The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2026
Bento bets a deck is one HTML file, not a rented cloud doc: HN 1,033 pts
An open-source PowerPoint alternative where a ~560KB .bento.html file is the document, editor and player at once; hit HN's front page with 1,033 points.
Bento (nyblnet)
What the business is
Bento is an open-source (MIT) PowerPoint alternative in which a presentation is a single ~560KB HTML file that carries its own viewer, editor and presenter, with E2EE live collaboration, built-in charts and AI editing.
How it started
The nyblnet team kept hand-rolling web apps as presentations because AI presentation makers were terrible at enterprise brand standards, so they built Bento to turn that practice into a format. Slides shipped as the first app, with spaces (notes) and dash (sheets) announced next, and the launch was posted to HN on 2026-07-22.
What happened
The Show HN thread drew 239 comments discussing the self-contained format, TiddlyWiki and HyperCard comparisons, CRDT collaboration, and signed self-updates; the creator explained the architecture in the thread — a JSON document block, base64 app blob, File System Access API write-back, and ECDSA-signed releases. The roadmap promises a full single-file office suite: slides, spaces, dash and vault.
How it ended up
Still live and free: bento.page/slides runs the entire app in the browser, decks download as .bento.html files, and offline mode hard-blocks updates and collaboration; no funding has been announced.
Background
Bento is an open-source (MIT) PowerPoint alternative in which a presentation is a single ~560KB HTML file. The file is simultaneously the document, the editor and the player: open it in any browser to present or edit, send it to anyone, and it works with no account, no cloud and no install.
The founding bet is that office documents should be things you own, not things you rent. The document lives as plain JSON near the top of the file, the app around it is self-contained, updates are ECDSA-signed and optional, and a flip of Offline mode hard-blocks all network use. Live collaboration uses a CRDT with E2EE keys that stay in the file, while a blind relay on Cloudflare Durable Objects stores only ciphertext.
The Show HN on 2026-07-22 drew 1,033 points and 239 comments on the front page, with discussion around the self-contained format, comparisons to TiddlyWiki and HyperCard, and the update story. As of September 2026 slides are live for free at bento.page, with spaces (notes), dash (sheets and tables) and vault announced as coming next to complete a single-file office suite.
What has to be true
- One-file distribution removes every install, login and version problem that plagues office software.
- Keeping the document as plain JSON makes decks directly editable by AI agents, matching the 2026 agent-workflow wave.
- E2EE collaboration with keys stored in the file answers the privacy objection to cloud slide tools.
- The survival promise — a 2026 file still opens in 2036 — reframes the PowerPoint comparison around ownership rather than features.
What can be applied
Make the file the product: when the artifact contains editor, viewer and data, distribution, collaboration and archiving need no company servers — the moat moves from lock-in to trust and format.
Aftermath
As of September 2, 2026 Bento is live and free: the slides app runs entirely in the browser at bento.page/slides, decks are downloadable .bento.html files, and the repository is MIT-licensed with contributions welcome. The roadmap lists bento/spaces (notes), bento/dash (sheets and tables) and bento/vault as future single-file apps. The team has announced no funding or revenue plans, and the format's real test — whether users will adopt a non-PowerPoint artifact in workplaces — is still open.
Sources
- Show HN: Bento - An entire PowerPoint in one HTML file (edit+view+data+collab)
- nyblnet/bento — Bento, the office suite that fits in a file
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