Standalone binary

Deploy Slides as a single self-contained executable with no runtime dependencies.

The standalone binary packages the server, web assets, and default slideshow data into a single executable file. It is approximately 23 MB, requires no Node.js, Bun, or other runtime to be installed on the target machine, and runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Supported platforms

• macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel)
• Linux (x86-64)
• Windows (x86-64)

Getting the binary

From a pre-built archive

macOS / Linux

tar -xzf slides.tar.gz
cd slides
./slides --port 4000

Windows

Extract slides.zip using Windows Explorer or:

Expand-Archive slides.zip -DestinationPath slides
cd slides
.\slides.exe --port 4000

Directory structure after extraction

After extracting, the archive produces the following layout. The web/ directory must remain co-located with the binary — moving the binary alone will break static asset serving.

slides/
├── slides               # The binary (slides.exe on Windows)
├── web/                 # Bundled web assets (must stay alongside the binary)
└── data/slideshows/     # Default slideshow data
    └── default.json

You can use the bundled data/slideshows/ directory or point to your own collection with --data-dir.

Running the binary

# Start on the default port (3000)
./slides

# Start on a custom port
./slides --port 4000

# Use a custom slideshow directory
./slides --data-dir /path/to/slideshows --port 4000

# Enable AI assistant features
./slides --api-key sk-ant-xxx --port 4000

# Open the browser automatically after starting
./slides --port 4000 --open

Once running, open http://localhost:<port> in your browser to view and edit slideshows.

One-time setup with —init

The --init flag saves your current flags as persistent defaults and attempts to install a launcher symlink so you can run slides from anywhere in your terminal.

# Save defaults and install launcher
./slides --init --data-dir /path/to/slideshows --port 4000 --api-key sk-ant-xxx

# After a successful init, you can simply run:
slides

--init does two things:

1. Saves defaults to your configuration file (see Config file location).
2. Installs a launcher symlink (macOS / Linux only) by trying the following directories in order: /usr/local/bin, /opt/homebrew/bin, ~/.local/bin. On Windows, launcher installation is not automated — add the extracted folder to your PATH manually instead.

If ~/.local/bin is used for the symlink and it is not already in your PATH, the init output will print a reminder with the exact export command to add.

You can also provide a custom install location:

./slides --init --install-path ~/.local/bin

Config file location

Defaults saved by --init are written to a JSON file. The location is platform-dependent:

Platform	Path
macOS / Linux	~/.config/slides/config.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\slides\config.json

CLI flags always take precedence over saved config. To update your saved defaults, re-run --init with new values or edit config.json directly.

Example saved config:

{
  "dataDir": "/Users/you/slideshows",
  "apiKey": "sk-ant-xxx",
  "port": 4000,
  "open": false
}

Building from source

If you want to build the standalone binary yourself:

1. Clone and install dependencies

   git clone <repo-url>
   cd slides
   bun install
   
2. Build the standalone archive

   cd apps/server
   bun run compile:standalone
   

   This runs scripts/compile-standalone.ts, which compiles the server binary with Bun’s --compile flag, bundles the web assets, and packages everything together.

3. Find the output

   Platform	Output file
   macOS / Linux	apps/server/dist-standalone/slides.tar.gz (~23 MB)
   Windows	apps/server/dist-standalone/slides.zip

The compile:standalone script sets VITE_SERVER_URL= (empty) so the embedded web app resolves the server URL relative to the page origin, which is correct for standalone deployments where the server and frontend are served from the same port.