Can't get any of the slide generator plugins to work

Bugs / Site Issues
1

I’ve tried multiple slide generator plugins to try to create a powerpoint within my Pickaxe agents, but none of them are working.

I’ve tried Google Slides, Alai Presentations, and SlideForge, and none of them are connecting to my agents or returning any output.

Any idea on how to fix this?

2

Hi @bnorton, welcome to the Pickaxe community! :blush:

That does sound frustrating. Happy to help with this.

Could you share which Pickaxe/Agent this is happening in (or a link) and how you’ve set it up? Most likely it’s a trigger/prompt issue where the Action isn’t firing.

If you’d prefer to keep it private, you can also email us at info@pickaxe.co.

We’ll get this working :+1:

3

It’s a tool called "Sarah - Marketing Director" in my client’s workspace. I added the actions, connected it to my accounts, and then prompted the agent to generate the presentation but it tells me the connected app “didn’t return a live link this time.” It does the same thing no matter which tool I connect to it.

One time it told me:

“The SlideForge tool hit an authentication error on their end — essentially an API key issue on the integration side, not something you did wrong. It tried three times and failed each time.”

4

Hi @bnorton, thanks again for sharing this. Pretty cool setup :slight_smile:

I took a close look at your prompt and I can see where the confusion is coming from. In your setup, you’re telling the agent things like:

  • always produce content directly

  • act as a strategist and creator

  • don’t rely on external steps unless needed

But at the same time, you expect it to use tools like SlideForge or Google Slides to generate the presentation.

Those instructions conflict with each other. The model ends up choosing the safer path, which is to just write the presentation itself instead of triggering the Action.

On top of that, you’re using a non-thinking / non-reasoning model. It’s fast, but it doesn’t handle this kind of “when should I use a tool vs write myself” decision very well. That’s why Actions aren’t firing consistently and you’re seeing messages like “no live link returned.”

What will help:

  • Add a clear rule like:
    “When a user asks for a presentation, you must use the slide tool. Do not create slides manually.”

  • Keep that instruction simple and prominent

  • Try switching to a thinking/reasoning model for better decision-making

  • Test with a direct prompt like:
    “Create a presentation using SlideForge on [topic]”

I liked your setup, very creative…just need to make the tool usage unambiguous :+1: