SlideScribe — AI Lecture Explainer

Upload any lecture PDF and get a Word document with every page explained in plain language, powered by Claude AI.

What it does

1. Upload a PDF (lecture slides, readings, handouts)
2. Each page is rendered and sent to Claude for explanation
3. Download a .docx or .pdf with every page as an image + its explanation below

Explanations include:

• Key terms highlighted with definitions in parentheses
• Titles and subtitles for easy studying
• Works in any language — just edit the prompt

Live demo

danilomonge.github.io/Slidescribe

Usage

1. Open the app in your browser
2. Get a free API key at console.anthropic.com
3. Drop your PDF, paste your API key, and optionally:
   • Edit the explanation prompt (any language or style)
   • Choose a model (Haiku for speed/cost, Sonnet for quality)
   • Set render quality and page range
4. Click Generate
5. Download the explained .docx or .pdf

Features

• Pause & Resume — pause mid-run and pick up exactly where you left off
• Resilient processing — if a page fails due to a network error or API hiccup, it retries automatically with backoff (up to 60s) until it succeeds; permanent errors (invalid key, billing) stop immediately
• Session persistence — progress is saved in IndexedDB; if you reload mid-run, click Resume and it continues from the last completed page
• Partial results — cancel any time and download whatever has been processed so far
• Undo/Redo — revert prompt and page-range edits with Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y
• Page preview — click any thumbnail to view a full-size slide before generating
• Dual export — download as Word (.docx) or PDF

Cost estimate

Model	Cost per 80-page document
Claude Haiku 4.5	~$0.10
Claude Sonnet 4.6	~$0.90

Retries for failed pages do not charge tokens — only completed successful requests are billed.

Privacy

Your API key never leaves your browser. All processing happens client-side — no server, no data collection.

Tech stack

• PDF.js — PDF rendering in the browser
• docx — Word document generation
• jsPDF — PDF export
• Anthropic API — AI explanations via Claude

GitHub Pages

This repo deploys directly from GitHub Pages — fully static, no build step.

1. Push index.html to your default branch
2. In GitHub, open Settings → Pages
3. Set Source to Deploy from a branch
4. Select your default branch and / (root)
5. Save, then open https://<your-username>.github.io/Slidescribe/

Project structure

.
├── assets
│   ├── scripts
│   │   ├── anthropic.js   — Claude API call + error handling
│   │   ├── bootstrap.js   — event listeners & app init
│   │   ├── core.js        — processing loop, UI state, pause/cancel/resume
│   │   ├── exporters.js   — .docx and .pdf generation
│   │   ├── helpers.js     — shared utilities
│   │   ├── paper-planes.js — background animation
│   │   ├── state.js       — IndexedDB persistence
│   │   └── undo.js        — undo/redo for form fields
│   └── styles
│       └── main.css
├── index.html
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

License

MIT