Relay Deck templates · T01–T31 · v1 · 2026-09-10

Thirty-one layouts. One vocabulary.

Every Relay slide is an instance of one of these. The stylesheet is decks/_system/relay-deck.css; the master that uses them is the HTML master; the law they follow is GUIDE.presentations.md. Where an OPEN slide exists for a layout the specimen is that slide; otherwise the specimen is labelled as such and carries no Relay figure.

T01 Cover · drenched
Relay
The session ends.
Context shouldn't.
Relay is a context layer — carrying the substance of work across sessions, tools, agents, and people.
Relay Context Inc. · Introduction · Shared in confidence · 2026

Use once, first. Wordmark top-left, the display pair, one framing sentence, entity + framing + date in mono at the base. The framing line and date are per-cut variables.

T02 Statement · optional figure
The problem
The invisible wall.
The model does the work, the session ends, the context disappears. Every handoff, every closed session, every new tool starts over from scratch — and as AI accelerates, that loss compounds across every team.
SESSION 01
starts from zero
SESSION 02
starts from zero
SESSION 03
starts from zero
context lost between every session, tool, and handoff
“A problem that's obvious in hindsight, and invisible until someone names it.”

The workhorse. Kicker, one display headline, one to three sentences, an optional figure, the pull quote at the base. A statement without a figure is fine; a statement that needs two paragraphs is two slides.

T03 Statement with callout
Why now
A narrow window. No established players.
The standards that let AI tools talk to each other have only just arrived — opening a narrow window to establish the layer that moves context between them. Operators running multi-tool, multi-agent workflows hit this wall today. The tools exist; the layer that carries context between them doesn't.
A novel approach in a category that's still forming.
“Moving context with provenance and control. That's the architecture.”

When one line deserves its own surface. The body left, a surface block right. The callout is a flat surface: 0.5px border, no stripe, no shadow.

T04 Flow · nodes and a chip
How it moves
Context that travels.
1
Send
Package the context of your work, from wherever you're working.
2
Route
Relay carries it under your rules: who can receive it, where it's allowed to go.
3
Receive
It arrives where it's needed and work continues — on the record.
A4K9R2one Code carries it — for a person or an agent alike
“No integration project. No platform switch. It works where you already work.”

A movement, in three beats. Three numbered nodes with hairline arrows, a chip beneath. A metaphor and nothing more — never annotate the mechanism it stands for.

T05 Category · the stack
Where it fits
A new layer, not another tool.
Memory tools — store and retrieve.
Orchestrators — coordinate inside one runtime.
Integration platforms — move data — not working context.
Agent messaging — now shipping as a default inside the tools themselves.
Each is valuable. None of them carries the substance of work between sessions, tools, agents, and organizations. Relay is the layer between them — the part of the stack nobody has claimed.
“They built the doorbell. The package is still the open problem.”

Three to five parallel things. Name + verb phrase per row, surface blocks, the resolution sentence beside. Categories stay generic below the NDA gate; named examples are a T13.

T06 Proof · evidence rows
Real today
Active now, with the tools people already use.
Live with Claude, Cursor, custom agents, and any MCP-compatible platform — no integration required.
  • 25,000+ relays moved — most of them by the founder's own operation, the daily load that hardened the platform
  • ~10 accounts — the majority internal; a small external early-access group doing real work
  • $0 revenue — every user on a free or beta plan until v1.0
A novel architecture — protection in progress.
“Not a concept — a working layer.”

The honest set, as rows. The headline is the claim; the numbers are evidence under it. A traction number never becomes the hero: a big number walked back by its own caveat reads as inflate-then-deflate.

T07 Stat · drenched when earned specimen figure
Specimen
One figure, and the room it has earned.
1,200
specimen figure — the unit and the sentence that qualifies it sit here
Support Aone line, small
Support Bone line, small
Support Cone line, small
The pull quote, when the M-ID carries one.

The one earned interior moment. Mono, tabular, the accent on the drenched surface: one figure dominant, support items small. Only the slide that carries the cut's number takes this surface; on a light surface the figure is accent-text and there is no drench. The figure is never typed — it comes from the facts file at build time.

T08 Round / Ask · figure toggle
The round
Raising a pre-seed to scale the layer.
A pre-seed via SAFE — open now, rolling close. Funds the founding team, go-to-market, and enterprise pilots.
Founding teamGo-to-marketEnterprise pilots
Terms and the full picture in conversation, under MNDA.
“The next step is a short conversation — and a look at what's already built.”

Per-recipient. Figure off: light, pills, terms linked not restated. Figure on: the build drenches the slide and fills the figure from the facts file, and the slide becomes the cut's interior moment (T07's surface). Never cap, discount, returns or projections at the open gate.

T09 Ladder specimen figure
Specimen
Four steps, a floor and a target.
floor
target
Step oneNamewhat releases it
Step twoNamewhat releases it
Step threeNamewhat releases it
Step fourNamewhat releases it
The pull quote, when the M-ID carries one.

Cumulative steps. Rungs rise left to right; the lead rung carries the accent; markers are dashed hairlines with a mono label. Amounts come from the facts file.

T10 Bars specimen figure
Specimen
Where it goes, line by line.
Largest line41%
Second line15%
Third line13%
Fourth line8%
Fifth line5%
Everything else18%
specimen shares — sum to 100 by largest remainder, never by rounding each line

An allocation. Neutral fills; only the lead bar carries the accent, so the slide keeps one accent moment. Values are mono and tabular. Percentages arrive apportioned in the facts file — the build must not recompute them.

T11 Timeline specimen figure
Specimen
Now, next, then.
NowWhat is livethe lines that are true today, verified at every re-cut
NextWhat is in buildthe lines with a date or a gate attached
ThenWhat is plannedthe lines that are direction, not commitment
The pull quote, when the M-ID carries one.

A real sequence. A hairline with nodes; the current node is filled. Numbers earn their place only when order carries information. Time-sensitive by nature: verify every line at every re-cut.

T12 Layers specimen figure
Specimen
Four bands, one foundation.
Sessionsthe work as it happens, wherever it happens
Toolsthe platforms the work runs on
Agentsthe actors, human and machine
Peoplethe ones who own the outcome
Relaythe layer that carries context forward

A stack. Bands over a foundation; the foundation carries the accent tint and nothing else does. Below the NDA gate the bands are names, never internals.

T13 Landscape
Specimen
The layer between.
Memory tools
store and retrieve
Orchestrators
coordinate inside one runtime
Integration platforms
move data, not working context
Agent messaging
a name, a reply address, a sentence
Relay — the layer between them: the part of the stack nobody has claimed.
“Storing context is table stakes. Moving and governing it is the open category.”

The map. Categories above, the brand as the band between. At the open gate the categories stay generic; behind the gate they carry the named examples.

T14 Roster one real row, three specimen rows
Specimen
The people, in seats.
Founder & PresidentErik ChristensenBuilds and operates the platform end to end.
SeatNameOne line on what the seat does.
SeatNameOne line on what the seat does.
SeatNameOne line on what the seat does.
The pull quote, when the M-ID carries one.

Seats, not portraits. Mono seat label, name, one line. Two columns; four seats is the most a slide holds. Advisors are per-recipient and off by default.

T15 Close · drenched
Context carries forward with Relay.
A high-level introduction, shared ahead of a fuller conversation. Product, architecture, and early signal — best demonstrated directly. We'd welcome a short conversation.
Erik Christensen — Founder, Relay Context Inc.
erik@relayctx.com · relayctx.com
Confidential — Relay Context Inc.

Use once, last. The display line, the deck's variant paragraph, the contact block in body type, the confidential line in mono. Never a thank-you slide with nothing on it. May carry an invite: an <aside class="rly-invite"> at the right with a QR the cut generates from the invite-url variable (plus invite-url-display and invite-line); a flow without the variable keeps the plain close.

T16 Gate divider · master only
NDA gate
What follows is shared under NDA.
Architecture, business model, and defensibility. The Introduction deck ends at the close and never includes this slide or anything after it.

The boundary, as a slide. Panel surface, centred. Lives in the master between gate tiers and in the index; a cut that contains one has crossed a gate, which is exactly what the build checks.

T17 Two-column · claim beside evidence
Specimen
The claim, and what stands behind it.
The claim
One paragraph that says the thing plainly — what we assert, in the brand's own words.
The evidence
What stands behind it: the source, the observation, where the number comes from — never the number typed here.
The pull quote, when the M-ID carries one.

Claim beside evidence — exactly two. The accent is the claim column's top rule; accenting both makes neither the point. A third column is a category slide (T05), not a wider T17. Sits on the title-and-two-columns skeleton.

T18 Case study · one engagement, 2–4 metrics
Specimen
One engagement, told by its numbers.
One paragraph on the engagement — who, what changed, over what period. Gate- and facts-sensitive: a client's name and a real figure never sit on a specimen.
—
metric caption
—
metric caption
—
metric caption

One named engagement plus 2–4 figures. The metric rules are one device across the row, not one per metric. Figures come from the facts file at build; the name is the client's, so this archetype lives in an engagement cut and reaches the brand's own master only when the case is public.

T19 Quote · their words, attributed
Specimen

One quotation that carries the argument on its own, in the words of the person who said it.

Name — role, organisation

One quotation, given the slide. Attribution is required, never optional — an unattributed line is a statement (T02), not a quote, and the build refuses it. Client words or an operating principle; nothing else on the face. Sits on the main-point skeleton.

T20 Agenda · a real sequence, numbered
What we'll cover
Five things, then a decision.
  1. 01Where you areOne line on what this section settles.
  2. 02What we doOne line on what this section settles.
  3. 03What we can proveOne line on what this section settles.
  4. 04How we workOne line on what this section settles.
  5. 05Next stepOne line on what this section settles.

Numbered because it is a real sequence. Three to six items, each a title and one line; the numerals are the slide's accent. Navigation slides earn their place only in longer decks — under ten slides, an agenda is padding. Sits on the title-and-body skeleton.

T21 Section divider · the pivot
Part two
The work, and what it changed.

Resets attention between acts. One oversized line at 88% measure, the brand's mark as a watermark bleeding off two edges, nothing else. Distinct from the gate divider (T16), which is a tier boundary and lives in the master only. Sits on the section-header skeleton.

T22 Stat row · three or six, each with its source
Specimen
The numbers, and where each one comes from.

what the figure counts, in one line

source · date

what the figure counts, in one line

source · date

what the figure counts, in one line

source · date

Never an unsourced number on a slide. Three is the most a room retains; six is two rows. Every figure carries its source on the face — not in the notes, not in the appendix — and the build refuses one without. The figures are fact slots, filled from Canonical Facts at build and never typed. Sits on the title-and-body skeleton.

T23 Comparison · like against like
Specimen
Two ways to do this. One of them holds.

The usual way

  • One parallel line.
  • One parallel line.
  • One parallel line.

Our way

  • The same line, answered.
  • The same line, answered.
  • The same line, answered.

Two sides, the same lines. A contrast reads only when the rows correspond; the lead side carries the accent rule and that is the slide's one accent. Not T17 — that is claim beside evidence in prose; this is like against like. Sits on the title-and-two-columns skeleton.

T24 Proof grid · several engagements at once
Specimen
The work, in three rooms.

Category

Engagement

One line on what changed.

metric caption

Category

Engagement

One line on what changed.

metric caption

Category

Engagement

One line on what changed.

metric caption

Three or four cards; the top rules are one device. Distinct from the case study (T18), which is one engagement in depth. Names need permission and metrics need a facts row — a card without either is a category, not a proof. Sits on the title-only skeleton.

T25 Discovery questions · now tell us about you
Specimen
What we would want to know first.

Topic

  • A question we would ask.
  • A question we would ask.

Topic

  • A question we would ask.
  • A question we would ask.
  • A question we would ask.

Topic

  • A question we would ask.
  • A question we would ask.

Topic

  • A question we would ask.
  • A question we would ask.

The prospect-facing turn. Exactly four topics, two or three questions each; nothing here reads as an answer, so the eyebrow is the only accent. Usually a deal cut, not the brand master. Sits on the title-and-two-columns skeleton.

T26 Roadmap · next steps, the line is the accent
Specimen
What happens next.
01StepOne line on this step.
02StepOne line on this step.
03StepOne line on this step.
04StepOne line on this step.

Three to five steps on one line. The connecting line is the slide's accent; the numerals stay muted. Not the timeline (T11), which marks where we are, and not the flow (T04), which is three nodes and a chip. Sits on the title-only skeleton.

T27 Engagement model · tiers and what they share
Specimen
Three ways to work with us.

Band

Tier

response time

Band

Tier

response time

Band

Tier

response time

  • What every tier includes.
  • What every tier includes.
  • What every tier includes.
  • What every tier includes.

Three or four tiers, then the benefits they share. Band, name, price and response time per tier; four to seven shared lines beneath. A price is canon and fills from the facts file, never typed — and the slide sits behind the gate its prices carry. Sits on the title-only skeleton.

T28 Checklist · what's included
Specimen
What you get.
One line that frames the list — what it is included in, for whom.
  • One thing that is included.
  • One thing that is included.
  • One thing that is included.
  • One thing that is included.
  • One thing that is included.
  • One thing that is included.

The site's checks list, as a slide. Three to eight lines, two columns from five; the accent square is the marker and the slide's accent. More than eight is a document, not a slide. Sits on the title-and-body skeleton.

T29 Logo row · the marks, as slots until they land
Specimen
Who we've worked with.
One line on the room these names share — the category, the scale, the decade.

Three to six marks in a row. Each is a hatched slot until its asset lands — and a named mark is a permission, like a named case: no client's logo goes on a face its register does not clear. Sits on the title-and-body skeleton.

T30 Chart · the visual beside the sentence it proves
Specimen
One picture of the number.

Chart · 16:10

From the facts file through the figure library — never drawn by hand on a slide. Say the axis, the period and the source in the note.

The sentence the chart proves — what moved, over what period, measured how. The source line is part of the sentence.

The chart on the left, its sentence on the right. A data visual is a claim with a shape: it comes from the facts file through the design system's figure library, and it says its source. The slot holds the place until then. Sits on the section-split skeleton.

T31 Canvas · a title and an open area
Specimen
The honest blank slide.

Your content

Whatever this slide needs and no archetype carries — a diagram, a table, a screenshot with callouts. Say here what belongs, so it is not guessed.

The open area, labelled. For the thing no archetype carries yet. The label says what belongs there; when the same thing is needed twice, it is an archetype and goes to the framework. Sits on the title-only skeleton.

The range. Surfaces, devices, units and arrangements — any archetype can carry them.

An archetype is what a slide says; these are how it can look. Each is mechanism the framework already enforced and nothing showed — the pick-and-choose surface has to show the whole vocabulary or it teaches the first-generation subset. Every one is a class on the stage or inside a figure; the rules are in contract/variants.json and contract/sections.json.

ACCENT Statement · the accent surface
The statement
One sentence that has to land.
No more than about fourteen words. The slide is the accent, so everything on it is ink.
example.com

Use once; never two in a row. The full accent as ground, ink type, hierarchy by size and weight only. Not a wash — the accent itself. Any statement (T02) or quote (T19) can take it; a second one beside it cancels the first, and the build refuses adjacent pairs.

DEVICE-UNDERLINE The one underline · inset on the phrase
The device
The point is the one phrase the room keeps.
One underline per slide — it is the accent. Either inset under the key phrase, as here, or a standalone rule under a datum.
The rule form, under a datum or a claim. Never both forms on one face.

One per slide. The underline is the slide's accent, so nothing else on the face carries it. On the accent surface it falls back to ink rather than vanish into the ground.

DEVICE-DIVIDER Section divider · pivot headline, watermark
Part two
Resets attention between acts.

The pivot. One oversized line at 88% measure and the brand's mark as a watermark — bottom-right, bleeding off two edges, 5% — and nothing else. The framework supplies no glyph: with no mark set the watermark draws nothing, never a substitute. Distinct from the gate divider (T16), which is a tier boundary.

UNIT-RESOLUTION Resolution band · the section resolves
The section
Four areas. One engagement.
The body of the section, one to three sentences, above the band that says what it added up to.

Section label

What this section added up to, in one line.

One sentence beneath it.

The accent link →

A section does not just end, it resolves. A dark band on a light face — arrival, not another slide — with a mono label, one headline, a sentence and one accent link. This is the site's strongest unit; the deck renders the same one. On a dark-first brand this slide is the earned light moment, said as rly-stage--light.

UNIT-TILES Icon tiles · the mark above the name
The units
Three parallel things, each with its mark.
Name — one line on what it holds.
Name — one line on what it holds.
Name — one line on what it holds.

The dark rounded square holding the brand's mark, above a card's name. The site's services grid; a deck's category and roster cards. The framework supplies no glyph — a brand sets its mark, and an unset tile is empty, never a substitute.

UNIT-QUOTE Accent-bar quote · the argument, stopped on
The units
A statement worth a bar beside it.

The sentence the section stops on — bold, beside a full-height bar in the accent.

Attribution, when there is one

Distinct from T19, which gives the whole slide to a quotation, and from the base-of-slide pull quote, which is a citation. This one is the argument.

The bar is the slide's one accent. No quotation marks when there is no attribution — unattributed, it is our sentence, not a quote.

UNIT-CHIPS Presence chips · fill and weight, never hue
The units
What is in, and what is not — without a traffic light.
Two to five chips. The filled chip is present; the outlined chip is not. Meaning is carried by fill and weight — never by red and green, which the brand bans.
IncludedIncludedNot this roundNot this round

Presence, not status. The site's chip row and the deck's are one unit. Two to five; more is a table.

MEDIA-SPLIT Media · split — claim beside a frame
Media
The claim, beside the picture.

Photograph · 4:5

Art direction for the shot, at the true ratio — never a grey box. It becomes the photograph the moment a source is set.

caption

The text side: one to three sentences. Mirrors with is-reversed — the same arrangement, a flag, not a second layout.

The workhorse arrangement. A 4:5 frame one side, the words the other. Sits on the one-column or section-split skeleton. Eight arrangements, one kind: the media block is the slide's only figure.

MEDIA-BLEED Media · bleed — the frame owns the slide

Ground · 16:9

The brief keeps the left third quiet so the type can sit on it.

Media
Type on the quiet third.
A scrim carries the panel; the frame is composed to leave it dark.

Full-bleed behind a type panel. For a cover or a divider, never behind dense copy. Sits on the caption skeleton. Most slides are stronger without an image — media earns its place or it does not appear.

MEDIA-GRID Media · grid — three or four objects
Media
Four things, genuinely parallel.

Object

caption

Object

caption

Object

caption

Object

caption

Three or four, exact. Five is an error with a message. If the four are not genuinely parallel, use a split. Sits on the blank skeleton.

MEDIA-BAND Media · band — a 21:9 strip over the words
Media
The band is the moment.

Band · 21:9

Atmosphere over subject; one accent doing one job.

One line beneath it. No accent device here — the band already is one.

A wide strip and a text row. No underline, no rule: the band is the slide's moment. Sits on the blank skeleton.

MEDIA-BEFORE-AFTER Media · before / after — one axis
Media
The same thing, twice.

Before

caption

After

caption

Two frames, one axis. The accent is the outline on after, and that is the slide's one accent. Sits on the caption skeleton.

MEDIA-PORTRAITS Media · portraits — a row that scales
Media
The people, as a row.

Portrait

Name · seat

Portrait

Name · seat

Portrait

Name · seat

Portrait

Name · seat

Three to six. Portraits are a row that scales; the roster's "four seats max" was a rule for text cards, and a text card is not a portrait. Sits on the one-column skeleton.

MEDIA-QUOTE Media · quote — a frame, and their words
Media

Portrait · 1:1

Their words, beside their face.

Name — role, organisation

The quote (T19) with a frame. A 1:1 portrait left, the quotation right; attribution still required. Sits on the section-split skeleton.

MEDIA-SCREEN Media · screen — the work itself
Media
The work, as it actually looks.

Screen · 16:9

A real screen, real mess — never a mockup pretending to be one.

A 16:9 screen inside the slide. Real screens; the frame is the slide's only figure. Sits on the caption skeleton.