview slides locally, oryarn buildto generate a production-ready static site. - Multiple installation paths — Install via
gatsby new my-slides https://github.com/fabe/gatsby-starter-deckor clone the repository and runyarn. - Keyboard navigation — Presentations navigate with arrow keys, making it suitable for live talks and demos.
- Netlify-ready — The repository carries a "deploys by netlify" badge and a live example is hosted at
//gatsby-deck.netlify.com, indicating easy deployment to Netlify. - Community traction — The repository has 514 stars on GitHub, showing that it gained significant attention before being archived.
Who should use Gatsby Starter Deck?
- Developers who want to create slide decks from Markdown without learning a separate presentation tool. They can edit slides in their editor and keep them version-controlled in Git.
- Gatsby users looking for a minimal starter to experiment with building slide-based sites using React components and Gatsby's build pipeline.
- Technical presenters who prefer writing in Markdown and need a lightweight, keyboard-navigable output for conferences, meetups, or workshops.
What can you do with it?
- Create a lightning talk deck: Write several Markdown slides separated by
---, build the site, and present with arrow keys. - Turn documentation into slides: Reuse an existing set of Markdown files by placing them in
src/slides/, and the starter will split them on horizontal rules. - Host a presentation on Netlify: Deploy the built static site to Netlify for a quick public URL, as demonstrated by the live example linked in the README.
How does it work?
Slides are written in Markdown in the src/slides/ directory (or a single slides.md file). The starter loads these files in sorted path order and splits them into individual slides wherever a --- horizontal rule appears. During development, yarn develop provides a local preview server; yarn build generates static output that can be deployed anywhere.
Why is it archived?
The repository is archived, and the archive notice at the top of the README states that the starter has been superseded by gatsby-theme-mdx-deck, a package from the mdx-deck project. New users should use that theme instead; this starter remains available for reference and for those who specifically want a plain-Markdown approach.
Alternatives
- mdx-deck — the project that inspired this starter, which extends the concept to MDX (Markdown + JSX) for richer slides.
- gatsby-theme-mdx-deck — the official Gatsby theme from the mdx-deck project, explicitly recommended in the archive notice as the replacement for this starter.
FAQ
Is Gatsby Starter Deck still maintained?
No. The repository is archived, and the archive notice recommends switching to gatsby-theme-mdx-deck. No further development is planned for this starter.
How do I quickly create a deck with this starter?
Run gatsby new my-slides https://github.com/fabe/gatsby-starter-deck, then edit src/slides.md or add Markdown files under src/slides/. Start the dev server with yarn develop to preview.
Can I use images in my slides?
Yes. The README shows a standard Markdown image example inside a slide: . Markdown image syntax works as expected.
Does this starter support MDX?
The starter is described as using Markdown only. MDX support is a feature of the successor theme, gatsby-theme-mdx-deck.
